350 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Dec 



Fritillaria tenella, and later Guignard gives a description 

 of this phenomenon in greater detail. 



In his excellent review of this subject, Webber says : 

 "Previous to these discoveries it had been supposed that 

 in fecundation only one of the two generative nuclei which 

 are formed in the pollen tube of seed plants passed over 

 into the embryo sac and united with the egg cell proper. 

 Nawaschin and Guignard have shown however that both 

 of the nuclei enter the embryo sac, one fusing with the 

 nucleus of the egg cell and the other with the two polar 

 nuclei to form the embryo sac nucleus, the division of 

 which gives rise to the endosperm. If this double fecun- 

 dation occurs in hybridization, it will be seen that the en- 

 dosperm developed from the nucleus of the embryo sac 

 must be of hybrid origin." 



In regard to the phenomena of Xenia, Dr. Webber fur- 

 ther states : "While it has been claimed that Xenia is a 

 somewhat common phenomenon in many plants, there are 

 very few cases on record that are not open to some doubt; 

 but in no plant is its occurrence so well substantiated as 

 in maize. Indeed, the entire belief in the existence of 

 Xenia may be said to depend upon its occurring in this 

 plant. That corn crosses readily in the field and shows 

 the effect the first year is a generally recognized fact among 

 agriculturists in this country. The majority of the cases 

 reported, however, are open to the criticism that the seed 

 planted was not definitely known to be pure, and thus the 

 supposed immediate effect of crossing might be explained 

 as due to hybridization which occurred the previous year, 

 or might possibly be interpreted as cases of reversion." 



This paper of Webber's gives not only a great deal of 

 evidence on this whole subject but is accompanied by sev- 

 eral unusually good plates. (Bull. Div. Veg. Phys. and 

 Path., 22). 



Fragrant Yeast. — Mr. B. T. P. Barker in a recent 

 paper describes a fragrant yeast Saccaromyces anomalus 



