ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. * 427 



for cross-pollination. Darwin's suggestion of night-flying Lepidoptera 

 as agents is not supported by any evidence. In brief, the testimony of 

 the various observers " affords no evidence but the contrary," in support 

 of the theory that one form of Primula must unite with the other 

 form in order to produce full fertility, and much less does it support the 

 theory that the two forms stand in the reciprocal relation of different 

 sexes to each other. 



Randia Lujae : a New Myrmecophyte and Acarophyte.* — E. de 

 Wildeman gives an account of a new species of the genus Randia 

 (Rubiaceas) from the Sankaru forest in the Congo, which affords shelter 

 both to ants and acari. The acarodomatia are found at the angles of 

 the veins on the back of the leaves and are hollowed out in the tissue 

 of the nerves. The ant-shelters occur in the internodes which are 

 hollow at a part only of their length ; the internodes are fusiform, and 

 the domatia in the part at the greatest diameter where there are one 

 or two openings which at first are circular, but in the older and woody 

 shoots become elongated and may reach a length of 3 cm. 



Caulifloria.t — L. Buscalioni discusses the phenomenon of caulifloria 

 or the production of flowers and fruits along the branches and trunk, 

 as well as in the normal axillary or terminal positions. He gives a 

 table of 127 cauliflorous species, belonging to 77 genera and 34 families, 

 which have been studied by several previous authors. A subsequent 

 list shows that 22 of the above 34 families go back to the Cretaceous 

 times, and that certain of their genera were cauliflorous. From the 

 long series of facts which he records, the author draws the conclusions 

 that caulifloria is a disposition inherited from geological times, and is 

 preferably manifested in damp tropical regions ; that it chiefly occurs 

 in plants of antique and less specialised type ; that it serves to protect 

 the flower and fruit from excessive moisture and heat ; that it is accom- 

 panied by other factors which aid in this protection ; that the causes 

 for it assigned by Wallace, Johow, Haberlandt and others do not 

 explain its antique origin ; that experimental study of water distribution 

 bears out the author's views ; and that the condition is closely com- 

 parable with geocarpy as a biological means of protecting the seeds- 

 froni external influences. A bibliography is added. 



Classification of Flowering Plants, vol. i. Gymnosperms and 

 Monocotyledons.^ — A. B. Rendle gives a general morphological and 

 systematic account of these two groups of Seed-plants. The book opens 

 with a historical introduction in which the gradual evolution of a 

 natural system is traced. Starting from the herbals of the sixteenth 

 century, a brief review is given of the more important systems, and of 

 the influence of individual workers, including John Ray, Linnaeus, the 

 Jussieus and De Candolles, Robert Brown, Lindley, Eichler, Bentham 

 and Hooker, Van Tieghem and Engler. The system adopted for the 



* Comptes Rend us, cxxxviii. (1901) pp. 913-4. 



t Malpighia, xviii. (1904) pp. 117-77 (2 pis.). 



% The Classification of Flowering Plants. By A. B. Rendle. Vol. i. Gymno- 

 sperms and Monocotyledons. 8vo, pp. xiv. 403, tt. 187. Cambridge University 

 Press, 1904. 



