C54 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
B. CRYPTOGAMIA. 
Cryptogamia Vascularia. 
Cell-Wall of Vascular Cryptogams and Mnscineae.* — In Asjpidium 
Filix-mas and A. Filix-femina, as well as in several species of Bryaceae, 
Herr E. Winterstein finds mannose and glucose as constituents of tlie 
cell- wall. 
Apogamy in Ferns.f — Herr C. Helm describes a process of apo- 
gamous growth of the sporophytes of the prothallium of Doodya caudatci. 
It possesses two different kinds of antherid, and impregnation of the arche- 
gones frequently takes place in the ordinary way. But not unfrequently 
the full development of both kinds of sexual organ is suppressed, and they 
become transformed into cellular structures from which new fern-plants 
arise directly. Plants thus produced non-sexually are formed on the 
same prothallium as normal antherids and archegones. Nearly all the 
cells of the prothallium are able to produce new plants in this way ; but 
the faculty is possessed to the fullest extent by those near the growing 
point. With regard to the influence of light on the phenomenon.: — 
exclusion of the ultra-violet rays has no effect on the mode of reproduc- 
tion ; while prothallia grown under yellow glass exhibit a tendency to 
the suppression of the sexual organs, and the production of adventitious 
prothallia. 
The author then discusses the extent to which differences in the 
structure and habit of the prothallium are characteristic of different 
classes of Ferns. 
Bulbs of Cystopteris bulbifera.* — Herr E. Heinricher does not 
confirm the statement of Matouschek that the adventitious buds of this 
fern are incapable of germinating after long-continued desiccation. 
When again moistened they reassume their original form and their 
green colour. 
Pecfic Substances in the Root of Equisetum.§ — In the root of a 
number of species of Equisetum M. 1 . Vidal describes a peculiar struc- 
ture of the endoderm of the root. The inner cortex contains a number 
of lacunae, and that part of the wall of the endodermal cells which 
bounds these lacunae is furnished with a very large number of minute 
rod-like excrescences, resembling bacilli, which are very refringent, and 
which disappear as the root becomes older. Chemical manipulation 
showed that the portion of the wall of the endodermal cell where these 
excrescences are situated consists^ of a mixture of cellulose and pectic 
substances, and that these bodies themselves are entirely of a pectic 
constitution. 
Muscineae. 
Nanomitrium.|| — Herr F. Muller confirms Goebel’s observation of 
the absence of a columel in the sporogone of Nanomitrium tenerum. 
The wall of the capsule consists of only a single layer of cells. Each 
* Zeitschr. f. Phys. Chemie, xxi. (1895) pp. 152-4. Si e Bot. Centralbl., Ixvii. 
(1896) p. 262. f Flora, lxxxii. (1896) pp. 329-73 (16 figs.). 
I Ber. Deutscli. B jt, GeselL, xiv. (1896) pp. 232-44. Cf. this Journal, 1894, 
p. 595. § Journ. de Bot. (Morot), x. (1896) pp. 236-9 (2 figs.). 
II Hedwigia, xxxv. (1896) pp. 179-85 (7 figs.). Cf. this Journal, 1895, p. 660. 
