FOOTNOTES:

A.Spores reticulate.a.Sporangia in broad effused patches2.O. brevifilumb.Sporangia in small heaped clusters.i. Elaters roughened, no distinct rings or spirals1.O. flavidumii. Elaters with scattered rings; sometimes faint spirals3.O. nitensB.Spores warted4.O. fulvum

1.Oligonema flavidum(Peck)Mass.

Sporangia crowded and superimposed, sessile in small masses or clusters 1 cm. or less, bright yellow, shining, the peridium thin but opaque, yellow; capillitium of long, slender tubules usually simple, anon branched, even, or with an occasional inflation, the sculpture confined to warts or small, distinct spinules, roughening more or less conspicuously the entire surface, the apices generally obtuse, anon apiculate; spore-mass yellow, spores under the lens pale yellow, irregularly globose, beautifully reticulate, the meshes large and few, as inTrichia favoginea, 12–14 µ.

This species is marked by its capillitium, which is abundant for the present genus. The threads are longer than in any other species, and not infrequently branched, smooth, or more commonly, very distinctly minutely spinulose throughout, no trace of rings or relief sculpture of any sort, the spirals, that are to be expected, very imperfect, if discernible at all. In habit the species resemblesO. nitens, but the colonies are much larger, and the sporangia higher and larger, attaining 1 mm.

New England to Iowa and Nebraska; south to Alabama and Louisiana. Toronto;Miss Currie.

2.Oligonema brevifilumPeck.

Plate XX., Figs. 5, 5a.

Sporangia small, cylindric, dull ochraceous-yellow, sessile closely crowded, sometimes superimposed, forming large, effused patches several centimetres in extent; capillitium exceedingly scant, consisting of nothing more than a few minute threads, very short, only three or four times the diameter of the spore, smooth, or without any definable sculpture, ochraceous; spore-mass dark ochraceous, under the lens the spores are brighter, marked with reticulations much as in other species of the genus, 10–12 µ.

Probably a variety of our No. 1, but constantly collected.

Separate, however, from the following also in color and habit. To the naked eye the fructification suggestsTrichia persimilis; the color much the same, and the sporangia similarly congested. The peculiarly rudimentary condition of the capillitium is apparently also constant. Iowa specimens accord perfectly with those from New York.

Rare. New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Iowa, Missouri, Oregon, Washington, California; Vancouver Island.

3.Oligonema nitens(Lib.)Rost.

Plate II., Figs. 8, 8a, 8b.

Sporangia gathered in small, heaped clusters, irregularly spherical, bright straw-color, or yellow, sessile, superimposed, the peridium thin, smooth, shining; capillitium of short elaters, simple or branched, smooth, adorned with an occasional projecting ring, often with faint spiral sculpture spreading especially toward the apices, which are blunt or anon acute, the point sometimes flexed or bent to one side, never very long; spore-mass bright yellow, spores globose, beautifully reticulate, 12–14 µ.

Readily recognized at sight by its heaped, shining, or glistening sporangia. The capillitial threads are further definitive, and serve to distinguish it from everything else.

The range is wide, probably coextensive with the forests of the country. Specimens are before us from New England, Canada, Montana, and all intervening regions, and south to the Gulf of Mexico; California, Nevada,—Prof. Bethel.Yosemite, shores of Mirror Lake!

4.Oligonema fulvumMorgan.

Sporangia large, sub-globose, sessile, or crowded, more or less regular; the peridium tawny yellow, or olivaceous, very thin and fragile, iridescent; mass of capillitium and spores tawny-yellow, elaters simple or sometimes branched, very short, sometimes with thicker swollen portions, the surface marked with low smooth spirals, in places faint and obsolete, the extremities rounded and obtuse, usually with a minute apiculus; spores globose, minutely warted, 10–13 µ.

This species may be recognized by its tawny, irregular, more or less crowded sporangia. Under the lens the warted, not reticulate, spores are diagnostic. The elaters are quite constantly marked by imperfect spirals.

Our specimens are from the author of the species, and so far there are none reported from outside Ohio.

