1897] SOME NEW BOOKS 277 
THE NECTARIES OF FLOWERS 
BEITRAGE ZUR KENNTNIS DER SEPTALNECTARIEN. By J. Schniewind-Thies. 8vo, 
pp. 87, with 12 plates. Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1897. Price, 15 marks. 
TuIs volume, with its large well-spaced text and its beautiful supply 
of nicely lithographed plates, including 266 figures, once more brings 
home the fact of the extreme specialisation of present-day science. 
It is surprising to know that Mr Gustav Fischer can find it worth 
while to publish at fifteen shillings an independent work dealing 
with a special kind of simple honey-secreting tissue, and containing 
about as much matter (if we except the plates) as half of a single part 
of our Linnean Society’s Journal. 
Septal nectaries are the honey-secreting layers found, sometimes 
on the outer surface of the ovary, but generally in the walls separating 
the ovary chambers, in many genera of Liliaceae and other petaloid 
monocotyledons. They have attracted the attention of various 
botanists during recent years, and we could add to the references to 
papers cited in footnotes by Mr Schniewind-Thies. The author gives 
an account of the structure and position of the nectaries in genera of 
Liliaceae, Amaryllideae, Scitamineae and Bromeliaceae, and dis- 
tinguishes seven groups. In the simplest the secretion is effected by the 
epidermal cells of the whole exterior surface of the ovary, from its base 
to the origin of the three style-arms. The only examples given of this 
are in two species of Yofieldia, one of the simplest genera of Liliaceae. 
In the second group a “double nectary ” is found, secretion occurring 
on the surface of the ovary in three furrows lying along the septa, and 
in three slits which permeate the separating walls of the carpels. Ex- 
amples are found in Yucca and Aygapanthus. In the third group there 
are no superficial glands, secretion occurring only in true septal slits as 
in Funkia and species of Alliwm. Where the ovary is only partly 
superior a double nectary may occur in the upper part and internal 
ones only in the lower,.as in Haworthia and Urginea, or only in the 
inferior part, as in Phormium and other Liliaceae, where a further 
complication ensues in lateral branching of the slits and strong 
development of vascular tissue in their vicinity. Where the ovary is 
wholly inferior, as in Amaryllideae, Irideae and Scitamineae, and some 
Bromeliaceae, secretion is confined to three septal slits, or occurs also 
in three outer furrows at the thickened style-base. In Bromeliaceae, 
with a superior or half-inferior ovary, the most complicated arrange- 
ment is found, since, besides the double nectary as described for the 
second group, there are also three internal glandular surfaces pene- 
trating the dorsal suture of each carpel, and opening upwards into the 
ovary-chamber. ‘Thus, it is suggested, increased complication in the 
form of the nectary accompanies a similar change in final com- 
plexity. In the second part of the paper the histology of the secreting 
cell and the part played by the various constituents of protoplasm and 
nucleus are discussed. In conclusion, we must again refer to the great 
number of excellent drawings, which add greatly to the interest of a 
communication consisting largely of somewhat detailed structural and 
histological descriptions of individual cases. 
