BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 294 



those that have proved most successful, and looking at results, 

 there are fevv better teachers of botany than Prof Beal. But he 

 speaks for himself upon another page and gives us not only a 

 synopsis of his own methods, but, what is perhaps just as interesting, 

 a specimen of what they produce. 



Ever since insectivorous plants came mto vogue there 

 has been no end of plant marvels. That wonderful tropical tree which 

 swallowed into its leafy crown any unlucky mortal who came within 

 the circle of its influence has run the gauntlet of the newspapers 

 more than once, but really it represented very wel la Broodignagian 

 Drosera. The latest phase of this multiform story has just appeared 

 in the pages of a scientific periodical where it is published as credi- 

 ble. It comes this time dignified by the names of officers of the royal 

 navy, and the appetite of the tree has become most abnormal, desiring 

 now only bones which it holds on to with all the pertinacity of a 

 famished dog. The tree observed had the habit of passing the bones 

 tossed under it up to its upper Iiraches, and standing near some na- 

 tive huts every twig was ornamented with its set of bones, the natives 

 evidently not considering it so much of a curiosity as a convenient 

 receptacle for bone rubbish. Indeed, this last story seems not to have 

 lost a whit of the marvels of the first; and its appearance in a prom- 

 inent scientific journal will give it a fine start in the unscientific press. 



Tlie Asparagus for Histological Study.— i have for several 



years been wanting a good Monocotyledon for histological study in 

 the botanical laboratory, one which should be for its sub class what the 

 pumpkin is for the Dicotyledons. The Indian Corn, which is commonly 

 used, is too difficult, and too greatly specialized a type, exhibiting as 

 it does the peculiar nodal structure of the stem of the Gramineae, 

 rather than the structure of the stem of Monocotyledons in general. 

 A good representative stem, and one which can i)e obtained every- 

 where in good condition, from early spring until the end of the season, 

 is the Asparagus. This has been carefully studied the past season in 

 the botanical laboratory of the Iowa Agricultural College, by Miss 

 Fannie J. Perrett, from whose thesis I select the following results : 



The epidermis is composed of elongated cells quite regular in 

 outline, and of deep radial, as compared with tangential 

 diameter. The external walls are well thickened. The sto- 

 mata are abundant, and are regularly disposed. They appear 

 to develop directly from mother-cells cut oiTby transverse fission from 

 the ends of ordinary cells. It is an easy matter to secure transverse 

 sections of stomata by making repeated cross sections of the stem. 

 Trichomes appear to be wanting. 



The hypoderma is composed of collenchyma and parenchyma, 

 the latter being rich in chlorophyll Beneath the hypodermal tract is 

 a meristem layer, to be more particularly noticed hereafter. The re- 

 mainder of the Fundamental System of tissues is composed of large 

 and long-celled parenchyma. 



Th" fibro-vascular bundles are closed; that is, they contain, 

 when fully developed, no meristem tissue. In a transverse section 



