THE ELECTION of Dr. Sidney H. Vines, F. R. S., Lecturer in Botany at Cambridge, to succeed Prof. Balfour at Oxford, gives general satisfaction in English botanical circles, and not only secures an important acquisition to Oxford, but is a high compliment to Dr. Vines, who was without a competitor for the position.

THE ORIGIN of the tubercles on leguminous roots has given rise to much discussion, the opinion varying between their being normal structures or diseased structures. Dr. Farlow gives a short resumé of the subject in Garden and Forest (May 16), calling attention to the difficulty of the subject, and also stating that it can be safely said that they are not normal structures.

THE BLACK SPOT, a disease of roses, is treated in the American Florist for May 1 by W. S. Windle, a senior student of Purdue University. He describes and illustrates the fungus, Actinonema Rose, which causes the disease, and points out that the discoloration of the leaf is due to the gradual filling up of the outer epidermal cells with a dark mass, deposited as a result of the presence of the fungus.

THE BOTANISTS will be well cared for at Cleveland. The Hollenden will be the headquarters of the Botanical Club. Meetings will be held each morning at 9 o'clock. Excursions will be made Friday afternoon and Saturday, and everything that President Day or Secretary Spalding can secure for their pleasure and profit may be expected. There should be a liberal response in attendance and notes.

ALGE living upon animals as parasites is a curious subject lately investigated by Mme. A. Weber van Bosse. Several species are described belonging to the genera Trichophilus and Cyanoderma, which infest the hairs of sloths. The damp, shady, tropical forests which form the home of these sluggish animals seems to be sufficient explanation, as pointed out by Dr. Farlow in Garden and Forest (April 25).

MIMICRY among plants was recently discussed by Dr. J. T. Rothrock before the Philadelphia Academy. He arranges mimicry under two heads: (1) that found between plants of distinct groups; (2) that found between plants of the same family. In the former case the lower type may be considered an anticipatory or prophetic type; in the latter it seems to indicate a common descent within a recent period.

PROF. L. H. BAILEY, JR., will go abroad in August. He will visit the leading experiment stations and horticultural establishments, and also spend considerable time in studying the originals of cultivated plants at the great herbaria of Kew and on the continent. The Carices will incidentally come in for some share of attention, and much valuable information is likely to be gathered for the better elucidation of our flora.

PFITZER recommends' a modification of the soap-imbedding process for a study of developmental processes. A mixture of equal parts of glycerine and 96 per cent. alcohol is saturated at 60°-70° C. with finely shaved, transparent glycerine-soap. The plant parts taken from strong alcohol are brought into the mixture before it sets by cooling. Or they can be penetrated by allowing them to lie in a similar cold-saturated solu tion of soap. This imbedding mass keeps without change in corked vessels and becomes fluid at 40° C. The action of the alkali of the soap renders the sections particularly clear.

1 Berichte d. deut. bot. Gesells. V. 1887., p. lxv.

VOL. XIII. No. 8.-BOTANICAL GAZETTE.-AUG., 1888.

New mosses of North America. J.

F. RENAULD AND J. CARDOT.

(WITH PLATES XIII-XX.)

Dicranella Fitzgeraldi.-Cespitose, yellowish or dirty green. Stems 5-15 mm. long, simple or bipartite. Leaves crowded, subsecund, from a lanceolate base gradually narrowed into a long subulate canaliculate point, denticulate at the apex; 3-3 mm. long, mm. broad; costa broad, width of leaf-base, occupying nearly all the point; cells of the areolation rectangular or subrectangular, firm, more or less elongated. Perichatial leaves from a dilated sinuate-denticulate base abruptly subulate, denticulate at the apex. Pedicel yellowish, 7-15 mm. long, twisted to the left, but rather to the right above. Capsule erect, symmetric, oblong, not constricted under the orifice, very slightly plicate when dry, brown or yellowish; length 1 mm., diameter mm. ; lid convex, obliquely long rostrate; teeth purple or orangecolored, densely trabeculate, striolate lengthwise, faintly granulose, cleft to below the middle into two very longsubulate legs, quite free or partly connected. Male flowers unknown.

