412 The Botanical Gazette. [September, 
minution of normal hydrostatic pressure entirely failed to 
produce any effect though the contact stimulus was promptly 
effective on the experimental plants. Excluding the hydro- 
static theory of Haberlandt, at present it seems necessary to 
assume transmission by the tissues of the entire cross-section. 
MAcDOUuUGAL, D. T.: The physiology of Isopyrum biterna- 
tum.—The first recognizable carbohydrate in this plant is 
amylo-dextrin, starch of the ordinary type not appearing in 
the leaves. At certain periods a starch appears in the tubers 
which reacts red with iodine, a form which has been believed 
to be characteristic of parasitic plants. 
OOK, O. F.: Personal nomenclature in the Myxomycetes.—- 
Of the two systems of nomenclature, the ‘‘personal” and the 
“priority,” only the former has been used in the Myxomy- 
cetes. This is illustrated by two recent monographs. Of 4! 
genera and 430 species in Massee’s Myxogastres only 33 gen- 
eric and 160 specific names appear in Lister’s Mycetozoa. If, 
however, uniformity with the future is to be secured, the still 
more radical changes necessitated by the principle of priority 
should be made. Nearly all the genera established by Ros- 
tafinski must be supplanted by names disused for fifty years 
or longer. It also appears that the older generic names were 
so applied that the usual method of application of the law of 
priority will necessitate the shifting of generic names from 
one family to another, according as certain characters are 
looked upon as of greater or less importance. Thus there are 
three generic conceptions to which the name Physarum may 
be applied. This confusion would be avoided if we adopt the 
principle of considering the first species under a genus to be the 
generic type from which the generic name can not be separated. 
AMPBELL, DouG.Las H.: A new Californian liverwort.— 
The author describes a liverwort, allied to the genus Sphzro- 
carpus, collected near San Diego, which probably constitutes 
a new genus. ‘ 
JEPSON, WILLIS L.: The number of spore mother-cells im 
the sporangia of Jerns.—Read by title. 
BOLLey, H.L.: The constancy of the bacterial flora of fore- 
milk.—This paper is a report of a number of original inves- 
tigations bearing upon the constancy of the species and phys- 
iological types of bacteria present in the normal fore-milk. 
n general it may be said that the species may be quite con- 
stant in the udder of an individual animal, but there is slight 
