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BRZEZANY — -BUCHANAN

lastly. In one moss (Buxbaumia aphytta) this is so simple that the well-developed protonema bears either solitary scale leaves, or a simple stem with several leaves around the sexual organs. This has been regarded by Goebel as the simplest form of moss, but the complexity of the capsule, combined with the fact that the plant is probably a saprophyte, makes the validity of this inference questionable. The view that in Buxbamnia we have a reduced rather than a primitive form, is supported by the presence of a well-developed leafy shoot in the mosses which appear to be most closely allied to it. In connexion with the partial saprophytism of many of the Bryophyta, the occurrence of fungal hyphse in their rhizoids, forming a mycorhiza, may be noted. The Splachnacece, a group of mosses growing on dung and decomposing animal substances, exhibit in their conspicuousness, and in their coherent and sticky spores, characters which may be regarded as adaptive ; the spores of these mosses are probably carried to the localized droppings, on which the plants are found, by the agency of flies. Another group of adaptive characters is related to the protection of the organism against drought. Many Bryophyta are capable of withstanding prolonged desiccation, recovering on being moistened, and show no special arrangements for their preservation through a dry period. Others, however, do show special adaptations to this end, such as the rolling up of the thallus in certain Marchantiacece, the presence of the auricles on the leaves of some Jungermanniacece (which serve for water-storage, and are most common in epiphytic or epiphyllous forms), and the rolling up of the leaf in the Pblytrichacece. In connexion with this the not infrequent occurrence of underground tubers may be mentioned; these start the growth of the plant after the dry season is over, and thus serve as a means of vegetative multiplication. Special arrangements have also been shown to exist in the structures adjoining the sexual organs, the function of which is to increase the chance of the spermatozoids being brought within the range of the attractive power of the archegonium ; the attraction appears to be due to the irritability of the spermatozoids to certain chemical substances. With regard to the sporophyte, evidence has accumulated, from a study of its structure and from experimental work, that the larger sporogonia of some Mosses and the Anthocerotece are to a considerable extent independent of the gametophyte. Their assimilating tissue may be well developed, especially in the apophysis, which bears true stomata, and in the arrangement of its cells recalls the mesophyll of some foliage leaves. Various types of spore-dispersal have also been recognized in the moss sporogonium. It will be evident that, until a considerable insight into the origin of such characters is obtained, the value of their application to the determination of relationship cannot be estimated ; but it may be pointed out that their bearing on the classification of the Bfyophyta, which is to some extent founded on differences in leafform, &c., along with more trustworthy characters, is an important one. As to the relationship of the Bryophyta, on the one hand, to the Algce, and on the other to the Vascular Cryptogams, little can be added to what is said in the original article. In connexion with the hypothesis advanced by Bower to explain the origin of the latter group, in which the strobilus of a Vascular Cryptogam, such as Equisetum, is regarded as the equivalent of the sporogonial head, the article on Pteridophyta may be referred to. The significance of the Bryophyta as affording an insight into the possible mode of origin of the independent, leafy sporophyte of the Pteridophyta is obvious, whether we regard the two groups as nearly related or not. The alternation found in the two is a strictly similar one ; investi-

gations into the nuclear changes have shown that in Bryophytes the reduction in number of the chromosomes takes place in the spore-mother-cells, and that thus the same cytological difference exists between gametophyte and sporophyte. While apogamy is not known, some mosses have been shown to be aposporous; in Funaria the protonemal filaments may arise from a sporogonium while still attached to the moss plant. Thus the one generation may arise vegetatively from the other in Mosses as in Ferns. This brief account will serve to show that, while our knowledge of the details of morphology and natural history has increased, the general point of view in the original article needs no amendment, while the systematic works cited below will show to what extent the classification of the Bryophyta has been modified by the additional facts brought to light. For farther information the reader may consult:—Campbell. Mosses and Ferns. London, 1895.—Engler and Prantl. Die naturlichcn PJlanzenfamilien, Theil i. Abth. 3. Leipzig, 18931900.—Goebel. Organographie der Pjlanzen. Jena, 1898. Full references to the recent literature of the subject will be found in all these works. (w. H. L.) Brzezany, a town in Galicia (Austria). Population of town and commune (1890), 11,221 ; (1900), 11,244; besides a garrison of 832 men. It has leather manufactures, and trade in corn, spirits, and agricultural produce. Bucaramanga, capital of the department of Santander, Colombia, South America, 185 miles N.N.E. of Bogota. It is a town of considerable commercial activity, connected with the Magdalena river by a railway, and is well built and prosperous, the streets being lighted by electricity. There are gold, copper, and iron mines in the neighbourhood. Population, 18,000 Buchanan, Robert Williams (18411901), British poet, novelist, and dramatist, son of Robert Buchanan (1813-1866), Owenite lecturer and journalist, was born at Caverswall, Staffordshire, on 18th August 1841. His father, a native of Ayr, after living for some years in Manchester, removed to Glasgow, where Buchanan was educated, at the High School and the University, one of his fellow - students being the poet David Gray. His essay on Gray, originally contributed to the Cornhill Magazine, tells the story of their close friendship, and of their journey to London in 1860 in search of fame. After a period of struggle and disappointment Buchanan published Undertones in 1863. This “tentative” volume was followed by Idyls and Legends of Inverburn (1865), London Poems (1866), and North Coast and other Poems (1868), wherein he displayed a faculty for poetic narrative and a sympathetic insight into the humbler conditions of life. On the whole, Buchanan is at his best in these narrative poems, though he essayed a more ambitious flight in The Booh of Orm: A Prelude to the Epic, a study in mysticism, which appeared in 1870. He also became a frequent contributor to periodical literature, and obtained notoriety by an article which, under the nom de plume of Thomas Maitland, he contributed to the Contemporary Review for October 1871, entitled “The Fleshly School of Poetry.” This article was expanded into a pamphlet (1872), but he subsequently withdrew from the criticisms it contained, and it is chiefly remembered by the replies it evoked from D. G. Rossetti in a letter to the Athenaeum (16th December 1871), entitled “The Stealthy School of Criticism,” and from Mr Swinburne. In 1876 appeared The Shadow of the Sword, the first and one of the best of a long series of novels. Buchanan was also the author of many successful plays, among which may be mentioned Lady Clare, produced in 1883; Sophia (1886), an adaptation of Tom Jones; A Maris Shadow (1890); and The Charlatan