FOOTNOTES:[15]For other crucifers, seeBull. Torr. Bot. Club, xxi, pp. 76–8.[16]See in reference to this whole matter,Myxomycetenstudienby E. Jahn, No. 7,Ceratiomyxa, 1908. See also Olive,Trans. Wis. Acad. of Sci. Arts and Letters, Vol. xv, pl. II, p. 771.[17]See Jahn,Myxomyceten StudienNo. 8, Berlin 1911.[18]In discussing these species the reader may be referred to Professor Harper's study of cytology,Bot. Gazette, vol. XXX., p. 217. It is probable that in all these æthalioid forms the effect of disturbance, transfer to laboratory, is likely to be quite pronounced. Giant spores are often seen, doubtless due to arrested cleavage in the procedure described by Dr. Harper: a giant spore is penultimate or antepenultimate in series; should, on this theory, occasionally, at least, show more than one nucleus.[19]Prior to Persoon the physarums were variously referred:Lycoperdon,Sphaerocarpus,Trichia, etc. It seems unnecessary to quote the synonymy further here.[20]Persoon's first-named species isP. aureum; seeRömer Neu. Mag. f. d. Bot., I., p. 88. 1794.[21]Fries (Sum. Veg. Scand., p. 454) described the new genus in the following words: Tilmadoche. Fr. Physari spec. S. M. Peridium simplex, tenerrimum (Angioridii) irregulariter rumpens. Capillitium intertexto-compactum, a peridio solutum liberum, sporisque inspersis fuscis. Columella o.1. T. leucophæa. Fr.2. T. soluta. (Schum.)3. T. cernua. (Schum.)[22]See alsoInaug. Diss., H. Rönn,Schr. d. Naturw. Ver. f. Schl. Holst., XV., Hpt. I., p. 55, 1911.[23]Inasmuch as there has been decided difference of opinion in reference to this particular species,—all judges readers of the same original description,—it has seemed wise to submit an English translation from the celebratedMonograph loc. cit."24. Physarum didermaRfski."Sporangia sessile, globose, adnate by a narrow base, white. Peridium double; the outer thick, strongly calcareous, very distinctly set off from the thin inner one by an air-filled space; the calcareous nodules many, angular, loosely developed within to form a pseudo-columella; spores dark violet, spinescent, 9.2–10 in diameter."Opis.This physarum looks extremely like a diderma."The sporangia stand either aggregated or bunched together in heaps of five to twelve, adnate to the hypothallus by a narrow base, etc."Massee,Mon., p. 304, translated this description, but misunderstood what is said of the columella and is inclined to think the author did not know a diderma when he saw one; which is pretentious, to say the least![24]See also, after all our trouble,Jour. Bot., LVII., p. 106.[25]See Fries,Syst. Myc., Vol. III., pp. 130, 137, Rost.,Mon., p. 127, andRep. N. Y. State Mus., XXXI., p. 55.[26]It would seem that M. Massee would have writtenT. reniformis, were this authentic.[27]For further synonymy, see underP. auriscalpium, No. 49.[28]Robt. E. Fries,Ofvers. K. Vetens. Akad. Forh., 1899, No. 3, p. 225.[29]The Polish author wrote Tilmadoche instead of Physarum in each case cited.[30]Forms cited are chiefly those likely to be found in our neighboring tropics, West Indies, etc.[31]These little structures have a fairly architectural appearance and may be called trabecules,—trabeculæ, little beams.[32]Dr. Cooke, who used the microscope, applied theMonographdescription to British forms occurring on leaves; proceeded further and found the same situation in New York. Mr. Massee gives the species wide range with spores 8–10 µ; average 9 µ; only a fraction too large; evidently none 12–15 µ.[33]If a sporangium ofL. tigrinumbe mounted in water and treated to weak solution of hydro-chloric acid we may easily discover that the crystals, which so wonderfully adorn the outer wall in this and other species, consist, in part at least, of calcium carbonate. We may also discover that in the case before us the crystal or scale lies indeed enclosed in a filmy sac of organic origin, and that could we have seen the outer peridium as it came to form, we might probably have found it made up largely of an ectosarcous foam in whose cavities the excreted calcium found place for tabulate crystallization. In other species listed, conditions are different, and the crystals assume a different shape. The phrase "bicarbonate of lime" quoted in this connection in the former edition of this work from Mr. Massee'sMonograph, etc., is not clear.[34]Doubtless immature;v. Mitteil. Naturwiss. Gesell. Wintert., VI., p. 64, Lister quoted by Schinz.[35]Vid.Mycologia, N. Y., Vol. IX., p. 328.[36]SeeAddenda, d, p. 282 following.[37]In theMycetozoa, 2nd ed., p. 158, is citedStemonitis virginiensisRex as a synonym of this variety. By reference to p. 163 of the present volume the Virginian stemonitis is left as Rex assigned it, and if the present variety be synonymous, it should be quoted there. The treatment of the speciesC. nigrain the second edition does not establish such fact, nor with three varieties make for any increasing clearness.[38]It had seemed less necessary to retain the classic orthography in this instance since De Bary and Rostafinski both useDiachea. But modern scholarship is nothing if not meticulous; it is the fashion in Latin still to keep the digraph, even to the vexation of all men. In the same way when Bulliard wroteleucopodia, 'white stockings', he doubtless meant to be exact.[39]For this citation we are indebted toMr. Hugo Bilgram.

