iiUOK -NOTES. NEWS. ETC. 63 



Miss Jekyll has added to the many vohiiiies alread}^ standing 

 under her name one on Annuals and Biennials ('Country Life' 

 Oifices, price 7s. Qd. net). "The purpose of this book," she tells us in 

 her preface, "is to give practical advice as to the choice of kinds, to 

 point out which are the best, to give simple cultural directions, and to 

 offe'r a few suggestions relating to the use of annuals and biennials in 

 various departments of garden practice " ; and this purpose has been 

 fulfilled with the thor.nighness born of practical knowledge which 

 characterizes all Miss Jekyll's books. As is also usual in these, there 

 are a large number of excellent illustrations, both of garden borders 

 and individual plants ; among the former are some which will be 

 familiar to those who ha\'e had the privilege of visiting her garden, 

 of the latter, three are in colour, the frontispiece being the beautiful 

 form of Xic/flhi which was Hi-st raised by Miss Jekyll and ])ears her 

 name. 



The Journal of Genetics for December contains a paper by 

 Mr. B.iteson on " Root-cuttings, Chimseras, and Spoi-ts." Dr. B. D. 

 Jackson defines a chimsera as " the product from a bud with mechanical 

 coalescence of two parent forms " ; periclinal chimaeras are what we 

 have been accustomed to call graft-hybrids. Mr. Bateson has experi- 

 mented on certain cultivated forms of Bouvardia, of which an excellent 

 coloured plate is given. Mr. W. A. Backhouse in " The Inheritance 

 of Crossability " gives the results of his experiments in crossing forms 

 of wheat with rye. 



At the meeting (*f the Linnean vSociety on 14th December, 1916, 

 Mr. H. S. Holden communicated and explained a paper by Miss Isabel 

 McClatchie, B.Sc, entitled " Observations on the Koot-System of 

 Iiiipatiens Roi/lei Walp." The primary root-system of this plant 

 consists of a somewhat short tap root, a whorl of four robust lateral 

 roots, and a n\imber of accessory laterals. These soon become obsolete 

 and are replaced by a large superficial root-system of adventitious 

 origin derived from the lower half of the hypocotyl. In plants in 

 which the first and subsequent nodes trail along the ground, additional 

 roots are produced from these. Abortive roots commonly arise at the 

 bases of lateral branches, and further development can be induced also 

 in these by suitable manipulation. Yanous other factors such as 

 wounding, increasing the height of the soil, etc., also induce accessor}^ 

 root-formation. The primary root-system is characterized by a 4-arch 

 or 5-arch solid xylem star, and by the early development of tyloses. 

 The stout adventitious roots are polyarch with a wide pith, and 

 develop a superficial protective cork layer. They show, in common 

 with the other parts of the plant, the tannin sacs and raphides charac- 

 teristic of the genus. 



At the same meeting a jmper " On the Distribution of Monoecious 

 Plants, and the Occurrence of Hermaphrodite Flowers in Myrica 

 Gale, with Observations on Variations of Sex," by Miss A. J. Davey, 

 -M.Sg., and Miss M. Gibson, B.Sc, was explained by the authors. 

 Myrica Gale is described as being ty])ically dioecious, but mention lias 

 ■been made by several authors of tlie occasional occurrence of the 

 monoecious condition. Observations durinof several successive veai-s 



