lOG 
gathering botanical specimens, and apparently in as perfect health as 
can attend old age. 
Thus at the very close of life, he was in the enjoyment of the 
things which he had always loved. so well — the green turf, the blue 
sky and the sweet, autumnal air. 
" Then with no fiery, throbbing pain, 
No cold gradations of decay, 
Death broke at once the vital chain, 
And freed his soul the nearest way." 
David F. Day. 
a 
Botanical Notes. 
Botanical Work of the American Association for the Advancement 
of Science ^~i:\iQ Ann Arbor meeting of the Association, just closed, 
proved of more than usual interest to the botanists. There was a 
notable increase in the permanent value of the papers. They were 
more thoughtful, as a rule, than those presented at previous meetings, 
and came up more nearly to the standard demanded by the science of 
to-day. Below we give brief abstracts, which will show the general 
nature of the papers. 
An Observation on the Hybridization and Cross-breeding of 
Plants," by E. Lewis Sturtevant. This gave in detail the observa- 
tions on crossed beans, maize, barley, peppers, tomatoes, lettuce and 
peas, made at the New York Agricultural Experiment Station. As 
a result of the observations the author concludes that in our domesti- 
cated vegetable plants cross-fertilization shows its effects at once in 
the reproduction of the form-species and varieties which are in- 
volved in the parentage of the crossed seed, or, in other words, the 
effect ^is atavism rather than a blending of properties. 
Germmation Studies," by the same author, gave the results of 
makmg numerous duplicate germinations, showing that different per- 
centage-resuUs are obtained as the quantity of seeds used is large or 
small. The influence of various temperatures was also discussed. 
The Question of Bisexuality in the Pond-scums," by Charles E. 
Bessey. It has been held by some botanists that the. pond-scums 
(Zygnemacese) show a distinct bisexuality, one of the filaments be- 
mg male, the other female. Certain facts were presented which render 
such a view untenable. In many plants the cells of the same filament 
fertilize one another, as is notably the case in the forms which have 
been described as Rhynchonema. Several cases of hybridization were 
cited in which tv/o filaments, both of which bore resting-spores, 
united with one another and produced a hybrid spore. The conclu- 
sion was that the pond-scums are not bisexual, but rather unisexual, 
that is, that while sexuality undoubtedly exists, there is as yet no 
differentiation into the proper male and female. Accordingly these 
plants must take a position just above the asexual prototypes, but 
below the clearly bisexual oophytes. 
"The Process of Fertilization in Catnpamda Americana,'" by 
Charles R. Barnes. This species is strongly proterandrous. The 
(( 
From the American Naturalist, 
