248 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [march 



retained the aggregate condition only in conservative organs and regions, or 

 it is recalled in them by injuries. The general conclusion, therefore, on the 

 basis of anatomy, is that Betulaceae are rightly "ranked in a low phylogenetic 

 position." — J. M. C. 



Hawaiian bogs. — Situated at or near the summits of high volcanic moun- 

 tains, at altitudes of 1000-2000 m., with a precipitation reaching the enormous 

 proportions of 20 m. annually, the summit bogs of Hawaii are among the most 

 inaccessible and remarkable in the world. In a general description of these 

 areas MacCaughey 23 calls attention to the similarity of these bogs to those of 

 other lands in general aspect and in the presence of similar mosses, sedges, and 

 grasses. There is an absence of many familiar forms, however, such as pitcher 

 plants, and many of the bog ericads and orchids; while other familiar genera 

 take new and strange forms, as instanced by woody violets and lobelias. Many 

 endemic forms occur, particularly among the dwarf trees that form clumps 

 scattered over the tussocky surface. — Geo. D. Fuller. 



Four-lobed mother cells. — Lobed spore mother cells are very conspicuous 

 in Jungermanniales, and by most botanists are thought to be restricted to that 

 order. The work of Allen 24 adds the Musci to the list. He finds that the 

 spore mother cells of Catharinea show a distinct lobing, somewhat less than in 

 representative Jungermanniales, but nevertheless very pronounced. Lobed 

 mother cells are present in all of the 3 orders of the Hepaticae. Cavers 

 reports them in Targionia, one of the Marchantiales; they are almost univer- 

 sally present in the Jungermanniales ; and the reviewer finds marked lobing in 

 the spore mother cells of species of Anthoceros collected by him on volcanic 



islets in the South Seas. The lobing of spore r 

 probably of phylogenetic significance, but until 

 been done it is idle to theorize. — W. J. G. Land 



bryophyt 



Roesleria and Pilacre. — As a result of a comparison of the various forms 

 of Roesleria pallida and Pilacre Petersii, Bayliss-Elliott and Grove 25 con- 

 clude, from the great similarity in structure and habit of these two fungi, that 

 both are forms of the same plant, and that Pilacre Petersii, long regarded 

 as a primitive basidiomycete of the auriculariaceous type, is therefore nothing 

 more than the conidial form of the ascomycete Roesleria pallida. 

 H. Hasselbring. 



* MacCaughey, Vaughan, Vegetation of the Hawaiian summit bogs. Amer. 

 Botanist 22:45-52. 1916. 



** Allen, Charles E., Four-lobed mother cells in Catharinea. Amer. Jour. Bot. 

 3:456-460.7^.2. 19 16. 



2 5 Bayliss-Elliott, Jessie S., and Grove. W. B., Roesleria pallida Sacc. Ann. 

 Botany 30:407-414. figs. 11. 19 16. 



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