866 | A Sketch of the Progress of Botany [ December, 
some of the genera of fresh water Algz,” published in the 
American Quarterly Microscopical Journal, records some of his 
observations upon the unicellular forms of vegetation occurring 
in fresh water, and “ questions the place given them as plants,” 
and suggests that many of them “are merely forms of gonidia 
or spores or sporangia, various stages of development in the life 
history of filamentous plants.” The same writer, in the Bulletin 
of the Torrey Botanical Club (January and February, 1879), pub- 
lished a “Synopsis of the Discoveries and Researches of fresh 
water Alge in.1878,” in which some American species are, for 
the first time, described, and many others catalogued. 
Fasciculus 11 of Algze Exsiccate Am. Bor., containing thirty 
species of the larger alga (Fucacee and Floridez) was issued by 
the authors, Farlow, Anderson and Eaton, during the year 1879. 
c. Lichens.—But little appears to have been published in 1879 
by the lichenologists of this country. Prof. Tuckerman’s list of 
the lichens in Dr. Rothrock’s “ Catalogue of the plants collected 
in Nevada, Utah, California, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona” 
(Wheeler’s Report, Vol. v1) is the only publication in this depart- 
ment which has come to hand. 
d: Bryophytes ( Mosses and Liverworts ).—In the catalogue just 
referred to above, Thomas P. James enumerates seventy-nine spe- 
cies of mosses, and C. F. Austin fifteen species of liverworts. In 
Mr. James’ list the less known species and genera are described, 
and to nearly all short notes upon habit or habitat are appended. 
“ Descriptions of some new species of North American Mosses,” 
by Leo Lesquereux and Thomas P. James (Proc. Amer. Academy 
of Arts and Sciences, 1879), includes the descriptions of fourteen 
new species, mostly from the Southern and Western States. 
Under the titles of “Some New Musci” (Botanical Gazette, 
April, 1879), “ Bryological Notes” (Bull. Torr. Bot. Club, Sept., 
1879), and “Notes on Hepaticology” (Ibid, April, 1879), the 
lamented C. F. Austin described a considerable number of new — 
mosses and liverworts. 
e. Pteridophytes (Vascular Cryptogams).—lIt is a pleasure to 
direct the attention of botanists to the industry of Prof. Eaton, 
whose “ Ferns of the Southwest” (Wheeler’s Report, Vol. v1); 
“The Ferns of North America” and “New and little known 
Ferns of the United States” (Bull. Torr. Bot. Club, pp. 306, 360), 
appeared wholly or in part in 1879. The first includes descrip- 
