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380 ARTIFICIAL KEYS TO THE GExNERA AND SPECIES OF MOSSES.
I should therefore include plants like L, lucens with the small
species of hAilejeunea, of which Spruce has already grouped
together a number.
MicROLEjEUNEA ULiciNA Tayl., 972, Dunkerron, Tayl. Taylor
wrote himself, in 1840, upon the packet containing this plant, " In
Junrjermannia minutissima desunt stipulae " ; since that time there
has been a vexatious confusion in the synonymy of these two
plants, which need not be discussed here. (In Trans. Bot. Edin. i.
115, where his J. tdicina is published. Dr. Taylor says, "This
minute species . . . has been confounded with J. minuthsima
Smith, to which it bears a very strong resemblance. It may be
distinguished by the presence of stipules," &c.—W. H. P.).
M. ALBo-viRENs Tayl., 973, Auckland Isles, Hooker. What may
have induced Mitten (in Hooker's ' Handbook of the New Zealand
Flora' p. 533) to group together 1, L. rufescens, 2, implexicauHs,
8, mimosa, 4, albo-virens, and 5, primonlialis, under the name
Lfjeunea nifescens is to me incomprehensible ; all five plants are
not only five quite different species, but belong to three different
genera, viz., 1 and 2 to Eaosmolejeunea, 8 to Strepsilejeunea, 4 and
6 to Microlejeunea. W. H. Pearson.
Artificial Keys to the Genera and Species of Mosses recognised in
Lesquereux and James's ' Manual of the Mosses of North America.'
By Charles E. Barnes, Prof, of Botany in the University of
Wisconsin, Madison, Wis. Svo., pp. 71. Price 50 cents.
This pamphlet is re-published from vol. viii of the Transactions
of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, 1890.
In 1884. the ' Manual ' by Lesquereux and James appeared. Two
years later, Mr. Barnes published a key to the genera which are
recognised in the ' Manual.' It was in such demand that the edition
soon became exhausted. In preparing the second edition the
author has increased the value of the work tenfold, by constructing
an analytic key to the species. And this part of the pamphlet, we
venture to think, will be found by the student to be of far greater
assistance than the key to the genera ; for the latter is based so
largely upon the characters of the capsule and its parts that, unless
the specimens bear fruit, the student is unable to apply the key for
the determination of the genus to which they belong. But when
once he has made certain of the genus, the student stands a very
good chance of making out the species ; for in this case the
characters of leaf and stem play an important part.
We believe that Mr. Barnes would vastly enhance the value of
his work if he were to introduce a conspectus of tribes somewhat in
the style of that which Mr. Mitten has given us in his " Musci
Austro American! " (Jouru. Linn. Soc. xii., 18G9, pp. 9 et seqq.),
where the characters of stem and leaf are brought into prominence.
However, notwithstanding the objection urged above with reference
to the genera, we consider Mr. Barnes's keys to be an extremely
valuable addition to the bryological literature of North America, in
making good what is a very serious omission in Lesquereux and
James's ' Manual.' The author has brought his work up to date,