216 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
Fontinalaceae.* — M. J. Cardot gives a monograph of this order of 
aquatic nearly always pleurocarpous mosses, which he divides into two 
groups — Fontinale®, with leaves almost invariably destitute of veins, 
and calyptra conical ; and Dichelyme®, in which the leaves have a 
single often exeurrent vein, and the calyptra is dimidiate. The Fonti- 
nale® include the genera Hydropogon (1 species), Cryptangium (1 species), 
Fontinalis (35 species, of which two are new), and Wardia (1 species) ; 
the Dichelyme® comprise Brachelyma (1 species) and Dichelyma 
(4 species). The species of Fontinalis are again divided into six tribes, 
but the specific characters are of very variable value, and the author 
distinguishes four ranks of so-called species. The species of the first 
rank are distinguished by very well-marked characters, which appear to 
have been evolved during long geological periods, and present no tran- 
sitional forms. The order is nearly confined to the cold and temperate 
regions of both continents. The ring is wanting in all the species of 
Fontinalaceae; the peristome is rarely either wanting or single; it is 
usually double, as it is in all the species of Fontinalis ; both exostome 
and endostome consist of sixteen teeth. 
Simplest Form of Moss. I — Prof. K. Goebel regards Buxbaumia as 
representing the simplest primitive form of moss ; the sexual organs 
being borne directly on the filamentous protoneme. The male plant 
has no stem, but consists of a branch of the protoneme bearing a single 
terminal antherid. The antherid differs in form from that of the 
Bryine®, and resembles that of Sphagnum and many Hepatic® in being 
globular, and in being borne on a long stalk ; it is invested by a leaf 
which forms a shell-shaped involucre. The leaf is destitute of chloro- 
phyll, and has at its apex not a two-sided apical cell, but cells arranged 
in a slightly diverging anticlinal series. The female plant is somewhat 
more highly developed. On a mass of tissue, which represents a rudi- 
mentary stem, is borne an archegone surrounded by several involucres, 
which resemble that of the male plant, but are peculiar in the marginal 
cells growing out into protonemal filaments. The structure of the 
sporogone is rudimentary, recalling that of Sphagnum and Andresea. It 
has no true seta, but merely an absorbing organ which penetrates into 
the rudimentary stem of the moss-plant, giving off a number of rhizoids 
which absorb nutriment from the stem. The calyptra is ruptured, not 
by the elongation of the seta, but by the expansion of the theca of the 
sporogone. 
Algae. 
Tuberous Outgrowths of Floride®4 — Tuberous outgrowths on certain 
species of Floride® have long been known ; some of these have been 
regarded as abortive cystocarps, while others are due to parasitic algae. 
Prof. F. Schmitz describes a kind which are produced by the attacks of 
parasitic bacteria. They have been observed on Cystoclonium purpuras - 
cens, Chondrus crispus , Prionitis decipiens , P. lanceolata , Dumontia filifor- 
mis, Grateloupia Jilicina, Gigartina Teedii , &c. The bacteria are never 
found within the cells, but propagate only between them ; these attacks 
produce a kind of gall or hypertrophy of the tissue. 
* Mem. Soc. Sci. Nat. Cherbourg, xxviii. (1892) pp. 1-152. 
t Flora, lxxvi. (1892) Erg.-Bd., pp. 92-104 (4 pis.); Ann. Bot., vi. (1892) 
pp. 355-60 (1 pi.) J Bot. Ztg., 1. (1892) pp. 624-30. 
