480 KECOKD OF SCIENCE FOR 1887 AND 1888. 



Of other papers ou the same subject may be menlioned the following: 

 Robertson, "Insect Relations of Certain Asclepiads" (Bot. Gaz., xii); 

 Arcangeli, "Flowering ofEuryale ferox''' (Atti Soc. Tosc. Sci .Nat, viii) ; 

 ISicotra, "Pollination of Serpias'''' (Malpigdia, i) ; Oliver, "Pollination 

 of Pleurothallis ornatus^'' (Nature, xxxvi); Webster, "Fertilization of 

 Eiripactis latifolia,''^ (Bot. Gaz., xii); Bateson, (Ann. Bot., i), "Effect 

 of Cross-Fertilization on Inconspicuous Flowers." 



Wortman has studied the rotation of tendrils and finds that the move- 

 ment is similar to the movement of climbing stems, being however much 

 more irregular. The movement in some species is not always uniform, 

 that is, a part of a tendril may rotate to the right and another part of 

 the same tendril rotate to the left. Gardner (Proc. Roy. Soc, Lond., 

 XLiii), has continued his exceedingly interesting experiments on the 

 pulviuus of Mimosa pudica. He examined sections cut under an aqueous 

 solution of eosin, and found that the coloring matter penetrated and 

 acted upon the protoplasm of the outer cells of the convex side of the pul- 

 viuus, while the si^ecially irritable tissue on the other side was left un- 

 stained. Electricity was then employed and the extreme delicacy of 

 the irritable tissue was manifest. In conclusion, Gardner states that in 

 his opinion the protoplasm of plant as Avell as animal cells is capable of 

 active contraction, and the movements of all irritable plant organs is due 

 to a definite contraction of the jirotoplasm. Vines (Rep. Brit. Assoc. 

 Adv. Sci., 1887) has extended these experiments upon Mimosa, and finds 

 that atropiu causes the closing of the leaves or an effect similar to dark- 

 ness, while physoatigmin produces the opposite effect or that of light. 



Elliott has given (Trans. Bot. Soc. Edinb., xvii) a valuable resume of 

 opinion in regard to the movement of wati-r in plants. The old view 

 of Sachs, linger, and others, that the water travels in the walls of the 

 lignified tissues, is proved by the later experiments of Van Tieghem, 

 Elfving, and others to be wrong, since in branches of Taxusm pigment 

 solution, the walls of the cells remain uncolored, while the cavities of 

 the cells are full of coloring matter. The weight of opinion inclines to 

 regard the path of the water as through the cell caviry. The part 

 taken by the medullary rays in the movement of water has been re-ex- 

 amined by Janse (Pringsheim's Jahrb. f. Wiss. Bot. xviii), and the 

 theory propounded by Godlewski is confirmed by his experiment. The 

 living parenchymatous elements of the wood undoubtedly take an im- 

 portant part in the movement of water. The investigations were made 

 mostly with conifers, but the author thinks that it would be the same 

 in dycotyledons. "The Literature of Transpiration," by Biirgerstein 

 (Verhandl. k. k. Zool. Bot. Gesell. Wien, xxxviii) is important. He 

 has collected a list of two hundred aud thirty-six works, of greater or 

 less magnitude, published between 1672 and 1880. No less than six- 

 teen languages are represented. Henslow also has a paper ou " Trans- 

 piration as a function of living protoplasm," in Journ, Linn Soc. Lond. 

 Bot. XXIV. Wiesner has a paper in Bot. Zeit. XLV. (Jhristison, who has 



