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they have a real and positive heredity even tho they are not species in the ordi- 

 nary sense of the word. A lichen is a physiological species and not a species in 

 the same sense as are Linnaea americana, Cocos nucifera, or Agaricus campestris. 

 I have elsewhere suggested what I believe to be the controlling factors of lichen 

 heredity and the development of new species of lichens. But the whole matter 

 needs patient and prolonged investigation and would well repay the efforts of 

 some students of genetics. 



If a few members of the SuUivant Moss Society will take the trouble to re- 

 cord at stated intervals such data as readily lend themselves to exact measure- 

 ment or definite experiment, they will be making a real contribution to our 

 knowledge of these unique organisms. 



Washington State Normal, Bellingham, Wash. 



DR. GORREN'S INVESTIGATIONS AND STERILE MOSSES 



John M. Holzinger 



In the fourth volume of The Bryologist, January, 1901, the writer an- 

 nounced the discovery in Minnesota of Webera proligera, a moss which in the fall 

 of each year develops great numbers of gemmae, or bulbils, in the leaf-axils of 

 the sterile plants. Since that time Dr. Corren's able work, Investigations into 

 Propagation of Mosses by Gemmae and Budding,' has come to hand. With 

 great diligence and care this author investigates 915 species. It is not generally 

 known as it deserves to be, especially by the younger moss students, that the 

 result of these studies has more than a passing importance for systematic investi- 

 gations. Dr. Correns has a chapter on the Use of Bulbils and Gemmae in Sys- 

 tematic Determinations (of sterile plants), which finds a happy illustration in 

 two recent determinations; the one actually accomplished, the other verified, 

 by the use of this book. 



I had collected last summer a small, beautiful green, sterile moss, which 

 puzzled and troubled me for quite a while. The curly leaves broke off with the 

 greatest ease. A leaf section showed median guides. The slender leaf-points 

 were papillose. Interspersed with the delicate plants were alga-like threads, 

 larger than the protonema threads of Ephemerum. These, I have since learned, 

 are Dr. Corren's "chloronema, " formed from the protonema. The patches of 

 this moss occurred on the bark at the bases of trees, usually birches, They 

 frequently covered areas the size of two hands. Small patches interspersed, 

 which looked like beautiful green velvet, on examination proved to be areas 

 where the chloronema had completely displaced the leafy plants. These ob- 

 servations persuaded me that I had before me a small, sterile, Dicranum. On 



^Untersuchungen ueber die Vermehrung der Laubmoose durch Brutorgane und Steckinge. 

 von Dr. Carl Correns, Jena, 1899. pp. 1-472 -f- i-xxiv. 



