QUARTERLY CHRONICLE OF MICROSCOPICAL SCIENCE. 303 



belonging to Asterophyllites, and he suggests that the curious 

 spinous bodies t'roiu the coal measures described by Mr. 

 Carruthers as a carboniferous type of Radiolarians may be the 

 spores of this plant. The Volkmannia Binneyi of Carruthers, 

 who with Binney and Schimper had referred it to Calamites, 

 Williamson supposes also to belong to a species of Astero- 

 phyllites. Carruthers has described the spores as furnished 

 with elaters, which was a strong point in favour of their 

 equisetaceous affinity, but Williamson " rejects this interpre- 

 tation, regarding the so-called elaters as merely the torn 

 fragments of the ruptured mother-cells in which the true 

 spores have been developed.'^ Asterophyllites appears, 

 therefore, to belong to an extinct type of Lycopodiaceee, its 

 axial structures having some points in resemblance with the 

 existing Psilotum triquetrum. 



VII. Phanerogams. — 1. Trichomes. — Oscar Uhlworm in a 

 series of papers in the last four numbers of the ' Botanische 

 Zeitung ' for 1873 discusses the development of Trichomes 

 especially in reference to the formation of prickles, 



2. Leniicels. — E. Stahl describes the development and 

 anatomy of lenticels C Bot. Zeit.,' 1873, 577, 593, 609). 



3. Chlorophyll. — i. G. Briosi describes the normal forma- 

 tion of fatty matter in chlorophyll (' Bot. Zeit.,^ 1873, 545). 

 ii. Prillieux (' Ann. des Sc. Nat.,^ 5e ser., xix, 108) has care- 

 fully studied the curious observation first made by Wiesner 

 that Neottia Nidus-avis becomes green on immersion in 

 alcohol, and afterwards communicates its colour to the 

 liquid. He finds that the brown colour of the plant is due to 

 crystalloids or minute corpuscles with a crystalline figure, 

 which they, however, lose in consequence of swelling when 

 the composition of the cell-sap is notably altered. When 

 these crystalloids are treated with alcohol or acids or the 

 plant is immersed in boiling water, they become green by 

 the production of chlorophyll. Prillieux, however, alto- 

 gether doubts whether this chlorophyll is present in the 

 crystalloids previously in a disguised state, and finds no 

 reason for believing that it performs any physiological 

 role. 



4. Crystals in Cells. — Vesque (' Ann. des Sc. Nat.,' 5e ser., 

 xix, 310) has succeeded in reproducing some of the forms 

 of calcium oxalate met with in plants. In a 5 per cent, 

 solution of glucose and a 2 per cent, solution of dextrine he 

 obtained raphides, while in acid solutions he obtained simple 

 oblique prisms. 



5. Parasites. — Count Solms-Laubach describes in the 

 * Botanische Zeitung ' for January the ' thallus' of Pilostyles 



