Palaeontologie. — Pharmaceutisches u. Chemisches. 495 



coalfields on this horizon, especially from N. Staffordshire, 

 Denbighshire and S. Lancashire A new nomenclature for 

 the Palaeobotanical zones in the Goal Measures is proposed. 



Arber (Cambridge). 



Kidston, R. , Preliminary Note on the occurence of 

 Microsporangia in Organic Connection with the 

 Foliage of Ly^inodendron. (Proc. Roy. Soc. Ser. B. 

 Vol. LXXVI. p.' 358 -360. PI. VI. 1905.) 



In this preliminary note, specimens are described showing 

 a fructification referable to the genus Crossotheca of Zeil 1er, 

 in organic continuity with barren foliage of Sphenopteris Hö- 

 ninghausi. This is the first definite evidence as to the male 

 fructification of any of the Pterldospermeae. The specimens 

 here figured are the microsporangia of Sphenopteris (Crossotheca) 

 Höninghaiisi (= Lyginodendron oldhamiiim), and were ob- 

 tained from Cosely, near Dudley, S. Staffordshire, preserved 

 in small nodules. 



The fertile pinnule is oval, entire, and attached to the rachis 

 by a stout pedicel, which thickens very slightly upwards before 

 merging into the pinnule, to the upper surface of which it ap- 

 pears to be united for a short distance. The pinnules seem 

 to have been thick in substance, and the vascular trace enters 

 it from the pedicel a short distance from the margin, where it 

 immediately divides into two main branches which separate 

 slightly from each other. Each fertile lobe bore 6 — 8, broadly 

 lanceolate, sharply-pointed microsporangia. At maturity the 

 sporangla spread outwards, when they appear as a fringe han- 

 ging from the margin of the fertile pinnule, but are in reality 

 connected for some distance to its lower surface. The micro- 

 sporangia are bilocular, the parallel loculi being only separated 

 by a narrow band of tissue. Dehiscence took place by a lon- 

 gitudinal cleft which passes down the inner surface of the 

 sporangium in the line of the dividing wall of the two loculi. 



Many of the sporangia still retain their microspores which 

 are circular or slightly oval, measuring 50 // to 57 // in dia- 

 meter. Their outer surface is granulär, from the presence of 

 very minute blunt points, and is also provided with a triradial 

 ridge, which is however seldom clearly seen. 



Arber (Cambridge). 



Adam, Franz, Beitrag zur Kenntniss der Tamarinden 



und der Tamarindenweine. (Zeitschrift des allgem. 



österr. Apothekervereins. Jg. XLllI. Wien 1905. No. 33. 



p. 797—800. No. 34. p. 821—825.) 



Resultate: 1. Die Säure der Tamarinden besteht beiläufig zu neun 

 Zehnteln aus Weinsäure, welche theilweise als saures Kaliumsalz ge- 

 bunden ist^ ausser dieser sind noch Apfelsäure, etwas Milchsäure und 

 Spuren von flüchtigen Säuren vorhanden. Zitronensäure konnte mit den 

 üblichen Methoden nicht nachgewiesen werden, jedenfalls kann dieselbe 

 nicht als Indicator zur Erkennung der Tamarinden im Wein heran- 



