and Laboratory Methods. 1931 



CURRENT BOTANICAL LITERATURE. 



CHARLES J. CHAMBERLAIN, University of Chicago. 



Books for Review and Separates of Papers on Botanical Subjects should be Sent to Charles J. 

 Chamberlain, University of Chicago, Chicago, 111. 



Keinitz, Gerloff F. Neue Studien uber Plas- I" this paper the writer gives the re- 

 modesmen. Ber. d. deutsch. bot. Gesell. sults of his Studies upon protoplasmic 



20:93-117, pi. 4, 1902. ^- • 1 , r 



connections in a large number of 

 plants belonging to all groups from the algae up to the flowering plants. The 

 following method is recommended : The moss leaves, filamentous material or sec- 

 tions were treated with iodine solution and then allowed to swell for about 

 twenty-four hours in weak sulphuric acid (1 part HjSO^ and 3 parts water), after 

 which they were stained in methyl violet (0.1 g. methyl violet + 30 c. c. water to 

 which is added an equal volume of the weak sulphuric acid). The iodine and 

 sulphuric acid not only serve as fixing agents, but also act as mordants. 



Previous investigations have made it seem very probable that protoplasmic 

 connections are universally present in the phanerogams. The present work 

 shows that the connections are as uniformly present in the lower groups, the 

 filamentous algae forming, perhaps, an exception ; but in such algae, each cell has 

 a large degree of independence in nutrition and reproduction, so that the ab- 

 sence of the connections need not occasion surprise. 



The suggestion is made that the connections may not be derived wholly from 

 the Hautschicht, but that they may consist of trophoplasmic core covered by 

 Haiitschkht. The theory that the connections conduct stimuli and materials is 

 supported, but the writer believes that the whole subject still needs inves- 

 tigation, c. J. c. 



Gager,C. S. The development of the pollin- ^ox the fourth time we call the atten- 

 lum and sperm cells in Asclepias Cornuti, 



Descaines. Annals of Botany, 16:123-148, tion of readers of the JOURNAL tO a 

 pi. 7, 1902. paper dealing with the pollen mother 



cells of Asclepias. The first paper, which was merely mentioned by title, was by 

 Wm. C. Stevens, 'who in discussing spindle formation, incidentally says that the 

 pollen mother cell gives rise to four microspores arranged in a row ; but the 

 statement is made as if he were referring to an accepted fact and not as if he 

 realized that it was a real contribution. Strasburger and Frye, whose work ap- 

 peared almost simultaneously, made it plain that the mother cell gives rise to 

 four microspores. The present paper, which is accompanied with good illus- 

 trations, traverses about the same ground and arrives at the same conclusions. 



c. J. c. 



Sbibata, K. Die Doppelbefruchtung bei Mono- The fertilization of the egg and polar 

 tropa uniflora L. Flora, 90: 61-66, IQ02. \ • n nr . , -yi 



nuclei of Mofiotropa uniflora is practic- 

 ally the same as in all other forms in which double fertilization has been 

 observed. The sperms are vermiform when they enter the embryo-sac, but 



