BOTANY FOR 1887 AND 1888. 



By F. H. Knowlton, M. S., Assistant Curator in the National Museum. 



The years 1887, 1888 have witnessed the publication of a very largre 

 amount of material, considerably in excess of that of many furiner 

 years, without there, being published anything of special moment. The 

 results that have been presented may be regarded siaiply as a contin- 

 uation of the various lines of investigation that have occupied attention 

 during later years. Since the field of systematic botany has been so 

 thoroughly worked up, more and more attention has been shown to the 

 investigation of problems of histology, physiology, and embryology. 

 Notwithstanding the many avenues open for the publication of material 

 of this character, several new periodicals have been inaugurated: Mal- 

 phigia, The Annals of Botany, Pittonia, Garden and Forest, etc. The 

 constantly increasing attention that has been given of late years to the 

 study of Bacteria has resulted in the production of such a mass of ma- 

 terial that it can no longer be considered under the head of botany, 

 and must be relegated to the special journals and works devoted to the 

 subject. 



The compiler desires to make special acknowledgment for valuable 

 assistance to the Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society, in which 

 Prof. A. W. Bennett has given so complete a digest of current botanical 

 literature. 



veCtEtable anatomy and physiology. 



The structure of the vegetable cell-wall has been much investigated 

 of late years, and many of the mooted questions had seemingl.y been 

 set at rest, but the latest observations may possibly render some of them 

 doubtful. Elliott (Trans. Bot. Soc. Edinb. xvii) has given an interesting 

 resume of recent researches in this direction. Beginning with the pre- 

 sentation of the theory of growth by opposition as defined by Prings- 

 heim, and the theory of intussusception as presented by Niigeli, von 

 Mohl, and others, he traces the growth of ideas as modified by the 

 researches of Schmitz, Strasburger, Wiesner, Klebs, Schneck, and 

 others, and concludes that the present stateof our knowledge warrants 

 the following conclusions : (1) Growth of the cell-wall may be affected 

 by deposition from the protoplasm of the cell ; (2) the cell-wall, however, 

 always contains, during the life of the cell, living protoplasm, which is 



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