
i 



120 THE NORTHERN MICROSCOPIST. 

to the leaves called Amphigastria, affording generic distinctions ; 
in the Mosses, however, these are very rare and rudimentary. 
In the majority of cases the fruit of the Hepatice, when ripe, 
splits into four valves, while the urns of Mosses open with a lid. 
In drawing distinctions between the two, one feature is absolute; 
that is, the presence of spiral threads called elaters, mixed with 
and assisting in the dispersion of the spores of the Hepatice. 
These elaters are never found in the spore cases of the true Mosses. 
In Ricciace, a family of the frondose Hepatice, no elaters are 
found, and the fruit being buried in the frond they are thus linked 
to the Lichens. 
I cannot close these few remarks without quoting an extract 
from “ A Tour round my Garden,” by Alphonse Karr; he says, 
“ But here is displayed a luxury ; a velvet, a thousand times more 
-fine, more brilliant, more wavy, more rich, than that which is 
displayed with so much care in the interior of palaces; about 
which much anxiety is felt, lest is should be spoilt. A green velvet 
entirely covers the thatch of the house, and that is a true and 
beautiful luxury. The owners do not troubie on account of it; 
they are neither the slaves nor the victims of it; they allow it to 
be exposed to the sun, the wind, and the rain, they cannot spoil 
nee 
This velvet is Moss. 

OUR .BOOK SHELF. 
The Journal of the Postal Microscopical Society. No. 1, March, 
1882. London: W. P. Collins. 
The first number of this Journal is a very useful and interesting 
production, but whether there is room for another Microscopical 
Journal is a question open to doubt. Our own experience is de- 
cidedly unfavourable to such a supposition ; still, if the Council of 
the Postal Microscopical Society has any surplus funds, it cannot 
be employing them in a more laudable manner than in publishing 
the information their note books have collected. The papers to be 
found in this number are :—A History of the Postal Microscopical 
Society ; Numerical Apertures ; The Microscopical examination of 
Chlorophyll, &c. ; Tubifex rivulorum; Diatoms; Lichens; How to 
prepare Foraminifera ; An Hour at the Microscope with Mr. Tuffen 
West ; Selections from the Society’s Note Books, &c., &c. These 
“Notes” are certainly the most valuable, the correspondence the 
least so, and queries will have to be dealt with in a different man- 
