2i0 Scientific Intelligence. 



19. A New Fern from the Coal Measures : Tabicaulis Snteliffii 

 spec. nov. ; by Marie C. Stopes. — Mem. and Pioc. Manchester 

 Lit. Phil. Soc., 1906, Vol. 1, Pt. iii, pp. 1-30, pis. 1-3. — Now that 

 the great majority of Paleozoic plants with fernlike foliage are 

 known to have been seed-bearing or are at least under suspicion (!) 

 of exhibiting some form or other of heterospory, each demon- 

 strable pre-Mesozoic fern has come into unexpected importance. 

 In fact the entire fern phylogeny has proved of vastly greater 

 complexity than once supposed, and there has never been a time 

 w T hen attention has been so eagerly directed to Paleozoic fern 

 characters and problems as now. The paper by Miss Stopes is 

 therefore most satisfactory in presenting the principal anatomical 

 characters of the stem, petioles, and associated small annulate 

 sporangia of a true fern from the Lower Coal Measures of the 

 Bullion mine at Shore. T. ISiitcliffii is one of the simpler basal 

 members of the Botryopteridese ; this genus has not been hitherto 

 recognized below the Permian. g. e. w. 



20. On the Internal Structure of Sigillaria elegans of Brong- 

 niartis " Ilistoire des vegetaux fossiles" ; by Robert Kldston". 

 Trans. R6y. Soc. Edinburgh, 1905, Vol. xli, Pt. iii, pp. 533-550, 

 with three plates. — Sigillariae with structure conserved are known 

 from the Lower Coal Measures to the Lower Permian. Ribbed 

 and non-ribbed forms occur throughout, but appear to exchange 

 places in relative abundance, ribbed forms predominating in lower 

 horizons and non-ribbed forms in higher. Likewise the pithless 

 type of sigillarian stem, with a solid cylinder of primary, followed 

 by secondary wood, appears to be primitive and to give way in 

 upper horizons to the non-ribbed form with a prominent pith 

 enclosed by a zone of inner separate primary xylem bundles, with 

 a continuous cylinder of secondary xylem. g. r. w. 



21. On the Afegaspore of lepidostrobus foliaceus ; by Rina 

 (Mrs. D. H.) Scott. The New Phytologist, 1906, Vol. v, Nos. 5 

 and 6, pp. 116-119. — Mrs. Scott has determined that lepidostrobus 

 foliaceus, hitherto considered to be homosporous, is really heteros- 

 porous, the megaspores being of a peculiarly winged bizarre type, 

 to which Triletes, the general name for megaspores, with the 

 specifie name diabolicus, was first temporarily given, g. r. w. 



22. Sur line Algue Oxfordienne ( Gloeocystis oxfordiensis n. 

 sp.) ; par O. Lignier. Bull. Soc. Bot. France, 1906, quat. ser., 

 T. vii, pp. 527-530. — A very clear instance of a unicellular zoo- 

 glean alga derived from a fragment of a silicified Araucarioxylon 

 trunk. Budding, encysted, and grouped forms are clearly present. 



g. r. w. 



23. Die BrillenJeaimane von JSrasilien ; von Friedrich Sie- 

 benrock. Denkschr. d. math.-naturw. Klasse d. k. Akad. d. 

 Wiss., Vienna, 1905, Vol. lxxvi, pp. 19-39, with 9 text figures. — 

 The present notes on Caiman sclerops, C. latt.rostris, and C. niger 

 are illustrated by remarkably handsome stipple-board drawings 

 of crania and various features of dermal armature. G. r. w. 



