ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 685 



A fermentative process is present which works during the drying of the 

 fungus and produces this substance. 



Studies of Protoplasmic Continuity.* — Thorild Wulff has made 

 careful examinations of the cells of grasses in view of Eriksson's theory 

 that the mycoplasma passes from the cell to the intercellular space 

 through the same channels as the protoplasmic strands. He finds that 

 these strands pass from cell to cell, but not between any cell and an 

 intercellular space, nor does he consider that these channels are of any 

 service to fungal hyplue passing from cell to cell. The strands are 

 most easily demonstrated in endosperm ; they are less easily detected in 

 the cells of the mesophyll or epidermis ; while, in the embryo, it is 

 almost impossible to prove their existence. 



Structure and Development. 

 Vegretative. 



Structure of Cretaceous Pine-wood.f — E. C. Jeffrey and M. A. 

 Chrysler have examined the structure of partially charred lignites belong- 

 ing to the genus Pityoxylon from the Middle Cretaceous beds at Kreischer- 

 ville, Staten Island. The structure differs from that of existing pines in 

 the absence of marginal tracheids in the rays, in the highly resinous 

 nature of the rays, and in the association of characteristic features of 

 the hard pines, as exemplified by leaf -fascicles, cone-scales, and structure 

 of the primary wood, with the numerous tangential pits of the autumnal 

 wood, which are a feature of the living soft pines. The authors regard 

 these points of difference from modern pines as ancestral, since they 

 persist clearly and strongly in the structure of the wood of the cones of 

 the living species. The appearance of marginal tracheids in the rays 

 of Pinus is comparatively modern and does not in all probability 

 antedate the Tertiary period. It probably explains the greater prosperity 

 of the genus in recent times. 



Spermatozoids of Cycas.| — The Japanese botanist Miyake has 

 studied the structure and movements of living spermatozoids. They 

 vary in diameter from 180-210 /* and are surrounded by a delicate 

 membrane, but iz is uncertain whether this membrane belongs to the 

 spermatozoid or is only the Hautschicht of the protoplasm of the pollen- 

 tube. The movements which were observed in a 10 p.c. cane-sugar 

 solution, often continued for one to three hours, rarely for five to six 

 hours ; the forward movement is accompanied by a rotation about the 

 axis from left to right, and sometimes amounted to 0"7 mm. per second. 

 The author finds that the liquid in the pollen-chamber at the time of 

 fertilisation comes from the pollen-tube and not from the archegonium. 



Physiology. 

 Nutrition and Growth. 



Micro-organisms as Aids to Digestion in Drosera rotundifolia.§ 

 The theory had already been put forward by R. Dubois that the pheno- 



* Oesterr. Bot. Zeitschr., hi. (1906) No. 1, pp. 1-8; No. 2, pp. GO-69 (1 pi.). 

 + Bot. Gazette, xlii. (1906) pp. 1-15 (2 pis.). 

 % Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Gesell., xxiv. (1906) pp. 78-83 (1 pi.). 

 § These de l'Ecole superieure de Pharrnacie de Paris. Laval : A. Goupil, 1904, 

 101 pp. See also Bot. Centralbl., cii. (1906) pp. 333-4. 



Dec. 19th, 1906 2 z 



