SUMMARY. OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
"224 
Muscinese. 
Swelling of the Peristome of Mosses.* * * § — Herr C. Steinbrinck con- 
tests Biitschli’s theory that the shrinking of the teeth of the peristome 
of Mosses on drying is due mainly to the contraction of very small 
cavities which are emptied by the external pressure ; their expansion on 
imbibition, to the meshes becoming again tilled with water. His con- 
clusion is based on the fact that the contraction takes place under the 
air-pump just as it does under the ordinary pressure of the air. He is 
disposed rather to revert to the micellar theory of Nageli as an explana- 
tion of the phenomenon. 
Herr R. Kolkwitz j describes the apparatus employed by Steinbrinck 
for his experiments. 
Distribution of Spores in the Splachnaceae.j — Herr N. Brylm calls 
-attention to the part played by flies in the distribution of the spores of the 
Splachnese ( SplacJinum , Tetraplodon). These mosses are saprophytes, 
growing on excrements or on decaying organic matter. The insects lay 
their eggs in the decaying or foetid organic matter, and are apparently 
attracted by the bright colour of the hypophyse (apophyse) of the moss, 
carrying away the spores in large numbers. W itliout this agency ger- 
mination does not appear to take place. 
(Edipodium.§ — Herr E. Nyman describes in detail the structure of 
the oophyte and sporophyte generations of (Edipodium Griffithianum. The 
cortical parencliyme of the stem is destitute of pores. The central 
bundle is only rudimentary, and is scarcely differentiated from the cor- 
tical parencliyme, and can have but little importance for the conduction 
of water. The rhizoids have sometimes a bulbous swelling at the apex. 
The great characteristic of the genus, and one quite peculiar to it among 
Mosses, is the presence of a spongy parencliyme and of stomates in the 
seta, which thus serves a very important function as an assimilating organ. 
As regards the systematic position of the genus, the author is disposed to 
agree with Lindberg in erecting it into a distinct family intermediate 
•between the Splachnaceae and Tortulacese. 
Braithwaite’s British Moss-Flora. ||— Tart xvii. of this work com- 
mences the third and concluding volume, which is to include the Pleuro- 
carpous Mosses and the Sphagna. The Pleurocarpous Mosses consist 
of three families, the Hypnacese, Pterygophyllaceae, and Neckeraceae. 
Of the Hypnaceae the present part treats of the following genera: — 
Thuidium (6 sp.), Leslcea (3 sp.), Anomodon (3 sp.), and Amblystegium , 
of which 19 species are included in the present part. 
Genera and Species of Mosses. t— Prof. C. R. Barnes and Mr. F. Dc F. 
Heald give a complete Analytic Key to the Genera and Species of North 
American Musci (including Spliagnacem). Descriptions are appended of 
* Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Gesell., xiv. (1896) pp. 401-7 ; xv. (1897) pp. 29-33. 
t Op. cit., xv. (1897) pp. 106-10 (2 figs.). 
+ Biol. Centralbl., xvii. (1897) pp. 48-55 (4 figs.). 
§ ‘ Ona byggnaden ocli utvecklingen af CE 'dipodium G rijfithianum,' Upsala, 1896, 
3 pp. and 2 pis. See Bot. Cenlralbl., lxix. (1897) p. 206. 
|| Pt. xvii., 1896, 36 pp. and 6 pis. Cf. Ibis Journal, 1895, p. 457. 
^ Bull. IJniv. Wisconsin, No. 5, 1897, x. and 211 pp. 
