Morphologie und Teratologie. 215 



plants belonging to numerous natural Orders. She conflrms 

 the Statements of Brown, Griffiths, and Bentham that 

 the cotyledons are Consolidated so as to resemble a fleshy al- 

 bumen. Starch of a very difficultly soluble kind is present 

 throughout the entire plant. Seeds germinate successfuUy in a 

 temperature of 25^ — 28^ C. within three to four weeks. The 

 hypocotyl is a fleshy, cylindrical body that is rapidly fed with 

 and Stores up food material from the cotyledons. The radicle 

 is a conical tooth that developes four side rootiets which soon 

 attain considerable length, The plumule bears the empty seed 

 at its tip for some time. The plumular leaves are minute, and 

 haustoria form below or just above the leaves. The seedling 

 stem early shows active circumnutating movements. 



The rudimentary roots are destitute of a root cap, but 

 bear short, copious, mostly club-shaped hairs which extend to 

 the tip of each root. The hypocotyl shows 12 phloem and 

 4 xylem patches, and the relation of these to the root is traced. 



Supplementing the studies of Schmidt and Hacken- 

 berg, the writer finds that the transversely placed stomata 

 are longitudinally in the seedling, but gradually swind around 

 to the transverse position. The histology of the mature stem 

 and of the rudimentary leaves is fully dealt with. In the former 

 are 6 — 8 protoxylem and protophloem patches. An internal 

 phloem is developed, which largely takes the place of the ex- 

 ternal phloem that becomes broken up and largely functionless. 

 The abundant mucilage in the stem is probably protective in 

 character. Cassytha flllformis is a unique member of the 

 Laiiraceae and departs widely from its order in many struc- 

 tural details. 



The writer hopes in a future paper to deal with the floral 

 Structure. J. M. Macfarlane. 



COOKE, Ethel and Adeline F. Schively, Observations on 

 the Structure and Development of Epiphegus Vir- 

 ginlana. (Contributions from the Botanical Laboratory of 

 the University of Pennsylvania. Vol. IL No. 3. p. 352—398. 

 Plates 29—32, 1904.) 



A detaiied study is made of the structure and life history 

 of this American parasite, and the following conclusions are 

 reached: 



1. Epiphegus Vlrginiana is a plant that illustrates in its 

 various structures degeneration due to parasitic habits. 



2. All evidence shows that it is parasitic only on roots of 

 the beech-tree, and that it is annual in duration. 



3. Seedling tubers appear in June, and steadily develop tili 

 August-October. 



4. The vegetative part of the plant is the subterranean or 

 semisubterranean tuber, the aerial portion and at times sub- 

 terranean shoots from the tuber are reproductive. 