Florida: on sandy ground near Palatka (Fitzgerald).

This species is readily distinguished from D. heteromalla by the symmetric erect capsule, and the teeth of the peristome cleft to below the middle into two narrower and more elongated legs. It is more closely allied to D. stenocarpa Besch., a tropical species from Martinique and Guadaloupe islands, from which it differs in its more acute leaves, denticulate at apex, the capsule not constricted under the orifice, and the peristome less papillose.

Sterile specimens gathered in Louisiana by Mr. A. B. Langlois, which we had at first referred to D. heteromalla, may belong to D. Fitzgeraldi.

Campylopus Henrici.-Cespitose, yellowish green. Stems very short, without tomentum. Leaves slightly secund, lanceolate-subulate and semitubulose from an oblong base,

the upper generally tipped with a short hyaline denticulate and often broken point; 3-4 mm. long, † mm. broad; basilar cells rectangular, 3-4 times longer than broad, those of the angles sometimes rather soft and yellowish, but not forming distinct auricles, the upper elongated, straight, linear; costa broad, about the width of leaf-base, of 4-5 strata of cells, 2-3 inferior of small thick-walled cells, one median of large thin-walled cells, and one superior of small thin-walled cells, this often incomplete, and then occupying only the middle of the costa. Male flowers small, gemmiform, placed near the top of the stems; bracts ovate, concave, rather suddenly acuminate, thin-nerved; antheridia rather numerous, with some paraphyses. Female flowers and capsule unknown.

Kansas: Saline County, on sandy ground, where it was discovered by the late Joseph Henry.

Resembles a stunted form of C. brevipilus B. S., and has also rather the appearance of C. brevifolius Sch. Differs from the first by the straight rectangular thin-walled cells of the areolation; from the last by the nerve less broad, the leaves often hyaline at the apex and the cells elongated; and from both by the structure of the costa.

Rhacomitrium Oreganum.-Robust, in wide yellowish tufts. Stems prostrate and a little naked below; branches erect, 4-5 cm. long, simple or dichotomous, and with very few short branchlets. Leaves appressed when dry, erect-spreading when moist, generally more or less homomallous at the top of the branches, ovate, or broadly ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, carinate, slightly plicate below, sometimes obtuse, generally acute, muticous or with a short hyaline apiculus or a more or less elongated, shortly decurrent, slightly serrulate hair-point; borders revolute from the base to near the apex; costa percurrent, prominent on the back; cells thick-walled, linear, very sinuous, the lower most elongated, the upper 2-4 times longer than broad, slightly papillose. External perichatial leaves shortly piliferous, the inner muticous, of a more delicate texture of thin-walled and scarcely sinuous cells. Pedicel reddish, paler above, twisted to the left, 1218 mm. long. Capsule oblong-cylindrical, brownish, 3-3 mm. long, 1 mm. broad; lid long-beaked; annulus large; teeth purple, very long, cleft to the base into two filiform, often unequal, nodulose and faintly papillose legs; calyptra conical, long-acuminate, brownish at apex, laciniate-lobulate at base.

Oregon: on rocky hill-sides. (Th. Howell.)

A remarkable species, intermediate between R. canescens and R. heterostichum, but more closely allied to the last, from which it differs by the aspect, the yellowish color, the robustness and thickness of the stems, the pedicel twice longer and the teeth much more elongated. It is at first sight distinguished from all the forms of R. canescens by the percurrent costa, the hair not papillose, and the capsule cylindrical, not inflated below. Its simple or scarcely ramulose branches give to this species rather the facies of a Dryptodon.

