298 The Botanical Gazette. ' [October, 



The object is to adopt means, by concerted local efforts and other- 

 wise, to promote the exploration of the flora of every portion of Brit- 

 ish America, to publish complete lists of the same in local papers as 

 the work goes on, and to have these lists collected and carefully ex- 

 amined in order to arrive at the correct knowledge of the precise 

 character of the flora and its geographical distribution. 



The method is to stimulate, with the least possible paraphernalia of 

 constitution or rules, increased activity m the botanists in each locality, 

 to create a corps of collecting botanists wherever there may be few or 

 none at present, to encourage the formation of field clubs, to publish 

 lists of local floras in the local press, etc., etc. Any person interested 

 in the study oi botany is eligible. 



The general officers for the year are: Dr. George Lawson, of Hali- 

 fax, president; A. H. MacKay, of Halifax, secretary and treasurer. 

 There is also a secretary for each province, who will, in turn, appoint 

 local secretaries in such localities as he may deem expedient. It is the 

 duty of the local secretaries to stimulate botanical research in their 

 districts, and to endeavor to secure such notes on occurrence and 

 situation of specimens, as may eventually enable the club to publish a 

 special catalogue of the flora of the region. We wish the new club 

 success. 



M. Gustave Chauveaud has investigated in great detail the non- 

 articulated laticiferous tissue and the account of his study forms parts 

 1 and 2 of the Annates des Sciences Naturetles, Botanique, 7, xiv, pp. 

 160, 8 plates. The subject has long needed investigation. We trans- 

 late his conclusions: . 



The continuous primitive laticiferous apparatus is formed by special 

 initial cells which are the first elements of the embryo differentiated. 

 These initial cells, rarely four, sometimes eight, frequently more num- 

 erous, are of constant number in each species. Thev appear always 

 in the same transverse plane (the nodal plane), and are 'formed in most 

 cases at the expense of the pericycle. They elongate into tubes and 

 become much branched, constituting in the embryo a complex system 

 often of great regularity. Later this system increases and furnishes 

 the laticiferous system of the seedling and the adult plant. In case 

 the plant acquires secondary formations, these formations are traversed 

 by laticiferous tubes springing from the branches of the primitive 

 laticiferous system near the generating layers. The appearance of new 

 initial cells has not been observed after the first stages of embryonic 

 development. The tubes do not show anastomoses nor transverse 

 partitions. I he branches in certain species are distributed through 

 the pith as well as through the bark. Their terminations are not 

 localized in a special tissue; they are found in the leaves and cotvle- 

 dons either in the midst of the parenchyma or underneath the palisade 

 cells or even more frequently in contact with the epidermis. In cer- 

 tain plants the continuous tubes seem to precede the appearance of 

 the articulated tubes. Finally, thev are not met with except in the 

 huphorbiaceje , Urticaceae, Apocynaceaj and Asclepiadacese, where they 

 serve to characterize certain tribes. 