[15]For other crucifers, seeBull. Torr. Bot. Club, xxi, pp. 76–8.

[16]See in reference to this whole matter,Myxomycetenstudienby E. Jahn, No. 7,Ceratiomyxa, 1908. See also Olive,Trans. Wis. Acad. of Sci. Arts and Letters, Vol. xv, pl. II, p. 771.

[17]See Jahn,Myxomyceten StudienNo. 8, Berlin 1911.

[18]In discussing these species the reader may be referred to Professor Harper's study of cytology,Bot. Gazette, vol. XXX., p. 217. It is probable that in all these æthalioid forms the effect of disturbance, transfer to laboratory, is likely to be quite pronounced. Giant spores are often seen, doubtless due to arrested cleavage in the procedure described by Dr. Harper: a giant spore is penultimate or antepenultimate in series; should, on this theory, occasionally, at least, show more than one nucleus.

[19]Prior to Persoon the physarums were variously referred:Lycoperdon,Sphaerocarpus,Trichia, etc. It seems unnecessary to quote the synonymy further here.

[20]Persoon's first-named species isP. aureum; seeRömer Neu. Mag. f. d. Bot., I., p. 88. 1794.

[21]Fries (Sum. Veg. Scand., p. 454) described the new genus in the following words: Tilmadoche. Fr. Physari spec. S. M. Peridium simplex, tenerrimum (Angioridii) irregulariter rumpens. Capillitium intertexto-compactum, a peridio solutum liberum, sporisque inspersis fuscis. Columella o.1. T. leucophæa. Fr.2. T. soluta. (Schum.)3. T. cernua. (Schum.)

[22]See alsoInaug. Diss., H. Rönn,Schr. d. Naturw. Ver. f. Schl. Holst., XV., Hpt. I., p. 55, 1911.

[23]Inasmuch as there has been decided difference of opinion in reference to this particular species,—all judges readers of the same original description,—it has seemed wise to submit an English translation from the celebratedMonograph loc. cit."24. Physarum didermaRfski."Sporangia sessile, globose, adnate by a narrow base, white. Peridium double; the outer thick, strongly calcareous, very distinctly set off from the thin inner one by an air-filled space; the calcareous nodules many, angular, loosely developed within to form a pseudo-columella; spores dark violet, spinescent, 9.2–10 in diameter."Opis.This physarum looks extremely like a diderma."The sporangia stand either aggregated or bunched together in heaps of five to twelve, adnate to the hypothallus by a narrow base, etc."Massee,Mon., p. 304, translated this description, but misunderstood what is said of the columella and is inclined to think the author did not know a diderma when he saw one; which is pretentious, to say the least!

"24. Physarum didermaRfski.

"Sporangia sessile, globose, adnate by a narrow base, white. Peridium double; the outer thick, strongly calcareous, very distinctly set off from the thin inner one by an air-filled space; the calcareous nodules many, angular, loosely developed within to form a pseudo-columella; spores dark violet, spinescent, 9.2–10 in diameter.

"Opis.This physarum looks extremely like a diderma.

"The sporangia stand either aggregated or bunched together in heaps of five to twelve, adnate to the hypothallus by a narrow base, etc."

Massee,Mon., p. 304, translated this description, but misunderstood what is said of the columella and is inclined to think the author did not know a diderma when he saw one; which is pretentious, to say the least!

[24]See also, after all our trouble,Jour. Bot., LVII., p. 106.

[25]See Fries,Syst. Myc., Vol. III., pp. 130, 137, Rost.,Mon., p. 127, andRep. N. Y. State Mus., XXXI., p. 55.

[26]It would seem that M. Massee would have writtenT. reniformis, were this authentic.

[27]For further synonymy, see underP. auriscalpium, No. 49.

[28]Robt. E. Fries,Ofvers. K. Vetens. Akad. Forh., 1899, No. 3, p. 225.

[29]The Polish author wrote Tilmadoche instead of Physarum in each case cited.

