666 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



developed in great quantity. The presence of this primitive type of 

 bundle in the ovules is in itself of interest, as is the comparison of 

 these bundles with the mesarch ones in the free fleshy "cupule" of 

 Lagenostoma. 



The view is brought forward, chiefly on anatomical grounds, that the 

 inner fleshy layer with its system of bundles represents an inner integu- 

 ment. The stony layer is considered as a differentiation of the outer 

 flesh, and with its distinct system of bundles forms the second or outer 

 integument. The two are completely grown together, as in the case in 

 some genera of Rosacea?, and others. 



On the basis of the arrangement of the bundles in the ovule and the 

 supply bundles of the sporophyll, the genera may be placed in a series of 

 which Cycas is not the most "primitive, but the least primitive of the 

 group. All the genera have approximately radial symmetry but Cycas y 

 which is bilateral and shows distinct traces of an original radial symmetry. 



Fructification of Neuropteris Heterophylla.*— R. Kidston describes 

 specimens preserved in small ironstone nodules from the South Stafford- 

 shire coal measures, containing seeds of Rhabdocarpus Gopp. and Berger, 

 each attached to a pedicel which bears the foliage of Neuropteris _ hetero- 

 phylla Brongn. Great interest attaches to these specimens, as it is the 

 first instance in which the foliage of one of the Cycadofilices has been 

 found actually in continuity with a seed. This discovery confirms the 

 conclusion already reached by Professor Oliver and Dr. Scott from the 

 consideration of other evidence, that the seed-bearing habit existed 

 among members of this group. The specimens, which are not petrified, 

 are of the radio-spermic type, oblong, and about 3 cm. long. The outer 

 surface shows numerous longitudinal ribs, formed by bands of scleren- 

 chymatous tissue in the outer seed-envelope. Some of the pinnules, 

 which do not differ in form or nervation from the ordinary foliage pin- 

 nules of Nevropteris heterophylla, show a slight widening of the base, 

 and seem to be attached to a basal expansion somewhat of the nature of 

 a cupule. This semi-cupule like structure does not seem to completely 

 surround the seed as in Lagenostoma Lomaxi, but is more in the form 

 of a subtending bract, and probably served to protect the seed during 

 the early stages of development. 



Small bodies of doubtful structure, apparently split into four arms or 

 valves, and borne at the ends of the dichotomously divided branches of 

 another specimen, are regarded by the author as the pollen-bearing 

 organs of the same species. 



Gametophyte and Embryology of Cryptomeria Japonica.* — A. A. 

 Lawson finds that the reduction division which leads to the formation 

 of the tetrads in the course of development of the microspore, takes 

 place in October, while pollination occurs in the following March. At 

 the time of pollination the spore contains a tube-cell and a generative 

 cell ; the vegetative tissue of the male gametophyte is not represented. 

 At the time of penetration the generative nucleus divides, so that the 

 young pollen-tube contains the tube-, stalk-, and body-nuclei. The 

 body-nucleus soon enlarges and becomes surrounded with a dense zone 



* Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc, ser. B, cxcvii. (1904) pp. 1-5 (I pi. and fig. in text). 

 f Ann. Bot., xviii. (1904) pp. 417-44 (4 pie.). 