Webera camptotrachela.-Stems erect, slender, simple or with few branches, 5-10 mm. long. Leaves little crowded, erect, narrowly oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, acute, 11-11 mm. long, mm. broad; borders plane or slightly revolute below, distantly denticulate in the upper part; costa strong, percurrent; cells of the areolation elongated, subhexagonal or rhomboidal, 6-10 times longer than broad. External perichatial leaves more elongated, long narrowed-acuminate, more or less revolute on the borders, serrulate, with the costa generally excurrent; 2 or 3 inner bracts, smaller and shorter. Pedicel reddish, flexuous, often geniculate at base, 20-25 mm. long. Capsule small, sub-horizontal or cernuous, oblongsubpyriform, tawny-brown, with a long attenuated curved collum; lid convex, apiculate; annulus formed of two rows of cells; teeth yellowish, densely trabeculate; segments of the inner peristome generally imperfect; cilia variable in length. Male plant distinct.

California.

Very closely allied to W. annotina (of which it may be only a sub-species), but differing in its curved collum and the imperfection of the inner peristome, which is often reduced to a single membrane irregularly laciniate.

Polytrichum Ohioense Ren. & Card. Revue Bryologique, 1885, p. 11.-Stem erect, simple or bipartite, 3-6 cm. long, a little tomentose below. Leaves spreading when moist, erectflexuous when dry, from a sheathing base, linear-acuminate, cuspidate, serrate; lamellæ about 50, each in section of a row of 5-7 cells, the marginal one much larger, transversely dilated, about twice broader than high, very slightly convex, often almost plane. Perichætial leaves longer, with a longer hyaline base. Pedicel 4-8 cm. long, reddish below, pale above. Capsule erect, finally horizontal, tetragonal or pentagonal, rarely hexagonal, acute-angled, rather narrowed

toward the base, with a very small or indistinct hypophysis; length 5–7 mm., diam. 2-24 mm. ; lid conic-acuminate, red at margin.

We originally described this very good species in 1885, in the Revue Bryologique, upon specimens gathered in Ohio by Mr. Provost. Since then, Mr. H. A. Green communicated to us this moss as P. formosum from N. Carolina, Crowdin Mount, and Mr. Ch. R. Barnes from several localities of New Hampshire (Bailey) and Wisconsin (Lapham). We have also recognized it in a specimen issued as P. formosum in Sulliv. et Lesq. Musci Bor. Americani no. 323, without locality. Besides, Mr. Barnes wrote us lately: I have had all our Polytrichums carefully studied. We found your P. Ohioense far commoner than P. formosum; indeed, we have no specimen of P. formosum in our collections from N. America. We have P. Ohioense from Lafayette, Indiana; summit of Mt. Mansfield, Vermont; Dells of the Wisconsin, Milwaukee and Manitowoc, Wisconsin." Therefore, it is probable that our species is broadly scattered in the United States, where hitherto it has been confounded with P. formosum, from which it is readily distinguished by the form of the capsule, more or less narrowed toward the base, and with an indistinct hypophysis, and chiefly by the form of the marginal cells of the lamellæ, a character which separates it from all the other species of Polytrichum. The true P. formosum seems to be very rare in North America. We have it only from Miquelon Island, near Newfoundland, where it was gathered by Dr. Delamare. In this species, as in P. gracile, the capsule is rounded at base, with a distinct hypophysis, and the marginal cells of the lamellæ are in section ovate, higher than broad, and of same size as the others or only a little larger. The P. commune is still more different by its very distinct annular hypophysis and the marginal cells of the lamella hollowed and semilunar in section.

Fontinalis Howellii.-Rigid, yellowish green. Stem 10-15 cm. long, subligneous, flexuous, naked below, pinnate and partly bipinnate. Branches spreading, for the most part. arched downward, of a plumose aspect. Stem-leaves becoming gradually larger toward the top of the innovations, erect-appressed, broadly ovate, shortly acuminate, concave, subcarinate or only plicate, cucullate or lacerate at the apex; upper leaves 5-7 mm. long, 2-3 mm. broad; the lower much smaller. Branch-leaves very different, narrowly lanceolate,