1889. I BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 137 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



Dr. Oscar Uhlworm has retired from the editorial supervision of 

 the Bibliotheca Botanica. His place is to be taken by Dr. Luerssen of Kon- 



• -I 



igsberg. 



Prop. W. W. Bailey reports Houstonia cserulea in bloom at Provi- 

 dence, K. L, on March 26th, " my earliest date in twenty- six years. 

 " Forsythia pendula bloomed here out of doors all winter. " 



F. A. F. C. Went, whose interesting studies on vacuoles have been 

 noted (see this journal, xiii. 280) has extended his observation on their 

 origin. Most of his previous studies have related to vegetative cells. He 

 has now investigated the reproductive cells of a large number of algae 

 of various widely separated groups. He finds his previous conclusions 

 confirmed. Vacuoles arise exclusively by the division of previously 

 existing ones. 



Since the notice of his investigations on the origin of the anthero- 

 zoids of the Characere (ante, p. 87) M. Leon Guignard has extended his 

 studies to the antherozoids of the Hepatic^, Musci, Fihces and t ucacese. 

 In recent numbers of Comptes Kendus (cviii, 463, oil) he has summa- 

 rized his results. In the Fucacese each antherozoid is simply an ordinary 

 naked, pyriform cell. It is furnished with a nucleus, situated near the 

 " red spot," and with two cilia of unequal length. The body is very large 

 and contains all the protoplasm of the cell. The cilia arise from a ring 

 of protoplasm on the surface of the body which differentiates itselt from 

 the rest by becoming hyaline. The nucleus of the anthendium divides 

 by the usual steps into sixty-four daughter nuclei, so that sixty-four anin- 

 erozoids arise from each antheridium. At the same time the colorless 

 chromatophores multiply to a much greater number. Each nucleus inen 

 joins itself to one of the colorless chromatophores. The remainder 

 quickly become yellow or orange. By the time the formation ottne 

 antherozoids is complete, however, these have lost their color ana oeen 

 absorbed, while the chromatophore accompanying the nucleus na» 

 become the " red spot." In the other plants named above, in all cases tne 

 nucleus, and the nucleus alone, forms the body of the antherozoid. ine 

 nucleus moves to one side of the mother cell and begins to elongate, me 

 slender anterior end remaining stationary. This elongation continues 

 till two or more spiral coils have been formed. Then a portion ot me 

 protoplasm just outside of the nucleus differentiates m the same manner 

 as described above for the formation of cilia. This ^^^^P^^d 

 may be only a band (when the cilia are to be few, as in the He T^aeana 

 Musci), or the whole layer, when the cilia are numerous, as i in ^the terns. 

 The remaining protoplasm is either completely (pP»^)?l^J!S 

 absorbed (Filices). In the latter case a vesicle is formed which encloses 

 minute starch grains and the residue of the protoplasm, The ' t^n.tor 

 mation of the nucleus is accompanied by interna m ^^ on ^.X^ n 

 render the spiral body almost homogeneous. It is covered wun an 



extremely delicate hyaline envelope. 



Dr.Selmar ScHoNLAM>,of Oxford, has been called to the curator- 

 ship of the Albany Museum in Grahamstown, b. Africa. 



Dr. E. Zacharias has published in the last number of P^f^"?' 

 Jahrbiicher (xx, heft 2) some observations on the °»gin and, growth ™ "*• 

 cell wall of the rhizoids of Chara. which are very much m the same line as 



