103 
A Summer course in botany is announced for the month of 
July at Cambridge, Mass. Prof. Goodale will give four morning 
lessons a week at the Botanic Garden on Morphology, based on 
Vol. I. of Gray’s Text-book, and four afternoon lectures on Phy- 
siology, following Vol. II. Mr. F. L. Sargent will give instruc- 
tion in Cryptogamic Botany five times a week. 
Cross-fertilization of plants by birds. Fritz Miiller. (Kos- 
mos. 1886, i., 93-98.) A brief review is given in Science (Supple- 
ment, May 14th, 1886) illustrated by three figures of /ezjoa, one 
of the genera of Myrtacce, and a native of South America. The 
highly modified petals are sweet and soft, very attractive to 
birds (Thamnophilus), which in reaching down to pick them off 
brush away the pollen from the erect stamens, and later dust the 
pistils of other blossoms with it. 
Fitbernation of Utricularia vulgaris and U. neglecta. A 
writer in the Gardener’s Chronicle, vol. xxv., p. 556, describes © 
certain phases in the life-history of these plants. He states that 
after having matured their growth in the autumn the tips of the 
stems exhibit a thickening which reaches the size of a pea or 
even a hazel nut. Later the whole plant sinks and dies, except 
these terminal buds, which now assume the appearance of small 
dark-colored balls, and, under a low magnifying power, are 
seen to consist of bulblets made up of the excessively shortened 
multifid leaves whose slender teeth give the little mass a bristly 
appearance. and probably protect it in a measure from small 
aquatic animals. After resting in this condition all winter, growth 
recommences in the spring, when the axis elongates, the leaves 
spread out, and the plant soon attains a considerable size. This 
mode of vegetative reproduction is evidently of great advantage 
to the Bladderworts, these terminal buds acting as a means of 
distribution, and the plants reaching a considerable size by their 
growth long before seeds could be produced. 
The Relation between the “ Bloom”’ on Leaves and the Distri- 
bution of the Stomata. Dr. Francis Darwin contributes to the 
Journal of the Linnzean Society, vol. xxii., pp. 99-116, a paper 
which gives some of the results obtained by his father and him- — 
self during an exhaustive study of this subject. It is found that — 
