> 1910] CURRENT LITERATURE 467 
and by the presence of eight-spored asci derived from an isogamous conjugation. 
According to ENGLER and PRantL, Olinea also differs from Endomyces in the 
number of its spores, but this is not an essential character, because in two species 
of Endomyces there are four to eight spores. 
On account of the great resemblance between Endomyces fibuliger and Sac- 
charomyces capsularis, the latter is placed by the author in the genus Endomyces, 
which differs from the yeasts in the great differentiation of its mycelium and by 
having its asci arise almost always from the ends of mycelial branches and not 
from conidia. ‘The genus Endomyces is characterized by a tendency of the myce- 
lium to form conidia or oidia and by asi asci arising from the ends of mycelial 
branches. 
The yeasts are thought to be descended from a form similar to Eremascus 
jertilis. From it there are two main lines, one of which again branches to give 
rise to Saccharomyces, Zygosaccharomyces, and Endomyces jibuliger and E. 
capsularis; while the other main branch gives rise to Schizosaccharomyces, 
Endomyces magnusii, and E. dicipiens—FREDA M. BACHMAN. 
Vegetation of the Faerdées.—Several years ago Professor WARMING and his 
colleagues projected a systematic study of the flora of the Faerées from various 
points of view, and there have been published in a special serial devoted to the 
purpose papers dealing with plant lists of various groups, floristic treatises, and 
the like. For ecologists the most important paper of the series thus far is one by 
‘OsTENFELD" on the plant associations and their life conditions, representing a 
translation of an earlier a paper, published in 1906. After reviewing the 
literature and noting that the best previous account of the vegetation is in 
Rostrvur’s work Shae & in 1870, OSTENFELD considers the climatic and 
edaphic factors in some detail. The climate is decidedly insular, the rainfall and 
humidity being high and the winter temperature so frequently above o° that the 
snow cover is not permanent; the average number of rainless days is 85, while 
only 18 days per annum are clear. The abundance of sheep is responsible for a 
high degree of modification in the vegetation covering. In a chapter on the 
biological features the plants are classified according to their biological type (in 
the sense of RAUNKIAER), duration of life, type of vegetative propagation, and 
altitudinal distribution. There are no trees on the islands and there is a striking 
dominance of perennial herbs; only one autophytic species of the natural land 
vegetation (Koenigia islandica) is an annual. Thirty-six species have never been 
known to produce viable seeds; this is partly due to climate and partly to the 
absence of such important pollinating insects as bees and butterflies. 
The body of the work deals with the plant formations, which are closely 
related to one another and separable with difficulty; the author regards this as a 
feature of an insular climate, which seems reasonable to the reviewer, who has 
14 OSTENFELD, C. H., The land vegetation of the Faerées, with special reference 
to the higher plants. Botany of the Faerées 3:867-1026. figs. 31. 1908. 
