234 SUMMARY OF QUERENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



lightly built ; the middle layer of the pericarp, which elsewhere is com- 

 posed of thin-walled, irregularly polygonal cells, is reduced to a single 

 layer of rectangular cells with very thick, sparsely pitted walls ; the 

 pigment layer, which is usually composed of fiat, rectangular cells with 

 dark brown contents, is here formed of regular polygonal cells with 

 thickened walls ; the hyaline layer is wavy in appearance, owing tp 

 the cell-walls being thrown into folds. 



The conical projection at the base is due to the entry at this 

 point of the fibro-vascular bundles, which pass thence over the surface 

 of the berry towards the apex. In this region the pigment layer is 

 of greater thickness and is composed of small, slightly compressed cells ; 

 the inner sclerenchyma and the layer beneath it, together with the 

 hyaline layer, all disappear. These modified tissues of the apex and base 

 may easily be mistaken for foreign matter in crushed berries. 



CRYPTOGAMS. 



Pteridophyta, 

 (By A. Gepp, M.A. F.L.S.) 



Anatomy of Leaf in Osmundacese.* — D. T. Gwynne-Yaughan's 

 paper, " Observations on the Anatomy of the Leaf in the Osmundaceas," 

 is published posthumously, and substantially without alteration, save by 

 the provision of photographic illustrations. After giving a resume of 

 the views published by E,. Kidston and himself in a series of papers on 

 the origin and evolution of the typical adaxially curved leaf -trace in the 

 Filicinese, and on the fossil Osmundace^e, he proceeds to investigate the 

 C-shaped leaf-trace of the living Osmundaceee in search of any indica- 

 tions of the primitive method of branching. Among the species studied 

 were Osmimda Glaytoniana, 0. regalis, 0. bipinnata, Todea superha, 

 T. harbara, T. hymenophyUoides. He finds evidence that in the xylem 

 strand of the petiolar trace in the neighbourhood of the smaller branchings 

 we have to deal with three distinct regions : — 1. The abaxial curve of 

 the xylem strand. 2. A lateral portion which is going to pass out into 

 the branch. 3. A mass of centripetal xylem that is going to remain in 

 the mother trace. This, says the author, makes a line drawn across the 

 adaxial points of departure of the branch-traces a very important 

 distinction, because it divides the parent trace into portions corresponding 

 to the abaxial (centrifugal) and adaxial (centripetal) halves of the 

 presumed ancestral trace. In the larger trace these regions are still 

 present, all enlarged, but unequally so. The greatest extension is 

 experienced by the abaxial curve, but the centripetal xylem also increases 

 in volume and may acquire a protoxylem or even two of its own. 



Climbing Davallias and the Petiole of Lygodium.j — D. T. Gwynne- 

 Vaughan's notes on some climbing Davallias and the petiole of Lygodium, 



* Ann. Bot., xxx. (1916) pp. 487-93 (1 pi.). 

 t Ann. Bot., xxx. (1916) pp. 495-507 (1 pi.). 



