Lucien M. Underwood

Notes on Our Hepaticæ. III. The Distribution of the North American Marchantiaceæ

The genus hitherto known as Finibriaria, one of the largest of the genera of marchantiaceous hepatics, has to suffer now for the failure in the past to recognize the rights of priority; and strangely enough there seems to be considerable difference of opinion still as to the proper name of the genus. The case is as follows: In i8io Palisot de Beauvais established the genus Asterella with two species, A. tenella (Marc/ian/ia tenella L.) and A. Ihemisphacrica (Marc/iantia iemnisphaerica L.). These are now recognized as belonging to two diverse genera. In i8i8 Raddi established the genus Reboui/lia for the latter species and in i820 Nees established the genus Fimbriaria (by error Fimibraria) for the group which now includes the former, though that species was not included in Fimnbriaria until I8382. In I829 Corda established the genus Hyypenantron which is the equivalent of Fimnbriaria. The genus Rhiaco//teca Bischoff (I844), and the genus Octoskepos Griffith (1849), were founded on species that will also be included in the same genus. The case as we see it now is perfectly clear, and yet Lindberg (i868) complicated the matter by adopting the genus As/erela for Rebouillia, in which he was followed by Dumortier and many others, including recent American writers. Trevisan was the first to clear up the matter, but in his later work he fell from the estate he had reached and again wrote As/erella for Rebouillia. In his earlier position he was followed by Lindberg (in his later writings commencing with i879), by Massalongo and by many others. Trevisan in his later work (I 877) was the first to adopt Hypenantron for Fimbriaria and in this he has been followed by Kuntze and Schiffner. It is clear that the genus Asterella in i8i8, after Raddi had

Some Undescribed Hepaticæ from California

of S. Kootanie pass, B. C., Dawson; Kicking Horse pass and on the Selkirks, Macoun; near Alaska, Dawson; Kodiak, Kellcgg. This combines characteristics of several diverse species, while differing from each in turn. It has been mistaken for S. Barrattiana, especially the form with thick woolly aments, but it differs in the smooth leaves, amentspeduncled, capsules glabrous: accords in some respects very nearly with the character assigned S. Barclayi--a species of the Alaskan coast-but that has a much longer style and long slender reflexed stigmas: aments as in S. cordata, but leaves broader and shorter, drying black, capsules shorter pedicelecd; leaves, particularly of the flowering branches, like S. montana of the Rocky mountains, but that has closely sessile aments. The wide range over which this species preserves its character is a guarantee of its validity. On Mt. Adams it appears to replace, as it were, S. commutata, from which it is distinguished by the darker green leaves, often subglaucous beneath, distinctly crenate serrate, smooth (as in S. phylicifolia), drying black, arnents more loosely fl wered, capsules rostrate, perfectly smooth even to the pedicel, stigmas often bitid. Rockford, 11.

Notes on Our Hepaticæ. II. The Genus Riccia

The main purposeof these notes, made in reviewing the material that has been accumulating in my herbarium for the last few years, is to call the attention of local collectors to these much neglected and inconspicuous plants in order to learn more definitely their distribution. WVe still know almost nothing of the distribution of most of the American species, certain forms being known only from widely separated stations with no information from the intermediate territory. There is a strong probability that many species will yet be found especially in lowlands of the southern Atlantic states, in the Gulf states, and on the Pacific coast where the climatic conditions more nearly approach the Mediterranean region of the old world, where the genus is well developed. The genus as now limited excludes the various forms of R. fluitans and R. natans which will form genera by themselves. RICCIA FROSTIi Aust. is probably widely distributed from the Rocky mountain region eastward to Illinois and Ohio. The specimens distributed as Riccia crystallina in Hepaticae Americanae, no. 63, are of this species. R. WVatsoni Aust. founded on male plants is doubtless the same species, as originally suggested by its author. The only specimens purporting to be of this species that I have seen are in Herb. James from Wolf and Rothrocks collections on the Wheeler Survey; these are fertile and conform to the type of R. Frostii. Specimens from the eastern portion of the range are more robust than the mountain forms but the spore characters are similar; they may be characterized as follows: RICCIA FROSTII major, n. var.-Thallus much larger than in the type, 3-4 times dichotomously branched, irregularly spreading and somewhat imbricate, the divisions wider, commonly tinted with purple at the margins.-Banks of Missouri River, St. Charles, Mo. (Demetrio, no. 5); Manhattan, Kansas (Kellerman); sterile forms are also at hand from Illinois (Wolf).

The Evolution of the Hepaticæ. Vice-Presidential Address before Section G, A. A. A. S.

There is, perhaps, a natural tendency among specialists to magnify the importance of the particular subject or group of life forms in which they happen to be specially interested. The horticultural botanist, dreaming of the time when the world will be reorganized through the products of his art, is prone to see nothing beyond utility and ornament in plants, and it becomes a part of his nature to see some useful character in forms of vegetation which to others are devoid of either beauty or utility. The economic mycologist, over-impressed with the magnitude of the losses sustained by the unfortunate agriculturist and fruit grower, is haunted in sleep with visions of anthracnose and mildew, and in his waking hours sees little in botany but host-plants bristling with parasites and Bordeaux mixtures certain to relieve them of their incubus. The man with inherent, if not coherent, proclivities for priority, with a war-like temperament and a strong tendency to cross lances, sees in botany one vast battle field of synonymy in which cohorts of pre-Linnaean binomials, hordes of decapitalization dogmas, hostile homonyms and Kuntzian curiosities charge down upon each other in battalions, form and reform in utter confusion. There are some microscopic botanists whose degree of specialization never permits them to look outside the limits of an apical cell; and others still whose botanical horizon is bounded by the field of an immersion lens and whose azimuth and right ascension are calculated within its limits. We are all more or less inclined to ride our own hobbies in public places, so in performing the initial function of this office, I can perhaps do no better than to bring forth mine. In this way, I shall at least be in touch with present custom.

