902 RECORD OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



The colony was never the same at the end of the day as it had been 

 at tlie beginning. No other mode of reproduction than that by fission 

 was observed. 



Dealing with the systematic position of Monohia, the author 

 remarks that it might be as justly jilaced with the Foraminifera as 

 Myxodictijum sociale, which Professor Claus has relegated to that 

 class ; he, however, bears in mind the almost general presence of 

 a nucleus in the Foraminifera, and concludes that, until our know- 

 ledge of the mutual relations of the Protozoa is more complete, it 

 is necessary to retain Haeckel's group of the Monera. 



Eozoon Canadense.* — Professor Mobius replies in detail to 

 Principal Dawson's criticism of his Monograph (see ji. 275), and it is 

 needless to say adheres to his original view. He points out more 

 particularly that not a single one of all the specimens of Eozoon 

 which he studied came from the hands of "dealers or injudicious 

 amateurs " as suggested, but all directly or indirectly from Messrs. 

 Dawson and Carpenter, and promises that if he is furnished with other 

 specimens which rrincii:)al Dawson recognizes as the genuine repre- 

 sentatives of Eozoon, and showing the organic nature contended for, 

 he will examine them with care and conscientiousness, and if he finds 

 a true organic structure will avow it without hesitation. 



BOTANY. 



A. GENERAL, including Embryology and Histology 

 of the Phanerogamia. 



Development of the Embryo of Phanerogams."]"— Famiutzin has 

 undertaken a close investigation of this subject, with especial reference 

 to the following statements of earlier observers (in particular Hanstein 

 and Westermeier), viz. " That the three primary layers, the dermatogen, 

 periblem, and plerome, show no clear separation in their products of 

 division, but pass over into one another at their boundaries ; and that 

 a uniform origin of these three primary layers in the embryo occurs 

 only in the tigellum (the hypocotyledonary portion of the stem), and 

 then only in Dicotyledons ; while in the whole of the embryo of 

 Monocotyledons, and the cotyledonary portion of Dicotyledons, a more 

 or less indefinite, and in many cases altogether irregular, cell-division 

 takes place, without any trace for a considerable time of a separation 

 into primary layers ; and that it is only at a later i^eriod that such 

 a difi'erentiation can be recognized." This statement Famintzin finds 

 must be considerably modified. His observations were made chiefly 

 on Capsella bursa-jxistoris and Alisvia plantago ; his main results, as 

 far as regards these plants, being as follows : — 



1. In the embryo of both these plants, the results were altogether 

 the same as to the independence and origin of the three primary 

 layers. In both a perfect regularity was observed in their origin ; 

 when once differentiated, the three layers remained perfectly distinct 

 during the whole period of the development of the embryo, never 



* ' Am. Jonrn. Sci. and Arts,' xviii. (1879) p. 177. 



t ' Mem. Acad. Imp. Sci. St. Pctcrsbourg.' xxvi. (1879) No. 10. 



