ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
311 
tension of the inner and outer surfaces of the sporangium wall when 
saturated, and results in an eversion of the waTl. A. G. 
Annularia with Paleostachya Fruit. — Eda M. Round ( Bot . Gciz. y 
1922, 73, 326-8, fig.). Description of a fossil Equisetum - like plant, 
Annularia Clarlcii, from the coal shales of Rhode Island, and bearing a 
fruit of the Paleostachya type — namely, cones borne in the axils of the 
sterile bracts. This refutes the contention of some writers that the 
Annularise have always been characterized by C alamo stachys types of 
fruit. A. G. 
Index Filicum : Supplement Preliminaire pour les annees 
1913-16.— Carl Christensen ( Copenhagen , 1917, 60 pp.). This pre- 
liminary supplement for 1913-16 is published at the expense of Prince 
Roland Bonaparte, and contains over 700 species of ferns described 
during the above years, the number of described species being thereby 
raised to about 8000— a number which the editor believes to be well 
below the total of good species really existing. A. G. 
Bryophyta. 
Air Chambers of Reboulia hemisphserica. — A. W. Dupler (Bull. 
Torrey Bot. Club , 1921, 48, 241-52, 22 figs.). As to the nature 
and origin of these air chambers there has been much difference of 
opinion. The results of the author’s investigation are as follows : — 
The very elongated air chambers of the thallus extend lengthwise along 
the midrib region, and from this radiate pinnately toward the margins 
of the thallus. The air chamber tissue consists essentially of a single 
series of oblique chambers extending from the surface to the compact 
tissue, overlapping one another shingle-like, and thus giving the appear- 
ance in section of several series of superimposed chambers. The primary 
chambers are extensively subdivided into partial secondary chambers by 
plates of cells arising as lateral outgrowths of the primary walls. The 
air chambers of both thallus and receptacles originate by splitting of 
cell membranes, the splits arising both internally and superficially, and 
generally proceeding from both points of origin simultaneously. The 
I later development of the chambers and the secondary partitioning is 
due largely to growth of the tissues, further splitting apparently playing 
I but a small role in the process. A. Gepp. 
Hepaticse of New Caledonia. — Wm. H. Pearson (Journ. Linn. 
I ; So c. Bot., 1922, 46, 13-44, 2 pis.). An account of the hepatics 
0 collected by R. H. Compton in New Caledonia in 1914, comprising a 
1 list of sixty-two species, twenty-nine of which are new to science. Of 
1 special interest is Chiloscyphus Comptonii, which has in it the makings 
| of a separate genus ; the leaves are provided with a large tooth and a 
t rounded auricle on the postical (upper) margin, and the underleaf bears 
I two such auricles, one at each lateral extremity ; further the perianth is 
f) adorned with half a score of longitudinal crest-like alae. The plant is 
l;| allied to C. cymbaliferus , which itself is an outstanding member of the 
