246 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. [ October, 



bud there is fission, but no blending. The cells divide, and 

 each new one may in turn divide until the ultimate form of the 

 leafy branch or flower is reached. In the leafy branch new 

 buds form, and in their turn carryforward the ancestral pecu- 

 liarities. But in the flower, on the other hand, with the forma- 

 tion of the ovule, all development is arrested (except in the rare 

 cases of parthenogenesis and the like) unless the protoplasm of 

 the embryonal sac receives a new impetus from material con- 

 tributed by the pollen grain. And in this blending of parts 

 which have developed under different external conditions, we 

 see that there is a chance for variation to come in. Not only is 

 there a blending of the nuclei, but a sharing of the accompany- 

 ing trophoplasts. How this can be applied to the lower plants 

 and other organisms can not now be referred to. It would not 

 be right to hold de Vries wholly responsible for the application 

 just given, but I ask you whether the hypothesis does not ap- 

 pear fruitful. It seems likely to stimulate speculation and 

 further research in this important field. 



In view of de Vries' work, and of the results of recent 

 study, which I have endeavored to bring before you this 

 afternoon, does not the statement of Darwin possess new force ? 



" An organic being is a microcosm, a little universe 

 formed of a host of self-propagating organisms inconceivably 

 minute and as numerous as the stars in heaven." 



Cambridge, Mass. 



Paraguay and its flora. II. 



THOMAS MORONG. 



It would be out of place in an article like this for me to 

 attempt to enumerate even a tithe of the trees found in these 

 dense Paraguayan forests, but among those best known 

 abroad are the India-rubber (Siphonia elastica), Erythroxy- 

 Ion Coca,^ logwood (Hrematoxylon Campechianum), Salix 

 Humboldtii, Carica Papava, Quillaia saponaria, Fabiana 

 imbncata, Nectandra, Franciscea uniflora, the Omber (Pir- 

 cunia dioica), and Juga dulcis. Something of their charac- 

 ter and numbers may be seen in the collection of her woods 



M 



additions have been made by Dr. Emile Hassler, who ha 



