Pteridophyten. 307 



liquide par les cellules des ailes prothalliennes, qui fonctionnent 

 d'autant plus activement pour cette sudation qu'elles sont moins 

 riches en chlorophylle. 



Dans la respiration du prothalle, la valeur du rapport -p;— est 



comprise entre 0,81 et 0,90. 



La chlorophylle des prothalles est instable en Solution alcoolique. 

 Sa grande sensibilite lui permet d'assimiler le carbone ä un tres 

 faible eclairage. C. Queva. 



Stiles, W., On a Branched Cone of Eqiiisetum maximunt, Lam. 

 (New Phytologist. XII. p. 113-116, with 2 text-figs. 1908.) 



Mr. Stiles shortly describes a fructification of Equisetiini maxi- 

 munt in which four smaller cones arose from slightly above the 

 middle of the main cone; the branching of the cone differs from 

 that involved in the formation of lateral branches and is of the 

 nature of a dichotomy. Certain small medullary vascular bundles, 

 without evident phloem and never exceeding three in one transverse 

 section were found in the main axis of the cone. Though ending 

 blindly in both directions and though free from the outer normal 

 vascular tissue these bundles show a tendency to brauch among 

 themselves. It is suggested that the medullary bundles are the 

 remains of the centripetal xjdem of the protostelic ancestors of 

 existing Equiseta. Isabel Browne (London). 



Sykes, M. G., Note on an Abnormalit}'^ found in Psilötiim tri- 

 quetrum. (Ann. Bot. p. 525—526. with 5 text-figs. 1908.) 



Miss Sykes describes a Cluster of synangia observed in Psüotum. 

 triquetrum : the common stalk of the Cluster was a quarter of an inch 

 long; it then bore in succession three bilocular, nearly sessile sy- 

 nangia, the first two with double bracts, the third with a Single 

 bract; the Cluster was terminated by an ebracteate unilocular 'synan- 

 gium' borne on an elongated curved stalk. The abnormality is regarded 

 as equivalent to a Single 'sporophyll' and it is held that as it can hardly 

 be described as a repeatedly dichotomous leaf it more possibly 

 represents a proliferated sporangiophore, primitively non foliar in 

 nature. Isabel Browne (London). 



Sykes, M. G., Notes on the Morphology of the Sporangium- 

 bearing organs of the Lycopodiaceae. (New Phytologist. VII. 

 p. 41—60, with 2 pl. and eleven text-figs. 1908.) 



A study of the sporophj^lls in Phylloglossicm. and Lycopodium, 

 in the main supports Pritzers_iilassification of the latter genus; in 

 the Urostachya the sporangium is axillary on a sessile sporophyll; 

 in the Iniindata, the first group of the Rhopalostachya the sporan- 

 gium remains axillary or nearly so, though the sporophylls are 

 stalked and have a dorsal Aap; Lycopodiuvi volubile may be inter- 

 mediate, as regards its sporophjdl, between this group and the 

 group Phlegmavia of the Urostachya. In the higher Rhopalostachya 

 the sporangium originates from the stalk of a peltate sporophyll. In 

 a number of species simple or more or less highly specialized lig- 

 nified cells occur in the pedicel of the sporangium. The question 

 whether the simpler or more complex species of Lycopodium are 

 the more primitive is discussed; it is concluded that the genus 



