BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 103 



cross section to be thinner-walled and larger than the inside ones and 

 all are filled with oil globules of various sizes in addition to the pro- 

 toplasmic contents. This cushion is about i-6oth of an inch in width 

 and one- half that in thickness. Near the center, as also of the con- 

 nective, runs a fibro-vascular bundle. 



pjetween our two species there is a difference in the time of de- 

 hiscence of the anthers — those of C. alnifolia not breaking until com- 

 plete anthesis, while in C. acuminata they break just as the petals 

 separate at the top. Both are proterandrous. Both also are very fra 

 grant, but the fragrance is earlier perceptible in C. acu7ninata, corre- 

 lated with the earlier dehiscence of the anthers. In this species the 

 nectaries are very large and double, one on each side of the filament 

 at the base of the petals. In C. alnifolia they are smaller and appar- 

 ently single, situated between the filament and the petal. 



P'ertilization is effected almost altogether by honev bees. They 

 alight on the outspread petals and thrust the head down by the side of 

 the style frequently touching the stigmas. In crawling around over the 

 spike of flowers almost every part of the body comes in contact with 

 the stigmas. Cross-pollination is thus abundantly provided for as usu- 

 al both by proterandry and the visits • .f insects. 



I have not Bentham and Hooker's Genera Plantarum by me, but 

 if my memory is correct they say "Pollen globosa." I find the pollen 

 of both <iur species elliptical with three slits, as stated by Rdgeworth 

 and only globose after the absorption of water. — C. R. Barnes, La- 

 Ear e tie, hid. 



Vesque's Development of the Embryo sac. — In the Annales 

 dcs Sciences Naturclies, 1878, M. Julien Vesque, after discussing the 

 development of the embryo-sac of Angiosperms, draws the following 

 conclusions, which somewhat modify dur previous notions concerning 

 the embryo sac. Or rather our text books merely stated that it was 

 an enlarged cell of the nucleus without giving any account of its de- 

 velopment. 



M. Vesque now fills this hiatus and as his conclusions have been 

 mostly confirmed we feel confidence in printing them in the Gazette, 

 urging upon our physiological botanists to test them as far as they are 

 able. 



1. In the Angiosperms the embryo sac of Brnngniart is not com- 

 posed, as in the Gymnosperms, of a single cell ; it results 011 the con- 

 trary from the blending of at least two cells superposed and originally 

 separated by partitions. 



2. The cells which are to compose subsecjuently the embryo-sac 

 all proceed from a single primordial mother cell. M. Warming, who 

 has discovered them, has with reason given to them the name of spec- 

 ial mother cells, comparing them with mother cells of pollen or 

 spores This bringing together is justified by the physical characters 

 of the partitions. 



3 . When the evolution of the special mother cells has been com- 

 pleted, each one of them gives rise to four nuclei homologues of the 

 four grains of pollen produced in the same mother cell. 



