502 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [JUNE 
in the mature sporophyte. In Cyathodium, only the cells of the 
upper part of the capsule are spirally thickened, so that dehiscence 
occurs through the formation of 6-8 fairly regular teeth. 
Of course there are several difficulties in the way of such a 
determining scheme as this. In the first place, it is next to 
impossible to select characters that will be absolutely determining. 
In the second place, it is impossible to select groups of characters 
whose determining value will be equal. Again, there is the difficulty 
of deciding as to which of two characters is the more advanced. 
And finally, there is the conflict as to the relative value of sporo- 
phytic and gametophytic characters. Is a complex gametophyte 
with a simple sporophyte more advanced than a simple gameto- 
phyte bearing a complex sporophyte, or vice versa; to say nothing 
of the different gradations in combining the two. 
Leaving aside, for the present, the difficulties which a practical 
application of this scheme presents in general, it does seem to apply 
in the specific case under discussion; no matter which of the two 
is the higher, it seems to be fairly certain that they are widely 
different. According to the diagrams the two genera have but the 
one salient feature which is common to them and to them only, a 
single involucre inclosing a group of terminally borne archegonia. 
Now it certainly does not seem as though such a character as this 
should be sufficient to bind two genera differing so widely in all 
other respects into one family. 
As to where Cyathodium belongs, if not with the Targionieae, 
the Corsinieae suggest themselves readily. But such a matter as 
this cannot be settled definitely without a much more extended 
study of Cyathodium, as well as the family Corsinieae, with its two 
genera (Corsinia and Funicularia), than has been given them. 
Thanks are due Professor JoHN M. Coutrer and Dr. W. J. G. 
LAND for assistance rendered during the progress of the work. 
THe UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO 
