476 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [DECEMBER 
members were constant for the same media or temperatures. He shows that 
characters of the conidia are not sufficiently constant for the differentiation 
of species; the form and dimensions of the ascospores, however, are useful as 
diagnostic characters of species. Four species confused by authors as A sper- 
gillus glaucus are described and figured; two of these are new. A variety 
violaceum is added under Eurotium herbariorum, and characters are given 
to separate these forms from two other members of the same group, A. Oryzae 
and A. flavus.—H. HASSELBRING. 
Osmundaceae."’—In this final contribution on the fossil Osmun- 
daceae, the authors bring to a conclusion their investigations and summarize 
their results for the whole series. The present memoir deals with a new stem, 
Osmundites Kolbei, from the Jurasso-Cretaceous (Wealden) of Herbertsdale, 
Cape Colony. The softer tissues are stated to be almost entirely destroyed 
before fossilization, so that only the fibrovascular and scelerenchymatous 
systems are left. The stem is much flattened and generally in a condition of 
extreme collapse. The authors state that the fibrovascular ring is so much 
flattened that the opposite sides are sometimes in contact with each other. 
They omit to state, a matter of the utmost importance in connection with their 
conclusions, clearly shown by their fig. 1, that the condition of maceration is so 
extreme that the central cylinder has not only collapsed but has been burst 
open and distributed throughout the cross-section of the stem. It is not 
urprising, in view of the extreme decay and displacement presented by their 
material, that they find tracheids and masses of tracheids scattered in the 
central substance lying in the midst of the displaced fibrovascular strands. 
The authors express the conviction “that there is no doubt that the tracheal 
elements are true and real constituents of the central tissue.” It is unfortunate 
that they have not demonstrated the accuracy of their interpretation by figures 
of transverse sections on a sufficient scale of magnitude of the stelar tissues. 
An unprejudiced anatomist would scarcely admit the accuracy of their state- 
ments on the evidence they submit. From this highly disintegrated stem it is 
not surprising, in view of their previous statements, that they draw the con- 
clusion that the central tissue of the osmundaceous stele was originally com- 
posed of tracheids, and that hence the pith in this family is a derivative of 
the fibrovascular tissues. The authors make the discovery, anticipated by Mr. 
Sunnott in the case of the living Osmundaceae, that foliar gaps apparently 
absent in Osmundites Kolbei are in reality present. Finally, they draw up a 
table of the osmundaceous forms investigated by them, which shows clearly 
that the protostelic representatives are of more ancient origin, so far as the 
available geological record goes, than whose with a developed pith. Their 
reasoning in regard to the medullate forms is not so conclusive, since they men- 
tion three species, O. Gibbiona, O. Kolbei, and O. skidegatensis, from not very 
™ Kinston, R., and GwyNNE-VAUGHAN, D. T., Fossil Osmundaceae. IV. Trans. 
Roy. Soc. Edinburgh 473:no. 17. 1910. 
