270 



BOTANICAL GAZETTE. [ October, 



Miss Susan M. HALLOWELL,of Wellesley College, notes and illustrates 

 in the American Florist for October 1, an interesting vaiiation in a calla 

 (Richardia) in which a pure white but otherwise normal leaf arises from 

 the pedicel just below and opposite the true spathe, giving the appearance 

 of a double spathe. 



The common cultivated grasses do not grow well upon the virgin soil of 

 Nebraska, according to Prof. Bessey, but timothy (Phleum pratense) suc- 

 ceeds after a few years of preliminary tillage, and is the grass mostly grown, 

 while Kentucky blue-grass also does well if a still longer interval of pre- 

 vious cultivation is allowed. 



In the cell produced directly by the zoospores of Synchytrium Tar- 

 axici the nucleus has been found of a diameter of 14/t,and the nucleolus fy. 

 Shortly after this size has been attained division commences, resulting in 

 the production of from 150 to 300 nuclei in the one cell. So says M. Dan- 

 geard, Comptes Rendus, cix, 1889, 202. 



Professor George L. Goodale, of Harvard University, is president 

 of the A. A. A. S. for 1890. This is the second time in the history of the 

 society that a botanist has filled the president's chair. Dr. Gray was the 

 first recipient of the honor, in 1871. The vice-president of the biological 

 section for 1890 is Dr. C. S. Minot, and the secretary, Dr. J. M. Coulter. 



The total number of papers presented at the Toronto meeting of 

 the A. A. A. S. was 228, of which 34 came before the biological section. 

 Twenty-two of the papers in biology were botanical, or 65 per cent., and 

 the remaining 12 were mainly entomological. Zoology proper made a 

 comparatively small showing. One might inquire if this mathematical 

 relationship is not correlated in some manner with the establishment ot 

 biological clubs. 



The officers for the coming year of the Society for the Promotion 

 of Agricultural Science are Prof. C. E. Bessey, of University of Nebraska, 

 for president; Prof. W. R. Lazenby, of Ohio University, for secretary and 

 treasurer ; and Prof. T. J. Burril!, of Illinois University, for third member 

 of the council. Thus all the officers of the society have inadvertently 

 been filled with botanists. It is also a notable fact that one-fourth the 

 members of the society are also botanists. 



M. A. Giard notes in the Comptes Rendus (cix, 1889, 324) an instance 

 of the sterility (castration parasitaire) in Hypericum perforatum, due to 

 the attacks of Cecidomya hyperici Bremi and Erysiphe Martii L£v. lne 

 most interesting feature of this parasitism, however, is that the insect 

 and the fungus both produce profound changes in the general aspect 01 

 the plant, but the induced facies are absolutely unlike. The normal form 

 of this species is that of an inverted cone, the lower branches being elon- 

 gated and forming with the main axis a large compound corymb of flow- 

 ers. Under the action of the Erysiphe, all the branches are abortive or 

 rudimentary; the principal stem bears a few flowers, which mostly are 

 sterile, but the leaves are very much larger than in the normal state an ^ 

 of a deeper green. Under the influence of the Cecidomya the form De- 

 comes that of an erect cone, the leaves become narrow, almost uoea , 

 colored externally like fruits, the parenchyma thickens, and at the eci 8 

 are formed numerous black glandular points identical with those on t 

 margins of the petals. The form thus produced resembles strongly t 

 variety described by Jordan under the name H. microphyllum. 



