830 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVll. No. 438. 



Subbranch Bryophyta, with two classes, Hep- 



aticae and Musei. 

 Subbranch Pteridophyta, with four classes, 



Filieales, Sphenophyllales, Equisetales and 



Lyeopodiales. 

 Branch 13. Embrophyta Siphonogama, with 

 two subbranches, as follows: 



Subbranch Gymnospermae, with six classes, 



Cycadales, Bennettitales, Cordiatales, Gink- 



goales, Coniferae and Gnetales. 

 Subbranch Angiospermae, • with two classes, 



Monocotyledoneae and Dicotyledoneae. 



The significance of this rearrangement con- 

 sists in the recognition of the greater relative 

 importance of the lower groups of plants. 

 There was a time, not many years ago, when 

 eminent botanists regarded the flowering 

 plants (Phanerogams) as coordinate with the 

 lower plants bunched into one group (Cryp- 

 togams). Nest, four groups — Thallophyta, 

 Bryophyta, Pteridophyta and Spermatophyta 

 — were recognized, the flowering plants (Sper- 

 matophyta) representing but one of the four 

 great types of plants. Now we find in Eng- 

 ler's latest grouping that Spermatophyta are 

 coordinate, not with one, or three, but with 

 twelve other groups. This means that we 

 no longer regard the morphological differences 

 among lower plants as of merely secondary 

 importance, but accord to them a value equal 

 to that which they have in the flowering 

 plants. 



While one may bring serious objections to 

 many details in this new system, there can 

 be no doubt as to its usefulness in calling 

 attention to the morphological differences 

 among lower plants. In the consideration of 

 the characters upon which the classification 

 of plants depends botanists have generally 

 given too much weight to those of flowering 

 plants, ajid too little to those of the lower 

 plants. This has made our systems top-heavy. 

 In recent years tardy justice has been given 

 to the fernworts (Pteridophyta) and moss- 

 worts (Bryophyta), but as for the fungi, 

 lichens and algae, they have been thrown into 

 a common heap of the ' thallus plants ' (Thal- 

 lophyta), in spite of the fact that they repre- 

 sent several well-marked great types. This 

 mistake, at least, has not been made in Eng- 



ler's new system. Here the lower types re- 

 ceive . full recognition, and the higher are 

 thereby reduced to something like their proper 

 relative rank. 



MORE MARINE BOTANY. 



A FEW weeks ago mention was made of the 

 opportunities for seaside laboratory work in 

 botany at Woods IToll, Sandusky and on Van- 

 couver's Island. To this list should be added 

 the Biological Laboratory at Cold Spring 

 Harbor, on the north shore of Long Island, 

 which will be opened for its fourteenth ses- 

 sion this year from the middle of June to 

 the middle of September or later for investi- 

 gators. There will be lectures from July 1 

 to August 15. In botany, courses are offered 

 in cryptogamic botany, ecology and bacteriol- 

 ogy. For a small number of investigators 

 there are private laboratory rooms which may , 

 be obtained free of charge on certain condi- 

 tions. Professor C. B. Davenport, of the 

 University of Chicago, is the director. 



AIDS TO THE STUDY OF THE FUNGI. 



Professoe Kellerman, of the Ohio State 

 University, Columbus, is doing two things 

 which will do muph toward helping to increase 

 the study of the fungi. The first is intended 

 for the scientific worker, and consists of alpha- 

 betical lists of articles, authors, subjects, new 

 species, hosts, new names and synonyms per- 

 taining to North American fungi. Two such 

 lists have appeared, the first representing the 

 mycological literature of the year 1901, cover- 

 ing fifty-seven pages, and including nearly 

 1,000 citations, and the second representing the 

 literature for 1902, and including about 1,400 

 citations. These lists are printed on one side 

 of the page only, and so may be cut for card 

 cataloguing purposes. The amount of work 

 which these lists represent is quite appalling, 

 and one can only wonder at the courage of 

 the professor in undertaking it. That it will 

 be of the greatest value to students of the 

 fungi is at once obvious. 



The other undertaking of the professor is 

 the publication of a four-page leaflet under 

 the title Ohio Mycological Bulletin for the 

 benefit of beginners and amateurs in the study 