[30]Forms cited are chiefly those likely to be found in our neighboring tropics, West Indies, etc.

[31]These little structures have a fairly architectural appearance and may be called trabecules,—trabeculæ, little beams.

[32]Dr. Cooke, who used the microscope, applied theMonographdescription to British forms occurring on leaves; proceeded further and found the same situation in New York. Mr. Massee gives the species wide range with spores 8–10 µ; average 9 µ; only a fraction too large; evidently none 12–15 µ.

[33]If a sporangium ofL. tigrinumbe mounted in water and treated to weak solution of hydro-chloric acid we may easily discover that the crystals, which so wonderfully adorn the outer wall in this and other species, consist, in part at least, of calcium carbonate. We may also discover that in the case before us the crystal or scale lies indeed enclosed in a filmy sac of organic origin, and that could we have seen the outer peridium as it came to form, we might probably have found it made up largely of an ectosarcous foam in whose cavities the excreted calcium found place for tabulate crystallization. In other species listed, conditions are different, and the crystals assume a different shape. The phrase "bicarbonate of lime" quoted in this connection in the former edition of this work from Mr. Massee'sMonograph, etc., is not clear.

[34]Doubtless immature;v. Mitteil. Naturwiss. Gesell. Wintert., VI., p. 64, Lister quoted by Schinz.

[35]Vid.Mycologia, N. Y., Vol. IX., p. 328.

[36]SeeAddenda, d, p. 282 following.

[37]In theMycetozoa, 2nd ed., p. 158, is citedStemonitis virginiensisRex as a synonym of this variety. By reference to p. 163 of the present volume the Virginian stemonitis is left as Rex assigned it, and if the present variety be synonymous, it should be quoted there. The treatment of the speciesC. nigrain the second edition does not establish such fact, nor with three varieties make for any increasing clearness.

[38]It had seemed less necessary to retain the classic orthography in this instance since De Bary and Rostafinski both useDiachea. But modern scholarship is nothing if not meticulous; it is the fashion in Latin still to keep the digraph, even to the vexation of all men. In the same way when Bulliard wroteleucopodia, 'white stockings', he doubtless meant to be exact.

[39]For this citation we are indebted toMr. Hugo Bilgram.

a. This volume is as we see, a descriptive list of the various forms of the Myxomycetes in so far as these have come to the personal notice of the writer.

Each form is designated, as is usual in discussing objects of the sort, by a particular binomial name, followed, in abbreviated form, by the name of the student or author who in describing the form in question used the combination. ThusStemonitis splendenswas first described by Rostafinski, and the name he thus used is applicable to the form he described, wherever found, and tonothing else.

The proper naming of any specimen would thus appear to be a very simple matter. Such, however, is often not the case, particularly where we are concerned with species long familiar to science. Such often have received, at different times, and at the hands of the same author, or certainly of different authors, different names, given for various reasons; so that one who would refer to, or discuss, a single specimen to-day finds himself often in great uncertainty, confronted by a multitude of binomial combinations all thought to refer to the same particular thing.

By general consent, of course, we strive to ascertain the oldest name on the list; the first that is really and clearly applicable, and we write all other names down as synonyms. In this volume a list of synonyms often accompanies the description; precedes it, showing, year by year, the history of the case; an abstract in fact of the title, as at last approved. The preparation of such an abstract is very troublesome, but is believed to be worth the trouble; must be made, indeed, if we are ever in our discussions to be sure that when we speak or write in America, we are dealing with the same thing intended by the man who speaks or writes in England, or elsewhere.

The space occupied in synonymy, is therefore by no means wasted. By and by, if we succeed in establishing a nomenclature on which competent judges can agree, a thing not at all improbable, almostnow attained, the lists may gradually disappear as having historical value only.

b. Taxonomy, in any field, is of necessity concerned with history. For his own sake, no student can ignore the thought and work of his predecessors. No man ever sees nature in completeness, nor even the small part of the world to which he devotes attention. He needs every possible assistance, especially the observations of intelligent men. The present author rejoices to acknowledge the assistance found in volumes written in Europe during the last two hundred years. Such men as Persoon, Bulliard, Schumacher, Schrader, Fries, are deservedly famous; they laid the foundations of mycologic taxonomy. No student can afford to missElias Fries; his genius, spirit and scholarship entitle him to the recognition and sympathy of every lover of the intellectual life.

