ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 601 



position of the various appendages, between this abnormal axillary bud 

 and an ordinary axillary vegetative bud. He agrees also with Celakovsky 

 in maintaining that there is a uniform presence, throughout the order, 

 of two integuments to the sporange, thus harmonising the structure of 

 the female organ throughout the order. It may well be supposed that 

 the outer integument has, in all conifers except Podocarpus (where it has 

 long been recognised), become modified in the direction of vegetative 

 development, in order to subserve the special adaptive function of a 

 protective covering to the sporanges. 



Staminodes of the Scrophulariaceae.* — Dr. J. M. Polak has inves- 

 tigated the phenomena connected with the suppression of the fifth stamen 

 in as many as 177 genera of Scrophulariaceae. The suppression is most 

 complete in the Rhinanthoidese, throughout which suborder no trace 

 survives of the fifth superior stamen. In the Pseudosolaneas the struc- 

 ture varies between five fertile stamens (Verbascum) and a complete 

 suppression of the fifth. In the third and largest suborder, the Antir- 

 rhinoideae, the fifth stamen is either completely suppressed or is repre- 

 sented by a starainode. In the smaller groups of this suborder the 

 structure is generally uniform. 



Ovule of Cephalotaxus.j — In the ovule of Cephahlaxus Mr. W. C. 

 Worsdell finds a well-developed centripetal xylem, the tracheids com- 

 posing it extending along the whole tangential surface of the centrifugal 

 xylem. From this and other points of structure he draws the conclu- 

 sion that Cephalotaxus is the most primitive of the Coniferee, and that 

 it forms in some measure a connecting link between the Cycadeae and 

 the Coniferae. 



Pushing up of the Axillary Shoots in the Borraginese4 — Dr. L. J. 

 Celakovsky returns to the controversy on this subject between Herren 

 Kolkwitz and Schumann (Symphytum officinale and Anchusa ifalica), 

 summing up in favour of the explanation offered by the latter authority. 

 He lays down the general law that every production of new members — 

 whether sporanges in the widest sense of the term (including anther- 

 lobes and ovules), lateral shoots, or even trichomes — in Metaphytes, has 

 its origin in the leaf, as in Characeae ; and that the caulome, in the 

 narrower sense of the term, is simply the supporting organ for the leaves. 

 The true leaf (in the narrower sense), with its two leaf-traces, is a mor- 

 phological unity, like the pushed up axillary shoot with its leaf-trace 

 coalescent with the stem. 



Structure of Salisburia adiantifolia.§ — Mr. A. C. Seward and Miss 

 J. Gowan give a detailed synopsis of observations hitherto made on the 

 structure and affinities of the maidenhair tree (Gingho biloba L., Salis- 

 buria adiantifolia Sm ), together with results of their own investigations. 

 The general conclusion is that the genus should be removed from the 

 Coniferae, and should constitute a separate order of Gymnosperms, the 

 GiNGKOACE-E. In many respects Gingho shows a marked affinity with 

 the Cycads, viz. : — in the structure of the ovules and seeds, in the pro- 



* Arb. bot. Inst. k. k. deutscb. Univ. Prag, 1899, No. 38. See Oesterr. Bot 

 Zeitschr., 1. (1900) pp. 33-41, 87-90, 123-32, 164-7 (2 pis.). 



t Ann. of Bot., xiv. (1900) pp. 317-8. 



j Ber. Deukch. Bot. Ges., xviii. (1900) pp. 2-15 (7 figs.). Cf. this Journal, 1895 

 p. 652. § Ann. of Bot., xiv. (1900) pp. 109-54 (3 pis.). 



Oct. 17th, 1900 * 2 s 