The Habitats of the Rarer Ferns of Alabama

INTEREST naturally attaches to any species of plants that grow near the borders of their geographic range. For this reason Alabama presents special interest to the student of ferns, because it is the southern limit of quite a number of ferns of the northern states, and also the northern limit of. a few of the stragglers that come up from the south. The range of elevation, from the extreme lowlands of the Gulf region to the spurs of the Appalachian system that penetrate the state even beyond its center, is sufficient to give us a somewhat varied fern flora. Some forty species occur in the state exclusive of five species of Ophioglossaceax. The early exploration of the state was conducted by Judge Thomas M. Peters, and in later years Professor Eugene A. Smith and more especially Dr. Charles Mohr have the higher flora well in hand. I have been able to add to their list only a single species from the vicinity of Auburn, in the handsome swamp fern, Dryofperis Floridancza, hitherto known only from Florida, where it is not uncommon. I am able also to reinstate a very distinct species of Botrychium which for many years has been masquerading under a false name. I give the characters and synonymy as follows:

North American Hepaticæ

North American Hepaticae. --Among all the groups of CRYPTOGAMIA the HEPATICE seem to receive the least attention from students and are also neglected by general botanical collectors. The group was not recognized by Linnaeus as a distinct order yet in Class XXIV in his Systema Natura he describes forty-five species distributed among the following genera:--Jungerrnannia, twentv-eight; Targionia, one; Marchantia, seven; Blasia, one; Riccia, five; Anthoceros, three. Although these Linnaean species to some extent have been redistributed among other genera by later botanists, the genera still remain and include some of our common forms of Hepatice. Since the time of Linnaeus other genera have been formed by Dumortier, Pa!isot de Beauvois, Raddi, Micheli, Corda, Nees, Lindenberg, Taylor and Lehmann. The Britishfungermannice were describel by Sir W. J. Hooker in 1816, and those of Germany by T. P. Eckart in I832. Corda published the Genera Hepticarumfrom Prague in I828, and Nees von Esenbeck in connection with Gottsche and Lindenberg published the Synopsis Hepaticarum from Hamburg from I844 to 1847; the latter is as yet the only general work on lepaticac that has been issued

The Distribution of the Species of Gymnosporangium in the South

not completely, breaks down all generic differences between these two genera. The prominent tubercles in no definite arrangement and the deep groove extending almost if not quite to the axil would denote it to be a Mamillaria; on the other hand, the exceedingly robust spines and the scales on the ovary are characteristic of the genus Echinocactus. It seems, however, to agree more closely with the genus Mamillaria as at present understood. -.J. WV. TOUMEY, University of Arizona.

An Interesting Equisetum

Viola sagittata Hicksii, var. nov.-Somewhat cespitose, from a thick ligneous rootstock; leaves hirsute pubescent, the earliest cordate, the later deltoid ovate, decurrent on the petiole, obtuse, remotely denticulate and nearly entire; flower nearly as in the type; fruiting peduncles more or less recurved; capsules pubescent; sides heavily marked or pitted. Collected by Mr. Gilbert H. Hicks, of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, May 26, i8q5, on a hillside in Rock Creek Park, D. C. Plants of the normal V. sagittata also occur at this locality, but are not plentiful, being outnumbered ten to one by the new variety. No other species grows there in sufficient quantity to warrant the supposition that this is a hybrid; its affinities are altogether with V. sagittata. The distinction lies in the habit of the plant: in the hirsute leaves, which never exhibit any sign of lobation: in the recurved fruiting capsules: and in the seeds, which are conspicuously, instead of obscurely, spotted. There is a specimen of this variety in the National Herbarium, collected many years ago by Professor Ward, apparently at the same locality, with characters in every way identical with those of the rediscovered specimens. It will be interesting to note whether future observations will indicate a more extended range and the possibility of specific rank for the plant.-CHARLES Louis POLLARD, Washington, 1D. C.

A Preliminary Comparison of the Hepatic Flora of Boreal and Sub-Boreal Regions

The distribution of the hepatics of boreal and sub-boreal regions is becoming sufficiently understood to form some sort of a basis for comparative study, and while we yet have much to learn even of the best studied region of northern Europe, and still more from the higher latitudes of AmericA and Asia, we can even now profitably gather some statistics and make some comparisons. While it has long been known that the bryologic flora of the northern portions of both hemispheres was similar, so far as we know no exact comparisons have been instituted, on the hepatic side at least, to determine the nature and extent of this similarity. In the north temperate and arctic zones there are known about 575 species of Hepaticax. Of these 375 belong to the flora of Europe, 300 to that of America, and perhaps iSo to that of Asia. Of these we may take as representing the boreal and sub-boreal portions, 173 species for northern Europe, i63 for northern America, and ninety-eight species for northern Asia. This will include in Europe, Scotland, North Germany, Scandinavia, and northern Russia, with the islands of Iceland and Spitzbergen; some of the species also extend to the higher Carpathians, the Alps and the Pyrenees; for America the colder regions from Newfoundland and Labrador to British Columbia and Alaska, including Greenland (whence some sixty species are known); and extending southward along the higher Appalachians as far as the Carolinas, and probably southward along the present incognizta of the Rockies and the Sierras; for Asia it includes only the coastline of northern Siberia>, for of the interior of Siberia, Turk-