|8 9*-J Briefer Articles. 



149 



florum, H. tenuifolium, Parthenium Hysterophorus, Solanum 

 rostratum, Monarda, citriodora, and Croton capitatum. The plants 

 were first noticed by W. J. Greene of the Ohio Experiment Station, 

 and appeared to be growing well and spreading. The seed was evi- 

 dently scattered from cars or wagons upon the return of the show at 

 the close of the season.— Aug. D. Selby, Co/umfius, Ohio. 



Continuity of the protoplasm in the Chantransia form of Batnu-h- 

 ospermum. — Strasburger (Botanisches Practicum, p. 403, 2nd German 

 edition), mentions the fact of the continuity of the protoplasm be- 

 tween the cells of filaments of Batrachospermum. The writer's 

 attention was attracted to this phenomenon while studying the Chan- 

 transia form of one of the species of Batrachospermum, probably 

 Chantransia (Batrachospermum) macrospora, from Florida; and the 

 protoplasmic connection was so evident that he thought the readers of 

 the Botanical Gazette might be interested in his observations. 



The phenomenon was first noticed in a slide of the alga which had 

 been mounted in glycerine jelly. In preparing the specimen for the 

 jelly the glycerine had caused a slight shrinkage of the cell-contents, 

 drawing it away from the cell-walls in all parts of the cells except at 

 the ends, where fine threads of protoplasm which pierced the end 

 walls were plainly seen to connect the shrunken masses of protoplasm 

 in the different cells. The figure, showing this condition, was drawn 

 from a filament on this slide with a Abbe camera, power 600 diameters, 

 (reduced one-half). 



A very sasisfactorv way of demonstrating the pres- 

 ence of the connecting fibril is to stain the alga fila- 

 ments with an alcoholic solution of eosin, w;ish in water, 

 and then carefully ihrink the contents of the cells with 

 dilute glycerine. The water washes the eosin out of 

 the cell-walls leaving the granular matter of the cells 

 deeply stained and the connecting protoplasmic threads 

 slightly colored. Borax carmine also gave satisfactory 

 results. Iodine and methyl violet did not differentiate 

 clearly enough, the cell-walls being so deeply stained 

 as to obscure the protoplasmic connections. However, 

 the green filaments, with the contents shrunken a little, 

 exhibit the connecting fibril in an unmistakable way. The Chantran- 

 sia form is better to demonstrate the continuity of the protoplasm 

 than the sexual form, because the cells are as a whole much larger. 

 Bradley M. Davis, Indiana University, Bloomin^ton, 



A method of studying the irrowtfc of tulM-rs.— After a careful exam- 

 ination of all the literature on tubers and tubercles at hand it appears 



