The new lichen species Xanthomendoza galericulata L. Lindblom is described from the western United States. It is characterized by helmet-shaped lobe tips, under which soralia are found. Xanthomendoza galericulata is broadly distributed in drier pars of western North America. Information on other small sorediate taxa in the genus, namely X. fulva,X. oregana, and X. weberi (S. Kondr. & Kärnefelt) L. Lindblom comb. nov., is provided as well as a key to all North American sorediate Xanthomendoza species.

The new saxicolous species introduced by Josiah Lowe from his collections from the Adirondack Mountains, New York are reassessed. Lecidea albonigra J. Lowe, L. columnata J. Lowe, L. furva J. Lowe, L. humilis J. Lowe, L. marciensis J. Lowe, L. rugosa J. Lowe, L. soredifera J. Lowe, L. suberratica J. Lowe, and L. subramosa J. Lowe are reduced to synonymy with other, previously described taxa and must be removed from the North American lichen checklist. Lecidea nemoralis J. Lowe is a member of the Lecidea hypnorum group closely allied to L. ahlesii (Körb.) Nyl., and is here treated as L. ahlesii var. nemoralis. The status of some other lecideoid lichens in North America is also reassessed and L. marylandensis H. Magn. is shown to be a synonym of Miriquidica leucophaea (Rabenh.) Hertel & Rambold, Lecidea planetica Tuck. ex Willey to be a synonym of Micarea erratica, and the single North American collection of Micarea melanabola is shown to be a misidentification of Lecidea tugidula Fr. The new combination Porpidia subsimplex (H. Magn.) Fryday is made and shown to be an earlier name for P. tahawasiana Gowan. Lecidella subviridis Tønsberg, Toninia squalescens (Nyl.) Th. Fr., and the lichenicolous fungus Endococcus verrucosporus Alstrup are reported for the first time from North America, and Micarea elachista (Körb.) Coppins & R. Sant. is confirmed as occurring in North America. The author citations of four species described by Willey in the Appendix of Tuckerman's Synopsis of North American Lichens (Biatora furvonigrans, B. meadii, Lecidea micytho, and L. planetica) are corrected to Tuck. ex Willey.

The concept of transient assemblage dynamics (TAD) is introduced relating to the fine-scale temporal and spatial variability in substrate locations that result in greater unpredictability in bryophyte-microhabitat relationships within certain sites. An analytical test for the occurrence of TAD in a subalpine forest floor bryophyte community is outlined based on a multivariate comparison of within-plot (400m²) heterogeneity in bryophyte species assemblages and concomitant habitat conditions in sites of differing ground level stability. Plots with a higher potential for ground level turbulence showed a weaker relationship between bryophyte and habitat heterogeneity (i.e., greater degree of TAD), whereas this relationship was stronger in plots with greater ground level stability. We conclude that TAD may result in a substantial decoupling of fine-scale species-habitat linkages and recommend use of a multi-scale sampling and analytical approach for ecological studies of bryophyte communities where explanatory relationships may change at different scales.

The 80^th birthday of Daniel Moreira Vital, born on October 2, 1924, is celebrated by remembrances by Paulo Câmara, a former student, and William Buck and Ronald Pursell, colleagues. A short biographical sketch and a bibliography of Daniel Vital is provided.

In a publication dealing with species from Mt. Roraima on the Guyana/Venezuelan border, Mitten described Aneura polyclada Mitt. (Chile), A. polyptera Mitt. (Chile) and A. denticulata Mitt. (Colombia). These valid names represent taxa of the genus Riccardia. Aneura polyclada has priority over Aneura umbrosa Schiffn. & Gottsche, and should be transferred to Riccardia as Riccardia polyclada (Mitt.) Hässel comb. nov. Aneura polyptera is conspecific with the older Riccardia fuegiensis C. Massal. The type specimens of A. polyclada and A polyptera have been located at the BM herbarium. The type of A. denticulata has not been found and its identity could not be confirmed.

Zygodon bistratus, a new species from Spain in the Iberian Peninsula is described. The small size, partially bistratose leaf lamina and the upper laminal cells with tall, forked papillae are distinctive features for this species.

