222 MORPHOLOGY, ETC., VASC. PLANTS [Bot. Absts. 



condition, while in other cases only a slight fermentation had resulted. Author concludes 

 that under certain conditions fruit may be preserved without heating and without the addi- 

 tion of preservatives of any sort. — V. H. Young. 



1566. Muller, B. [Rev. of: Kleberger, Kling and Westphal. Versuche iiber Trock- 

 nung von Gemiise und Obst. [The drying of vegetables and fruits.) Mitteil. Deutsc. Landw. 

 1917:619. 1917.] Biedermann's Zentralbl. Agrikulturchem. 47:252-254. 1918— Direc- 

 tions for drying bean, kohlrabi, cabbage and peas are given, with initial and final tempera- 

 ture, length of time for drying, etc. Special directions are given for withered vegetables. — 

 F. M. Schertz. 



MORPHOLOGY, ANATOMY AND HISTOLOGY OF VASCULAR PLANTS 



E. W. Sinnott, Editor 



1567. Alvarado, Saltjstio. La fina estructura de los vasos lenosos (Rota previa). 

 [Minute structure of wood vessels.] Bol. R. Sec. Espafiola Hist. Nat. 19: 66-75. Fig. 

 1-7. 1919. — Author reviews the growth of knowledge of wood vessels since the time of Hen- 

 shaw, Malpighi and Grew. Uses the tannin-silver method of Achucarre-Rio Hortega (see 

 Alvaredo. Plastosomas y leucoplastos en algunas fanerogamas. Trab. Mus. Nacion. Cien. 

 Nat. Ser. Bot., No. 13. 1918. p. 9-14) and prepared material of barley and iris, illustrated in 

 fig. 1-6, showing wood vessels with the annular, spiral, or reticulated thickenings. Describes 

 main wall of trachea as primary membrane, the thickenings as secondary membrane, both 

 being about equally constituted as to cellulose and lignin. Prepared by above method the 

 secondary membrane (annular, spiral, or reticulated thickenings) stains to show always a 

 very dark axial line surrounded by a fairly clear sheath which in turn is surrounded by an 

 external sheath of an intermediate darkness. In vessels with reticulations very close this 

 structure is difficult to observe, but where meshes are wider they often clearly anastomose, 

 as shuwn in fig. 4 for barley. Author notes this structure is identical in vessels from root, 

 shoot, leaf, and ovary, and from diverse plants (Cicer, Phaseolus, Iris, and Hordeum). The 

 three zones are thought not to differ much chemically but to be cellulose more or less con- 

 densed or modified by the mixture of other carbohydrates. Resemblance to structure of 

 starch grains similarly prepared is exact (fig. 7), and the suggestion of A. Meyer that car- 

 bohydrate lamellae and starch-grain layers are alike as to structure and growth is approved 

 by author, who propounds the question as to whether the thickenings are not greatly elong- 

 ated sphero-crystals of cellulose, much as starch is concerned in the formation of the starch 

 grain. Author notes that (1) with formation of large central vacuole and the location of the 

 protoplasm along the wall of the cell, the protoplasm becomes more granular at point where 

 thickenings are to occur; (2) the chondriomes (the secretory apparatus of the cell) develop con- 

 siderably in exactly those large vascular cells where thickenings occur; (3) the secondary 

 membrane is a secretion product of the protoplasm. These three phenomena are simultaneous 

 in same cell, and are not the thickenings due to activity of mitochondria which are abundant 

 in cell immediately before the thickenings form. Grains of starch are product of secretion of 

 mitochondria or of their derivatives the plastids, and Dop (1914) has seen the formation of 

 cellulose in interior of chondriosomes. Author concludes that secondary membrane does not 

 form by local decomposition over cellulose sheath of primary membrane but rather by growth 

 with reference to the central axis of the thickening as a central nucleus or hilum, and that the 

 external sheath in contact with the primary membrane is the last part to be formed. — 0. E. 

 Jennings. 



1568. De Toni, G. B. Letture contributo alia teratologia del genera "Chrysanthemum" 

 L. [Lecture on teratology in the genus "Chrysanthemum" L.] Atti R. Accad. Sci. Torino 



54: 254-257. 1918-1919 Three examples of fasciation in Chrysanthemum rarinatum Schoub. 



var. luieum are given, in which the first shows true synanthy both externally by complete 

 union of the disk flowers surrounded by complete circle of ray Mowers, and internally by com- 

 plete fusion of medullary parenchyma of the head; while the other two are of different types 

 of adhesion in peduncles and heads, showing apparent synanthy in both external and internal 

 characteristics. — Harriet M. Libby. 



