412 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
Polypodium virginianum and P. vulgare. — M. L. Fernald 
(. Rhodora , 1922, 24, 125-42). A careful investigation of the ferns 
ascribed to Polypodium vulgar e and allied species in North America, 
showing that they may be grouped under two species : — 1. P. virginianum 
Linn., which grows on shaded rocks and banks (but rarely on tree- 
trunks), and ranges from Newfoundland and Manitoba southwards to 
the mountains of northern Georgia and Alabama, Illinois and eastern 
Missouri ; it varies little. 2. P. vulgare Linn., which ranges over 
Europe and adjacent Asia and north Africa, the Atlantic Islands, and 
from Alaska to lower California, Arizona and New Mexico. The 
American forms of P. vulgare agree with the European type in having 
a stout sweetish rhizome with peltately attached scales of similarly 
dense areolation, similar variability of frond, median sori, and a predi- 
lection for growing on living or dead trees. Included in its synonymy 
are P. californicum Kaulf., P. intermedium Hook, and Arn., P.falcatum 
Kellogg, P. Glycyrrhiza L>. C. Eaton, P. hesperium Maxon, P. occidental e 
Maxon. The characters of P. virginianum are a soft, bitter rhizome, 
with cordate scales of laxer areolation, but thick-walled cells, narrower 
fronds, more strictly alternate pinnae, and sori nearly marginal. A. G. 
Studies of Tropical American Ferns. — W illiam R. Maxon 
( Contrib . U.S. Nat. Herd. Washington , 1922, 24, 33-63, 10 pis.). 
This paper, the seventh of the series, contains an account of the North 
American species of the Alsophila armata group, with key and descrip- 
tions ; a singular new Alsophila from Panama ; notes on Dicranopteris ; 
the Jamaican species of Cheilanthes ; two new species of Polystichum 
from the West Indies ; Atalopteris , a new genus of Dryopteroid ferns 
from the West Indies ; three new species of Dryopteris, of the sub- 
genus Stigmatopteris : and some miscellaneous notes. A. G . 
Collection of Pteridophyta from Celebes. — C arl Christensen 
(> Svensk . Hot. Tidskrift , 1922, 16, 88-102, 7 figs.). An account of a 
collection of 88 Pteridophyta collected in the north, central, and east 
Celebes by W. Kaudern in 1917-20. Most (75) of them had pre- 
viously been recorded for Celebes : but 6 were previously unknown 
there ; Neplirolepis dicksonioides Christ is a highly interesting endemic 
species. Of the new species the following are figured : — Asplenium 
dicranurum, Humata Kaudernii , Lomagramma sinuata , and Polypodium 
scalpturatum. A. G. 
Bryopbyta. 
Male Receptacle and Antheridium of Reboulia hemisphaerica. — 
A. W. Dupler ( Amer . Journ. Hot ., 1922, 9, 285-95, pi. and figs.). 
Having published a recent paper on the origin and structure of the air 
chambers of Reboidia , the author now treats of the male receptacle and 
antheridium, confirming the recent work of A. W. Haupt in some 
respects and supplementing it in others. In his summary he states that : 
1. The male receptacle of Reboidia hemisphaerica occupies a dorsal 
position, as a rule, posterior to the female receptacle which terminates 
the branch. 2. The receptacle is usually more or less lunate in outline, 
although it may be circular, or more or less irregular. It is sessile as a 
