Abstract
THE monthly parts of the Journal of Botany for 1883 contain many useful and interesting papers. Among the more important must be regarded Mr. J. G. Baker's synopsis of the genus Selaginella. This is not yet completed, but already extends to nearly 100 species, many of them now described for the first time. This is understood to be an instalment of a complete monograph by Mr. Baker of the Vascular Cryptogams, excluding ferns, a work eagerly demanded by botanists.—The additions to the phanerogamic flora of Great Britain are not yet completed; and the palm of recent discoveries must be awarded to Mr. Arthur Bennett. In this year's record he describes and figures two, one of them, Potamogeton Griffithii, new to science, from a lake in Carnarvonshire. The other, Naias marina, is a native of the “Broads” of Norfolk. This is rendered more interesting by the discovery, by other botanists, of another species of Naias, N. alagnensis, also during the present year, in Lanca-hire. It is not many years since the genus was first found in Britain; and the only species hitherto known, N. flexilis, has been gathered only in Scotland and Ireland.—The structure and distribution of the Characese are still engaging attention from Messrs. H. and J. Groves and others; and of this cryptogamic order, another species, Chara Braunii, has also been added to the flora of Great Britain.—Mr. H. Boswell also describes two new British mosses, Bryum gemmiparum, from Breconshire, and Sphagnum torreyanuni, from Shropshire.—Messrs. R. M. Christy and H. Corder contribute an interesting paper on the cross-fertilisation of Arum maculatum.—Numerous other articles and short notices of more local and special interest fill up the number.
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Scientific Serials . Nature 29, 349 (1884). https://doi.org/10.1038/029349a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/029349a0