346 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [ocToBER 
Anatomy of Japanese conifers.—The difficulty in distinguishing the wood 
of closely related conifers by their anatomical structure is clearly illustrated by 
Fujioxa’s detailed study’ of the anatomy of 37 species of Japanese Coniferales. 
The primary object of the investigation, as outlined in the preface, was to 
secure a more reliable basis for distinguishing the various Japanese woods of 
similar external appearance. In the “Tabelle zum Bestimmen” which sum- 
marizes the results of the investigation, the 19 genera investigated are separated 
into 16 groups. Evidently no simple and reliable basis for distinguishing 
species was discovered, nor were the following genera separated: Taxus and 
Torreya; Thuyopsis, Cryptomeria, Chamaecyparis, and Cunninghamia. The 
diagnostic characters used in the classification are those used by Gor. in 
his key to the wood of the gymnosperms and are therefore subject to similar 
criticisms. 
Cupressineae. That the cupressineous type of ray pitting is a reduction from 
the abietineous type (‘“Abietineen Tiipfelung”) is clearly shown by the per- 
sistence of the latter in the Taxodineae and Cupressineae in regions of phylo- 
genetic significance, for example, cone axis, injured wood, young root, etc. As 
is commonly the case with structures undergoing reduction, the ray pitting 1s 
extremely variable in a given species or genus of the Cupressineae, just as 1S 
the occurrence of marginal tracheids and the recurrence of resin canals in the 

Cecidology -—Among the European contributions is a paper by SCHELLEN- 
BERG” in which the author claims that galls caused by fungi serve for storage for 

’Fuytoxa, M., Studien iiber den anatomischen Bau des Holzes japanischen 
Nadelbiume. Jour, Coll. Agric. 4: 201-236. pls. 18-24. 1913. 
*Gornan, W., Zur Anatomie lebender und fossiler Gymnospermen-Hélzer. 
Abh. Preuss, Geol. Landesanstalt. Berlin, 100s. 
* Bartey, I. W., The structure of the wood in the Pineae. Bor. GAz.48?47-55- 
Pl. 5. 1909. : 
» SCHELLENBERG, H. C., Uber Speicherung von Reservestoffen in Pilzgallen- 
Verhandl. Schweiz. Naturl. Gesells, 94:277-279. IQII. 
