— 3i ~ 
Among the Mosses all classifications depend mainly on the sporophyte. 
Bessey places the Andreaeales before the Sphagnums, perhaps because the cap- 
sules open by four slits much as do the Jungermanniales. By most systematists- 
Sphagnum, with its dome-shaped spore-layer, rudimentary seta, and bulbous 
foot, is regarded as closely related to Anthoceros, and so transitional between the 
Liverworts and Mosses. The sporophytic characters of the Andreales are mainly 
intermediate between those of Sphagnum and the Bryales , and Bessey’s arrange- 
ment probably will not meet with general acceptance on this point. — O. E. J. 
Wanted — Short Notes. We very much need short notes, reviews, dis- 
cussions, etc. There sometimes is more food for thought in a short note than in 
a long and detailed article, and in making up the Bryologist there are fre- 
quently places where such short notes could be used to good advantage. If you 
have a short bit of information that would be interesting to tell to a bryological 
friend then write it out and let us have it. — Ed. 
H. N. Dixon, in the Journal of Botany (Nov. 1913, pp. 324-330) publishes 
further investigations on the mosses of the Southern Hemisphere. After ex- 
tended comparison a Ditrichum which has passed at various times under 6 generic 
and 9 specific names is finally labeled Ditrichum fiexifolium (Hook.) Hampe. 
The range for this variously-named moss is given as: “South Africa, Mada- 
gascar, East African Islands, India, Java, New Caledonia, Australia, Tasmania, 
New Zealand, Patagonia, Chile.” Critical notes are given on several Thuidiums 
and one new species is published: Thuidium orientate Mitt. MS., from the Malay 
Peninsula; while Astomum Levied Limpr., hitherto known only from Europe, is 
recognized from Algeria. 
Bryology of New Zealand. — H. N. Dixon, in “Studies in the Bryology 
of New Zealand (N. Z. Institute, Bull. 3, Pt. I, June, 1913, 1-29, and Pt. II, 
Sept. 1914, 30-74) is mainly devoting himself to a critical study of the generally 
imperfectly understood and thus neglected species of Robert Brown, of Christ- 
church [Not “R. Br.”] and aims to bring together as far as known the species 
hitherto recorded from New Zealand. In the Introduction is given a very in- 
teresting sketch of Brown’s personality, qouting from Dr. L. Cockayne: “He 
was the most enthusiastic naturalist I ever met — a man of but little education, 
intensely modest in many ways, and yet self-opinionated to no small degree. 
He was about seventy years of age when he first commenced co write. 
His microscope was old and in bad repair; his drawing apparatus was self-made;: 
he possessed hardly a book beyond the Handbook [Handbook of the New Zeal- 
and Flora — Hooker] and some ancient botanical text-books. In the field no 
discomfort, no toil, was too great. He would sleep in the open, perhaps with- 
out food, carry burdens for incredible distances, be wet through for weeks at a 
time — and all for his love of natural history. I have seen him after a long day’s 
tramp, and when eighty years of age, walk barefoot on a stony river-bed in search 
of wood for the fire. He was a shoemaker by trade, but for many years did no 
work — not because he had much of this world’s goods, for he had very little. 
His one love was nature in all its forms, and, get him away from mosses, his- 
conversation was clever and his views on many points brilliant.” 
