C84 SCIENTIFIC RECORD FOR 1883. 



The structure and function of the epidermal system of plants is 

 treated in detail by Westermaier in Pringsheim's Jakrbuecher. Am- 

 bronn, in the same journal, shows that the presence of pores in the 

 outer walls of epidermal cells is not opposed to the theory that the 

 pores in internal cells are for the purpose of assisting diasmotic 

 changes. Wilhelm, in Bericht. Deutsch Bot. GeselL, reports that in a 

 considerable number of Goniferce he found the outer opening of the 

 stomata filled with a fine-grained, waxy substance, evidently intended 

 to diminish transpiration. In the same journal are papers by Schwen- 

 dener on the protective sheath in stems and the way in which it is 

 strengthened ; a preliminary communication by A. Fischer on the sieve- 

 cell system of Gucurbita; and Wilhelm gives the results of some exper- 

 iments with young oaks, which had been stripped of their leaves in 

 June, and on examination in the autumn were found to have a double 

 annual ring, confirming the observations of Kiny. The Bot. Ccntrablatt 

 has a paper by Eussow, Zur Kenntniss des Holzes, insonderheit des Gon- 

 ifrren Holzes, which is summed up as follows by the author: The ves- 

 sels and tracheids are merely pumps, by which the water is transferred 

 from the roots to the leaves by the action of two forces, a suction act- 

 ing through the "zweiseitigen Hoftuepfel" and a direct pressure acting 

 through the "einseitigen Hoftuepfel." The microscopic anatomy of the 

 principal Japanese Goniferce is illustrated by Nakamura in Hartig's 

 Unter such, for stbot. Instit. Munich. Klebahn has a paper on the struct- 

 ure and function of Lenticells and their substitutes in plants destitute 

 of lenticells in Bericht. Deutsch. Bot. GeselL In the last-named journal 

 is a short paper by Korschelt, in which he states that not only in Gym- 

 nosperms, as had been shown by Dingier, but in certaiu Phoenogams 

 he found that the terminal growth took place by means of a three-sided 

 scheitel-cell. Also in the same journal is a paper by Urban on the 

 morphological significance of the thorns of Aurantiacece. He thinks 

 that they are not transformed axillary branches, as is generally sup- 

 posed, but the two lower leaves of an axillary branch. The Torrey 

 Bulletin has a paper by Shrenk on the hausstoria of Gommandra. 



Van Tieghem and Guignard give some observations on the mechan- 

 ism of the fall of leaves, and the species specially exaurined by them 

 was Gymnocladus canadensis. In the case of the leaves proper a layer 

 of cork is formed at the insertion of the leaf, and the layer of sep- 

 aration forms above the cork layer. The leaflets have a meristem 

 formed around the vascular bundle of their petioles, and by the forcible 

 growth of the meristem the bundle is finally ruptured. In the Proc. 

 Akad. Wiss. Berlin, Schwendener, in a paper entitled Zur Theorie der 

 Blattstellungen, replies to the criticisms of his opponents, especially 0. 

 De Candolle. Goebel's paper in Pringsheim's Jahrbuecher on the de- 

 velopment of certain inflorescenses confines itself to the Gramincce 

 and Urticacece. In the Bot. Zeitung Goroschankin describes and figures 

 sieve-plates in the membranes of the corpuscula of Cycads and Coni- 



