1 9 14- Very little was known in this country as to what use the Germans were 

 making of sphagnum during the war until after the war was over. We now 

 know that they were quite as active, if not more so, in utilizing sphagnum for 

 dressings and other purposes, as the Allies were. Their necessity, of course, 

 came first and their use of this and other material as a substitute for cotton was 

 quite general in some regions, especially on the Russian front. 



During the war, Germans made surgical dressings or pads not only of sphag- 

 num moss, but also of common moss, wood pulp, peat, sawdust, wood ashes, 

 peat ashes, hay, straw, surgical lint mixed with different proportions of sphagnum, 

 and even algae and any kind of cellular material that was available. 



These materials were usually sewn up in small pillows or muslin sacks, 

 disinfected and used as bandages for wounds that were discharging excessively. 



[To be concluded] 



REVIEW^ 



PoTTiER, Jacques. Recherches sur le developpement de la feuille 

 DES MOUSSES. [Studies on the development of the leaves of mosses.) Pp. 1-137, 

 figs. 1-368, pis. 2. Paris, 1920. 



The major part of this work is a detailed description of the cross-sections 

 of moss leaves, longitudinal surface views, and leaf reconstructions in plastiline. 

 The 368 figures are more than sufficient to illustrate the essential features of the 

 text. The indices of the figures are not explained on the various plates or in 

 the "Explication des figures." In order to find out what the indices mean it is 

 necessary to hunt through the text. In fig. iqj the primordial cells of the con- 

 ducting tissue are shaded gray, while in other figures gray is used for a different 

 type of cells, an inconsistency that might easily lead to confusion. The bibliog- 

 raphy, which includes 43 citations, appears to be incomplete for a subject so 

 often studied, especially so when no American or English papers are included. 



In the historical review it is stated that Charles Morren in 1840 was the 

 first to study the development of moss leaves. [Brown, K. Trans. Linn. Soc. 

 12: 575. 1 8 19, describes the development of the leaves of Fissidens, as cited by 

 Salmon.] From 1845-1855, M. J. Schleiden and Carl Nageli were engaged in 

 a controversy pertaining to the initial development of the leaf. Hofmeister, in 

 1 85 1, describes the development of young leaves in Sphagnum with an initial 

 cell having two faces, with which the formation of leaves in a number of other 

 mosses are compared. In 1863, Lorentz studied the development of the midrib 

 of moss leaves by means of cross-sections and confirms the earlier conclusions 

 of R. Brown with regards to the early development of the leaves of Fissidens. 

 [Salmon, E. S. On the genus Fissidens. Ann. Bot. 13: 103-130. ' 1899, also 

 confirms the early conclusions of R. Brown.] In 1867 Lorentz provides the first 

 technical terms for the histological elements of the moss leaf. Leitgeb in 1874 



1 Contribution from the Department of Botany, University of Pittsburgh, No. 3. 



