BOTANICAL GAZETTE. gs 



to b(^ kept "au couiant,'" since "Science" is the active agent, will find 

 this journal invaluable. Having dipped t'ms far into the prospectus, 

 we turned from the field of superlatives into the list of contributors. 

 These are superlative, their names being a sufficient guaranty of the 

 undertaking. In Vol. i, No i, we have articles by Prof E. S. Hol- 

 den, Prof Burt G. Wilder, Francis P. Upton, and others, together with 

 a mass of well selected extracts After a close examination of its con- 

 tents, however, we find not to exceed three notes bearing upon botan- 

 i(:al subjects. Such being tiie c.ise we cheerfully advise all to subscribe 

 for it, addressing John Michels, editor, box 383S, New York, and en- 

 closing $4 the ''sine qua no/i." 



The Monthly Index to Current Periodical Literature, Proceed- 

 ings of Learned Societies and Government Publications. Published at 

 office of American Bookseller, 10 Spruce Street, N. Y. , at $1 per 

 annum. Under the abo^e somewhat extended title, we have the vade 

 jncciiin of the specialist, since it gives the titles of the latest articles 

 written in almost every department of Natural History, Philosophy, 

 Biography, Education, Religion, Art, /Esthetics, Architecture, Mu- 

 sic, Archseology, Anthropology, Ethnology, Folk-lore, etc., etc., with 

 the name of author and number of pages. Without claiming to 

 "meet a long felt want" it does it admirably. Address as above. 



NECT.A.R, Its Nature, Occurrence and Uses. By Wm. Tre- 

 lease, Ithaca, N. Y. We have received the author's edition of the 

 above pamphlet, and hope in our next issue to make a full review. It 

 is extracted from the report on cotton insects by J. Henry Comstock, 

 Entomologist to the U. S. Department of Agriculture. The extract is 

 25 pages with a full page steel plate containing 13 figures. 



Rudimentary Coma in Godetia. — While investigating the de- 

 velopment of the embryo-sac in the different genera of Onagraccce, my 

 attention was attracted to certain hair-like projections which appeared 

 upon the forming ovule of Godciia, probably G. grandiflota. A care- 

 ful examination showed them to be identical in structure with the 

 forming hairs in the coma of Epilobium. They occurred almost ex- 

 clusively at the chalazal end, one or two scattered ones being detected 

 farther down upon the raphe. A study of the development of the 

 coma of Epilobium shows that the first indication of it is a tuberculated 

 appearance at the chalazal end. Presently these tubercles push out 

 into elongating nucleated cells which eventually develop into the long 

 hairs of the coma. Now Godetia permanently retains this tuberculated 

 margin at the upper end, but does not usually develop its coma any 

 farther In the cases examined, however, the forming ovules, either 

 in reminiscence or prophecy, stretched out their tubercles into incipi- 

 ent hairs. Tracing these ovules in their subsequent development it 

 was found that these hairs gradually disappeared until when the ovules 

 had become anatropous, there was no indication of them. As Godetia 



