— 86 — 
mounted on open sheets by Micheli in a much better state of preservation than 
those of Raddi in envelopes, though the latter were collected nearly a hundred 
years later. Indeed, he grew quite warm on the subject of ces sacrees enveloppes, 
as he ventured to call them. 
We were talking about botanizing in Spain, where he had done some work 
in the past with Boissier and Leresche, and about the roughness of the accommo- 
dation in any place at all off the beaten track. Dr. Levier, however, main- 
tained that for dirt and discomfort it was hard to beat the usual run of accom- 
modation in the Abruzzi, in his own country, where a rich and interesting district 
is rendered almost inaccessible to the ordinary traveller from this cause. 
It is unfortunate that it has never been possible to publish the monograph 
on the genus Riccia, towards which he had accumulated a large amount of mate- 
rial, as he had an almost unique knowledge of the genus, and the neighborhood 
of Florence afforded him opportunities for observing a large number of species 
in the field. 
It was not very long after I saw him that he passed away on the 26th of 
October, 1911. An interesting account of him, with an excellent photograph, 
was published by Signor Sommice in the Nuovo Giornale botanico italiano for 
January, 1912. 
Lewes, Sussex, September 27, 1918. 
Certain Organic Substances Assimilated by Ceratodon purpureus. — 
In recent years it has been emphasized that organic materials accumulating 
in the soil through the activities of plants and animals may have much to do 
with the fertility of the soil and may, to some extent, control the character of 
the native vegetation. Recent work by Robbins 1 has a bearing on these ques- 
tions. Servettaz 2 found some mosses, particularly Hypnutn purum, able to 
live and become slowly green when grown in the dark and furnished with sugar 
or certain other organic substances, and able to assimilate considerable sugar 
in the light. Von Ubish, in 1913, found that Funaria hygrometrica protonema, 
when grown in darkness on nutrient agar containing peptone and glucose, 
formed large starch grains, but without the peptone and glucose the grains 
were small. Robbins found that with Ceratodon purpureus: “In test tubes 
on a nutrient agar containing glucose the growth in the light was four or five 
times as luxuriant as on the nutrient agar lacking glucose.” Grown in the dark 
the protonema was a dark reddish brown and, out of several sugars tried, the 
best development was on levulose. Robbins concludes that this moss can absorb 
and utilize organic carbon and he suggests that if suitable organic compounds 
are in the soil solution, the moss may be able to use them advantageously. 
O. E. J. 
1 Robbins, William J. Direct Assimilation of Organic Carbon by Ceratodon purpureus. 
Bot. Gaz. 65 : 541-551. June, 1918. 
2 Ann. Sci. Nat. Bot. IX, 17 : m-124. Pis. 4, figs. 11. 1913. 
