322 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Oct., 



cimens may be stored in a large brain jar, the card-board labels 

 fastened to the corks in the manner above referred to. It will 

 thus be seen that from the time the tissue is placed into the 

 hardening fluid until it has been partly cut into sections and 

 again placed into the storage jar, but one label has been used, 

 and really the use of storage bottles has been dispensed with. 



This plan is recommended to those microscopists with pri- 

 vate laboratories and to those who are obliged to spead little 

 time and less money in their laboratory work. 



MEDICAL MICROSCOPY. 



A Study of Palsy. — Dr. Wiener, of Mt. Sinai Hospital, New 

 York, reports a case (N. Y.. Med. Jour., July 14) of subacute 

 unilateral bulbar palsy and its autops}^ He presents five photo- 

 microgrophs which show degenerated ganglion cells. The com- 

 plete brain of a 17 year old boy was put in Muller's fluid and 

 hardened for microscopic examination. The column known as 

 the respiratory bundle was found to be almost completely de- 

 generated. There was a marked degeneration of the nucleus of 

 the hypogljossal nerve on the right side, together with slight de- 

 generation in the adjacent nuclei. In the paper cited he gives 

 an extended explanation of these facts. 



BIOLOGICAL NOTES. 



The Smallest Known Flowering Plant. — Mr. Thoe. Craig 

 writes as follows : 



I have to report having recently found on Staten Island, in 

 the Old Town pond, what is said to be the smallest of flowering 

 plants; a full grown specimen only measuring from 1-16 to 1-32 

 of an inch. I have not been able to ascertain who was the first 

 to see this plant in flower, nor have I been able to see it myself 

 after careful search with the microscope. Probably the speci- 

 mens I have are past the flowering season. It is evident, how- 

 ever, that it does not depend entirely on its seed for increase. 

 Like Lemna, to which it is closely allied, and which is so con- 

 spicuous on all our ponds, it propagates by budding, but unlike 

 the other members of the family the bud immediately separates 

 from the mother plant and becomes independent. 