c. The considerations just mentioned may, indeed do, sometimes act as a handicap to the American student, for the simple reason that he comes later to the field of time. He must naturally defer to the decision of men in Europe who are supposedly familiar with original types. An American specimen is presumably the same as one occurring elsewhere in similar latitude and environment. It becomes evident after while that only in certain instances is this undoubtedly the fact. The flora of the American continent has been sufficiently disjoined in space and time from Europe to permit extensive differentiation even in these minor forms, so that we have indeed in the groups we study many species, some genera, definitely autochthonous, more it is believed than are now suspected. An attempt to bring a specimen under the terms of a species described in Western Europe is not seldom an error. It becomes evident, as we go forward, that in eastern North America there are forms not only not described in European literature, but really not, part of European flora, not even adventitiously.

d. Many of the more minute species with which this volume has to do are very elusive, very difficult; for one reason,—perhaps initself sufficient,—because of their minuteness, and consequent apparent paucity. They may be common, but none the less seldom seen. The comatrichas afford an illustration. There are several very small species.C. pulchella,C. laxa,C. ellisiimay be mentioned.C. pulchellahas been studied nearly a hundred years and has a synonymy accordingly. In 1875 Rostafinski in the material, and among the descriptions, thought he recognized two distinct forms, and went on to give them names; the first in honor of Persoon,C. persoonii, should show an ovate or ovate-cylindric outline with acuminate tip; the second should be truncate and represent a type first described by Berkeley under a name given by Babington,C. pulchella. Berkeley's drawing shows a sporangium with tip acuminate! Lilac or violaceous tints attracted attention in the spores ofC. persooniionly; inC. pulchellaall is ferruginous. Curtis is especially commended for noticing the fact in describingS. tenerrima, here included as we see.

Comatricha gracilisWing. is slender, cylindric and has small spores hardly reaching 6 µ; should perhaps be now set out as a separate species; it is evidently purely an American phase.

Our figures,Plate XII., 16 and 16a, 18 and 18a, showC. pulchellaandC. gracilis, respectively, extremes.Plate XIII., 4, shows an ovate form not very unusual. This andC. gracilisoccur on living leaves.

C. ellisiiis another of this minor series, very constant in its delicate beauty, but approachesC. nigrarather than the others here discussed.

C. laxa, as the name implies, shows an open construction, suggested, perhaps, by Rostafinski's photographic print, but better brought out by Celakowsky,Myx. Böhm., Tab. 2, Figs. 7 and 8.

e. It has been shown[40]that the process of cell-division in the spore-plasm of the myxomycete is not dissimilar to that obtaining under the same conditions in higher plants. On this supposition we have explanation of spore-division inCeratiomyxaand can understand the adherence of spores now and again notable. Once the latter phenomenon was thought peculiar to the genusBadhamia; but the unsculpturedepispore of the spores of reticularias, tubiferas, etc., suggest the same thing and more recently we find it inDianemaand in theStemoniteæ; evenStemonitisarrives with clustered spores in groups of four, and we are in sight of a generalization wide.

It is interesting to note that something of this sort was observed by at least one student long ago. Schumacher,Enum. Pl. Sell.2, p. 215, describesArcyria atrawith the characters of an enerthenema, and says "the capillitial threads are some of them diffuse and bear spermatic globules"! Did he anticipateE. berkleyanum? See the text under that species atp. 190,supra.

f. In a paper read December, 1920, before theMycologicalDivision of Section G.,A. A. A. S., the present writer discussed briefly the physical principles involved in some of the more striking peculiarities of the slime-moulds.

It is argued in that paper that the shaping of stipitate sporangia which is so surprising as relating to the ordinary behaviour of fluid masses, as usually observed, is, in part at least, referable to certain well known properties of fluids generally. For this discussion those interested are referred to the article itself in the November number ofMycologia(N. Y.).

Sufficient to say here that it is a fact, in many cases, that in stipitate fructification, so far as observed, the stipe is first to take form, and, as viewed by the writer, in many cases, as it rises, becomes more and more a most delicate but definite ectosarcate capillary tubule, by which ascends the spore-plasm of the point concerned, to such level as may meet the immediate conditions of pressure, of whatsoever source.

It will be interesting in this view to note the resultant shapes as presented in the sporangia of various genera. One may examine for illustrations Figs. 1, 3, 4, 7,Pl. XX., with the thought in mind that the stipe in each case may have served as a capillary tubule to carry up the spore-plasm to the position in which the spores at length are found. In some species ofHemitrichia, for instance, there are spores or spore-like cells found at maturity in the hollow stipe. In other cases the stipe contains refuse matter.