The genetic combinations between mycobionts and photobionts in Parmotrema tinctorum collected from ca. 60 km² of the Shimizu district, of Shizuoka City in Japan was investigated based on ITS rDNA sequences. This lichen produces apothecia quite rarely, and in principle propagates vegetatively by isidia. The genetic diversity of the mycobiont comprised four types, while that of the photobiont comprised 21 types. There were 28 different combinations between mycobiont and photobiont. All the photobionts were identified as Trebouxia corticola (s. lat.), based on both molecular phylogenetic results and morphological observation of culture strains obtained in this study. Therefore, P. tinctorum is considered to be highly selective toward the photobiont. The 28 combinations from the small area represent an unexpectedly high diversity, because P. tinctorum is thought to propagate vegetatively. Four possible mechanisms to account the high genetic combinations are suggested: i.e., photobiont exchange, fusion of thalli, and long-distance dispersal of isidia or ascospores. The genetic diversity of photobionts was poor in the urban area, but rich in suburbs and mountainsides. This might be caused by a bottleneck or founder effect in the population recovering from former damage by heavy air pollution, or variable selectivity of P. tinctorum depending on the environments.

The hepatic genus Tritomaria (Jungermanniaceae subfam. Lophozioideae) is new to the south temperate. Tritomaria exsecta subsp. novaezelandiae subsp. nov. is described and illustrated from New Zealand. The distribution of each of the eight species of the genus is summarized.

Two new species of the cyanobacterial lichen genus Pterygiopsis from southwestern North America are described. Pterygiopsis cava occurs on siliceous rock in central and southeastern Arizona. It is characterized by a dwarf-fruticose thallus with hollow, internally corticate lobes, polysporous asci, and pycnoascocarps. Pterygiopsis mutabilis occurs on volcanic rock in Baja California Sur. It is variable in thallus shape starting with rosulate squamules which eventually develop into densely lobulate cushions. The lobules have a thick, paraplectenchymatous basal layer, the asci are 8-spored and the ascomatal ontogeny starts from a spheroid tangle of generative hyphae. Records of Pterygiopsis atra are given and P. canariensis is reported for the first time from the United States. A key to the species of Pterygiopsis in southwestern North America is provided.

Hypogymnia incurvoides Rass. was originally described from the Archangel'sk Region in northwestern Russia in 1967. Long neglected, it has since been found at several sites in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia in eastern Canada. Hypogymnia incurvoides is most similar to H. physodes, but is readily distinguished from that species by the presence of holes in the lobe tips and axils, black-margined lobes forming a regular lattice, and the absence of 3-hydroxyphysodic acid. This substance gives a K reddish brown reaction, which is consistently seen in H. physodes but not H. incurvoides. The species should be sought in other oceanic boreal to subarctic locations in the Northern Hemisphere.

A new species of lichenized ascomycete in the genus Bactrospora is described from the Pacific Northwest of North America, bringing to two the total number of Bactrospora species known from this region. Bactrospora cascadensis is so far known only from the snowy high-elevation forests in the Cascades of Washington State. This species is characterized by a pinkish to yellowish thallus, spores intact within the ascus but usually fragmenting into short chains outside the ascus, and an exciple and hypothecium that are K/IKI blue.

Pistarino, Annalaura, Luca Miserere, René Schumacker, Sonia D'Andrea & Zdeněk Soldán. 2005. Briofite del Piemonte: la collezione della Val Sangone (Alpi occidentali, Torino). 456 pp., 336 maps, 179 figs. Cataloghi 15. Regione Piemonte Museo Regionale di Scienze Naturali, Via Giolitti 36, 10123 Torino, Italy. [ISBN 88-86041-62-4]. Price €40.00 postage (hardcover). Fax: 011/4325914; anna.grassini@regione.piemonte.it.

Holyoak, D. T. (ed.). 2003. The distribution of bryophytes in Ireland: An annotated review of the occurrence of liverworts and mosses in the Irish vice-counties, based mainly on the records of the British Bryological Society. 564 pp. Broadleaf Books, Vale of Glamorgan, UK. 2003. [ISBN 0-9545285-0-6]. Price £45 (hardcover plus CD-ROM). broadleafbooks1@aol.com.

Gradstein, Robbert, Steven P. Churchill & Noris Salazar-Allen. Guide to the bryophytes of tropical America. 2001. Memoirs of The New York Botanical 86: iv 577 pp. [ISBN 0-89327-435-6]. Price US$30 (hardcover). The New York Botanical Garden Press, Bronx, NY. Website:  http://www.nybg.org.