BOTANY 199 



BOTANY. By E. J. Salisbury, D.Sc, F.L.S., University College, London. 



Indian Botany will receive a stimulus from the newly formed 

 Indian Botanical Society, of which Shiv Ram Kashyap, 

 M.Sc, of the Government College, Lahore, is the Secretary- 

 Treasurer. It is not the present intention of the executive 

 to start any publication, but one of the most useful activities 

 contemplated is the establishment of a central exchange for 

 botanical literature, and for aiding botanists generally. The 

 promotion of research and the establishment of one or more 

 biological institutes are also part of the official programme. 



Morphology. — It would appear that the double stock, as 

 other double strains, has arisen from the single type by a single 

 mutation. In the Journal of Genetics Miss Saunders deals 

 with some figures and statements respecting semi-doubles 

 which might be regarded as incipient doubles, and therefore as 

 evidence for the gradual assumption of the double condition. 

 These are explained as an outcome of more or less perfect 

 twinning of flowers produced during the period and in the region 

 of maximum vigour. 



The development of the leaf of mosses has been again 

 investigated by M. Constantin [Ann. Set. Nat., April 1921). 

 Working with a variety of species and genera this author has 

 arrived at the conclusion that, as Hofmeister and Goebel 

 observed, the leaf grows at first by an ephemeral initial-cell, 

 the later growth being intercalary and with increasing age 

 passing more and more towards the base. The leaf apex at 

 an early stage shows signs of differentiation, and in Mnium 

 the several-layered margin develops almost simultaneously 

 throughout the length of the blade. All the mosses examined 

 showed asymmetry of the leaf-base, a fact which can be attri- 

 buted to the overlap of the leaves by one another. 



Anatomy and Embryology. — In a study of the gametophyte 

 and embryo of Botrychium obliquum, Campbell finds that the 

 root arises endogenously, that the cotyledon and root are both 

 bipolar, and that there is a suspensor, thus differing from 

 B. lunaria and B. virginianmn and approaching the condition in 

 Ophioglossum {Ann. Bot., April). Jeffrey and Torrey {Bot. Gaz.), 

 in a further paper dealing with the derivation of herbaceous 

 from arboreal Dicotyledons, conclude that there has been pro- 

 gressive loss of cambial activity in the foliar trace which, even- 

 tually extending to the remaining bundles, has brought about 

 a monocotyledonous condition. 



Macpherson, in the same journal, dealing with Convolvulus 

 sepium, finds that polyembryony is the rule in this species 

 rather than the exception, the supernumerary embryos being 

 apparently developed from the synergids. 



Genetics, etc. — In an extremely interesting paper on genetical 



