1893. NOTES AND COMMENTS. 4^9 



species, seven specimens examined have shown this impressed zone 

 existing while the shell was still in the partly-curved or cyrtoceran 

 stage. The same early appearance of the impressed zone is likewise 

 seen in numerous Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Tertiary species, including 

 the living Nautilus pompilius. This, then, seems due to the inheritance 

 of a character in successively earlier stages of individual development, 

 according to a well-known law ; while the character so inherited is 

 believed to be an acquired one. 



Nuclear Division. 

 In the Annals of Botany for September (vol. vii., pp. 393-397)) Pro- 

 fessor J. B. Farmer publishes an interesting preliminary note on nuclear 

 division in the pollen-mother-cells oiLilium Martagon. The processes of 

 karyokinesis in animals and plants now are recognised to be so similar 

 as to suggest identity in cause, and zoologists as well as botanists will 

 read this note with interest. It tells of the discovery of multipolar 

 spindles in cell-division. These spindles stand in obvious relation to 

 granules not unlike centrosomes and are placed at their poles, and there 

 is some reason to infer that these granules in the cytoplasm have been 

 derived from the nucleolus. Of course, multipolar spindles have been 

 observed before, both in plants and in animals, and Hertwig and 

 others have asserted a nuclear origin for the centrosome. But the full 

 publication of Mr. Farmer's results will be awaited with interest, as 

 aberrant cases like this frequently call attention to important details 

 obscure in normal types. 



The Flora of Eastern Malaya. 



The Flora of the Eastern Coast of the Malay Peninsula forms 

 the subject of the latest number of the Linnean Society's Transactions 

 (vol. iii., part 9). Mr. H. N. Ridley, during the past few years in 

 which he has held the post of Director of the Gardens and Forest 

 Department, Singapore, has made some collecting trips on the eastern 

 side of the Peninsula, the Flora of which was practically unknown ; 

 the researches of the earlier botanists like Griffith, Wallich, and 

 Scortechini, and of the later collectors, having been confined to the 

 more accessible western side. Mr. Ridley collected chietiy in the 

 native State of Pahang, but also visited the more northern States of 

 Kelantan and Tringganu, and the island of Pulau Tinman, off the 

 coast of Johore. The number of species collected and observed 

 exceeds 1,200, but this represents only a small proportion of the 

 whole flora, as opportunities of collecting were often limited, while 

 many of the trees and shrubs were not in flower or fruit at the time, 

 and did not therefore afford material for identification. It is 

 suggested that three times this number would not be an over-estimate 

 of the species existing in the area traversed. Those obtained give a 

 fair representation of the lowland and coast flora, and of that of the 