The capillary theory may not, probably does not, play part in every case. It would seem that a stemonitis, for example, must owe the rise of the spore-plasm to the play of different machinery.Brefeldia,p. 154above, may offer suggestion.

g. On page two of the introductory section of this volume mention is made of the variety of colors shown in the vegetative phases of the organisms we study. This fact is patent to all observers; but the identity of the plasmodium making the display must be ascertained by painstaking or prolonged and repeated observations. This for the reason that, as I am convinced, only in comparatively few cases is the color unchanged during the life-history of a given fructification. It may sometimes change from hour to hour as development proceeds. The color designated in the descriptive pages of this work is presumably, unless as otherwise set out, that immediately preceding that of the maturing fruit.

As suggestive, and as, it is hoped, contributory to better knowledge of this phase of our subject a list of species is here subjoined as presented by my colleague, Professor Morton E. Peck of Oregon, who has given unusual attention to this particular investigation.

SpeciesPlasmodium ColorsPhysarum sinuosumlight grey, nearly white, ivory whitePhysarum serpulagreenish-yellow; yellowPhysarum virescenspale greenish-yellow; yellowPhysarum cinereumwatery grey, becoming white; pallidPhysarum didermoideswatery grey, becoming white; blue-whitePhysarum notabilepure whitePhysarum globuliferumgreenish-yellow; yellowPhysarum leucopuslight greyPhysarum pulcherrimumdark redPhysarum flavicomumgreenish or brownish yellowPhysarum virideclear yellowPhysarum wingatenseat first grey, then pure whiteBadhamia orbiculatapale yellow, passing to whitePhysarella oblongabrilliant yellowMucilago spongiosawatery grey, then whiteDidymium crustaceumwhiteDidymium squamulosumpale grey, watery whiteDiderma floriformegrey tinged with yellowStemonitis fuscawhite passing through blue to blackStemonitis smithiigreen to yellow to reddish purpleComatricha longawhite, cream-yellow, reddish purple to duskyComatricha irregulariswhiteComatricha nigrawhiteComatricha typhoidesbluish whiteDiachaea splendenspure whiteEnerthenema papillatumcolorless or greenishReticularia lycoperdonwhiteDictydiaethalium plumbeumcolorless, pink, salmon, rose, orange, chocolate brownLindbladia effusabrown, lead-coloredTubifera ferruginosawatery white, scarlet, brown, almost blackCribraria dictydioidesclear dark greenCribraria tenellawatery, dark plumbeous, bronzeCribraria cuprearedArcyria nutanswhiteArcyria denudatawatery white, then flesh-colorArcyria cinereagrey, then whiteTrichia variacolorless, then white

h. In a few instances references to illustration do not find place in connection with the descriptive matter. One phase ofPhysarum albescensis figured onPl. III.;Mucilagowill be found portrayed onPl. VII.;Physarum virideonPl. VIII.

j. The group before us has research possibilities not a few. The question of their nutrition and its limits in respect of variety, is yet to be solved. From present indications all that can be said is to the effect that a pabulum similar in variety, no doubt meets the needs of many species. Whether in artificial culture a single base as gelatin or agar would suffice for all or several is yet to be discovered.

Whether a species brought from spore to maturity on artificial diet would conform in any reasonable way to our dim concept of its identity is also, it would seem, a problem. The variation in the field would seem to make it doubtful.

From the table immediately preceding it is plain that there is place for doubt. Color it is surmised is of itself everywhere incidental; the structure, which maintains identity or the reverse, liesdeeper, although color may be none the less, in some way a resultant, and therefore in so far a reliable taxonomic guide.

The treatment of our subject so far by no means exhausts the possibilities of even the simpler phases of microscopic study. We have endeavored to appreciate the work of those who hand us the literature of the group, and to recognize what such keen-eyed men have seen; but in our western and southern forests there are probably double as many species, as species go, as we have listed.

The entire group is, as it would seem, in highest measure worthy of investigation and comprehension, and should it at any time prove that to such accomplishment the present volume may have been in any smallest way contributory, the author's satisfaction will be complete indeed.

FOOTNOTES:[40]Farr.Cell-division in Pol. Mother-cells, Cobæa scandens, Bull. Tor. Bot. Cl., Vol. 47, pp. 325–38.

[40]Farr.Cell-division in Pol. Mother-cells, Cobæa scandens, Bull. Tor. Bot. Cl., Vol. 47, pp. 325–38.

NATURAL ORDERS,etc.

GENERA

GENERA AND SPECIES

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