Journal of Applied Microscopy. 



197 



replacing the clove oil by ceciar oil after 

 the clove oil has worked for a short 

 time. Mount in balsam. 



C. J. C. 



Balajeff, \V1. Ueber die Reductioiistheilung des 

 Pflanzenkernes. Ber. d. deutsch. bot. Gesell. 

 16 : 27-34, 1808. 



In the spring of 1897 Strasburger and 

 Mottier thought they had found a reduc- 

 tion division (in Weissmann's sense) in 

 the pollen mother cells of Lilium and 

 Podyphyllum, but they almost immedi- 

 ately acknowledged that the work needed 

 reinvestigation. The only other account 

 of a reducing division in plants was that 

 of the zoologist Ishikawa, who reports it 

 in pollen mother cells of Allium fistulo- 

 sum. Belajeff believes that the* negative 

 results of the botanists have been due to 

 vague conceptions of division in vegeta- 

 tive nuclei. In this paper he described 

 three forms of karyokinesis — the vege- 

 tative, in which the chromosomes in the 

 mother star are U shaped, the hetero- 

 type with V. X. or Y shaped chromo- 

 somes (first division of pollen mother 

 cells), and the reduction division with J 

 shaped chromosomes in the second divi- 

 sion of pollen mother cells. As these 

 results are based almost entirely upon 

 the shape of the chromosomes, other 

 proof will be required before the conclu- 

 sions can be regarded as more than a 

 suggestive hypothesis. 



C. J. C. 



Bokoriiy, Dr. Tli. Lehrbuch der Botanik fiir 

 Realschulen und Gymnasien, pp. 226. Published 

 by Wilhelm Englemann, Leipzig, 1898. 



The object of this book is economy of 

 time and work on the part of the student. 

 After a rather detailed description of a 

 few flowering plants, the gross morphol- 

 ogy of the plant body is considered. The 

 chapter on microscopic anatomy is short, 

 only fifteen pages. The various groups 

 are then presented, beginning with the 

 Dicotyls and ending with the Schizophy- 

 tes. The chapters on Physiology and 

 Biology (Ecology) seem too short as 

 compared with the structural and sys- 

 tematic parts. The book closes with a 

 key to the most common families, genera, 

 and species of local Angiosperms. The 

 book is clearly written, but the taxonomic 

 feature is unduly prominent. 



C. J. C. 



Mottier, David M. Das Centrosom bet Dictyota. 

 Ber d. deutch. bot. Ciez. 16 : 123-128, 1898. 



The tetraspore mother cells of Dictyota 

 dichotoma furnished material for this 

 work. The centrosome is staff shaped, 

 usually bent with the convex side next 

 the nucleus, but not resting upon the 

 nuclear membrane. The centrosome was 

 never found in a depression in the mem- 

 brane and was never found surrounded 

 by a hyaline area. He does not know 

 whether the centrosome has any phylo- 



genetic relation to the blepharoplast, but 

 states that the blepharoplast has nothing 

 to do with spindle formation. 



Centrosomes in the brown algae have 

 previously been described by Swingle in 

 Stypocaulon and by Strasburger in 

 Fucus. Centrosomes in diatoms — some- 

 times classed with the brown algae — 

 have been described by Smith, Butschli, 

 and Lauterborn. It will be remembered 

 that Mottier most emphatically denies 

 the existence of centrosomes in the flow- 

 ering plants. 



C. J. C. 



Treul>, M. L'Organe femelle et I'apogamie the 

 Balanophora elongata, Bl. Ann. du Jard. Buit- 

 enzorg. 15 : 1-25, 1898. 



This paper, illustrated by eight elegant 

 plates, recorded some rather startling 

 observations. There is- no ovule, but an 

 hypodermal cell gives rise to the embry- 

 osac, while the tissue above develops a 

 slender prolongation, making the whole 

 structure look like a moss archegonium. 

 The embryosac develops in the usual 

 manner as far as the eight-cell stage 

 except that the antipodal nucleus may 

 divide only once. The synergids and 

 oosphere entirely disappear, while the 

 upper polar nucleus, from the antipodal 

 end of the sac, produces independently 

 an endosperm of several cells. The 

 embryo then develops from one of these 

 endosperm cells, thus constituting a case 

 of pure apogamy. The mature embryo is 

 remarkably small, consisting of only five 

 to ten cells. 



C. J. C. 



Janssens, Fr. A., and Leblanc, A. Recherches 

 cytologiques sur la cellule de levure. La Cel- 

 lule, 14 : 203-243, 1898. 



This seems to be the best work on the 

 structure of the yeast cell which has yet 

 appeared. The principal stains used 

 were Malachite Green, Dahlia, Gentian 

 Violet, Delafield's Haemtoxylin, and 

 " Black Haematoxylin." (Black Haema- 

 toxylin differs from Delafield's in that the 

 ammonia alum of the latter is replaced 

 by iron alum.) Every yeast cell contains 

 a nucleus. During budding there is indi- 

 rect division of the nucleus in some 

 species, while in the common Saccharo- 

 myces cerevisiae and some others the 

 division is direct. Cells about to form 

 spores contain two nuclei which fuse. 

 The resulting spore on germination 

 shows a very peculiar form of division. 



C. J. C. 



Lyon, Florence M. A contribution to the life 

 history of Euphorbia corollata. Bot. Gaz. 25 : 

 418-425, 1898. 



The development of rudimentary 

 perianths about the "pistil" and 

 "stamens" show that the so called flower 

 is an infloresence. This is further 

 shown by the fact that the order of 

 development is not that of a flower, but 



