464 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



important connecting link between Cycas and cycadeoidean types with 

 reduced, laterally borne fructifications. This specimen indicates an 

 entire plant with mature fronds and large fruits, having a foliar crown 

 of the same size as a Zamia of Florida, with fronds rather less than two 

 feet in length, but with a more slender stem. The author considers 

 that this type favours Newell Arber's idea or a true pre-Angiosperm or 

 hemi-Angiosperm. Anomozamites minor is to be regarded as of great 

 importance, in that it is suggestive of relationships to primitive Angio- 

 sperms, i.e. the Magnoliaceae. 



Cone of Pinus.* — G. R. Wieland contributes a note upon the accele- 

 rated cone growth in Pinus rigida. The cluster of cones is formed of 

 fifty-three cones of normal development, and resembles a single huge 

 cone like that of Pinus Coulteri ; as usual, the main vegetative axis was 

 prolonged. The author regards the production of ferns as the greatest 

 achievement in vegetal evolution, and believes that since Silurian times, 

 Pteridosperms, Gyrnnosperms, and Angiosperms have been derived from 

 Ferns by such methods as extreme reduction, development of generalised 

 types or organs, rearrangement of fertile axes, etc. The present instance 

 of a simple form of accelerated branching, seems to support this view, by 

 showing that new " emplacements " may lead to an entirely new series 

 of modifications in organs of reproduction. 



Reproductive. 



Polar Conjugation in the Angiosperms.f — J. H. Schaffner con- 

 tributes a short note on the origin of polar conjugation in the Angio- 

 sperms. The author favours the theory put forward by Porsch, who 

 regards the two synergids of Angiosperms as homologous with the neck 

 canal cells of the Gymnosperms, and the upper polar as equivalent to 

 the ventral cell. In short, the typical embryo-sac of the Angiosperms 

 represents two archegonia, the vegetative cells having disappeared. The 

 present writer quotes two of his own papers in support of this theory, 

 and is of the opinion that all polar conjugations had their origin in the 

 former conjugation of one or both polars with the second sperm. Lack 

 of such fusion may represent either a primitive condition or a more 

 recent parthenogenetic condition. Conjugation without the presence 

 of a second sperm must be looked upon as a special parthenogenetic 

 development. Finally, no endosperm resulting from any of these fusions 

 can properly be called an embryo. 



Albumen of Caprificus.J — L. du Sablon has studied the structure 

 and development of the Caprificus, and finds that the albumen will 

 develop in the absence of fertilisation ; it is parthenogenetic, and is 

 digested by the larva in the same manner as normal albumen. The 

 fully formed larva completely fills the pericarp, and no trace of albumen 

 then remains. The parthenogenetic albumen differs somewhat from 

 ordinary albumen in its structure, for its cell-walls are destitute of 

 cellulose, and its thick protoplasmic contents contain globoids of varying 



* Anier. Journ. Sci., xxv. (1908) pp. 102-4 (1 fig.). 



t Ohio Nat., viii. (1908) pp. 255-8. 



X Rev. Gen. Bot., xx. (1908) pp. 14-24 (1 pi., 6 figs.). 



