ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICEOSCOPY, ETC. 267 



of the trunk of a large supply of moisture, beginning at the bottom of 

 the trunk. By the time that the centre has reached its quota of stored 

 moisture far up the trunk another movement has begun causing a 

 re-arrangement of the moisture at the base. As the result of the watei' 

 moving inwards from the outer zones, beginning at the base of the 

 trunk, there is created an area of maximum moisture-content in a 

 transverse plane at the centre of the' trunk. This inward current^ 

 and the consequent plane of maximum moisture-content at the centre^ 

 gradually extends upwards in the trunk to the topmost region, but 

 before this is reached a radial movement has begun at the bottom of 

 the trunk which likewise progresses upwards, and the region of 

 maximum content passes almost to the outside of the trunk, leaving- 

 the centre as the driest region. The movements upwards and radial, 

 both inwards and outwards, are going on at one and the same time 

 at different levels in the trunk. The writer discusses these results in 

 their relation to the best time for felling trees. The paper is illus- 

 trated by five coloured plates showing diagramatically the average 

 moisture distribution in the transverse section of a bole at the diflPerent 

 jieriods, and by a similar number of graphs indicating moisture dis- 

 tribution throughout the trunk. A. B. R. 



CRYPTOGAMS. 



Pteridophyta. 



Australian Specimen of Clepsydropsis. — B. Sahni (Annals of 

 Botany, I9r.t, 33, 81-92, 1 pL, 2 ligs). A description of a Clepsy- 

 dropsis from Carboniferous rocks in New South Wales. As in C. antiqua- 

 of linger, the leaf-trace arose as a close ring of xylem which became 

 tangentially flattened, and then became clepsydroicl as the result of a 

 median constriction. In Anlryropteris also the leaf-trace origin is 

 essentially the same. Hence the two genera should be united, as had 

 previously been suggested. The two groups of the Zygopterideae 

 (Clepsydroidesj and Dineuroidea^) were also sharply distinct in the 

 symmetry of their stem, which was radial in the former, dorsiventral 

 in the latter. The apparently radial symmetry of the basal region of 

 the leaf in the DineuroideaB (due to early bifurcation of the pinna-trace) 

 may have been associated with a strictly upright position ; but it was- 

 not continued into the probably more or less horizontal laminated 

 distal part of the leaf. A. Gr. 



Sporangiophoric Lepidophyte from the Carboniferous. — Harvey 

 Basslee (Botanical Gazette, 1919, 68, 73-108, 3 pis.). An account of 

 the fossil genus Gantheliophorus created to include a group of plant- 

 irnpressions of sporophylls, etc. The distinctive feature of the group is 

 a large lamellar sporangiophore developed in the radial plane of the 

 strobilus from the superior (ventral) face of the sporophyll pedicel, 

 bearing two large elongate sporangia, one upon each side, pannier-like. 



