l8 9iJ Briefer Articles. 179 



hermaphroditism, of male and female flowers*; Bessey of the female 

 flower of Gymnosperms 4 ; Luerssen of the male and female organs, of 

 male and female flowers (die Geschlechtsorgane, mannliche Bliithe, 

 weibliche Bliithe, etc.) 5 ; and one can hardly find an author of note 

 who does not thus perpetuate in his terminology notions which he 

 must certainly have abandoned and desires to guard others against 

 adopting. 



Now in this case there seems to be no excuse for such looseness. 

 If biology is to be an exact science it should use its terms as the 

 chemist or physician does. Acids must not be called bases, magnet- 

 ism must not be called heat, electricity must not be called thermo- 

 dynamics. Let it be remembered that reproductive cells are of two 

 kinds, those formed by division of an existing plant-body, namely 

 spores, and those formed by fusion of gametes, namely eggs. A plant 

 which produces pollen-grains, embryo-sacs, conidia or any kind of 

 spore is a spore-bearing plant or sporophyte (in the widest sense); a 

 plant which produces gametes (whether they be isogametes as in C7o- 

 thrix, Mucor, Syncephalis, or spermatozoids and eggs— both or either) 

 is a gamete-producing plant or gametophyte. We may then use our 

 terms correctly as follows: 



Gametophyte group. Sporophyte group. 



Hermaphrodite. Monoclinous, diclinous. 



Unisexual, bisexual. Monoecious, dioecious. 



Male, female. Staminate, pistillate. 



Spermatozoid, egg. Microspore, macrospore. 



Fertilised egg. Macrosporophyll, microsporophylL 



etc. 



etc. 



****** , — 



We may speak of hermaphrodite, unisexual, male prothallia of ferns, 



^ we like, but we should certainly say monoclinous, monoecious, mi- 

 crosporophyllous flowers. The general adoption of some uniformity 

 in the applying of names to flowers and parts of flowers would not 

 only make all discussions of them clearer but would not do learners 

 the injustice of forcing upon them the very ideas which it is deemed 

 important they should not get. 



Mifm 



Mi fin 



Curious case of germination in Citrus (leciumina.— I received a few 

 days ago from Prof. Le Baron R. Briggs, of Harvard University, half 

 of a fruit of Citrus decumana on the cut surface of which was a seed 

 which had begun to germinate. The hvpo cotyl was, at th e time, a 



3 Outiines of Classification and Special Morphology, Eng. tran. p. H47. 

 4 Botany, 5th edition, p. 3»7. 

 *Systematische Botanik ii, 193. 



