1889.] 



BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 317 



A. Muntz states (Comptes Bendus, cix. 646), as the result of a series of 

 experiments, that the higher plants can absorb ammoniacal nitrogen di- 

 rectly by their roots, and that the nitrification of ammoniacal manures is 

 not an indispensable condition to their utilization. 



Whereas the seedlings of most Conifers produce chlorophyll, even 

 when grown in the dark,Molisch has recently shown that those of Gingko 

 biloba show only traces of it under such conditions. Thus the etiolation 

 which is exceptional among the larches, firs and pines becomes normal 

 in the Gingko. 



A gigantic fig tree is described and figured in Gardeners' Chronicle 

 (Oct. 26). It grows in the garden of the old Capuchin Convent at Ros- 

 coff, N. W. France. It is 2\ feet in diameter, 3j feet from the ground, 

 and the spread of branches is 80 feet. The limbs are supported on stone 

 and wooden pillars. 



In a recent number of Science Dr. Goodale's Toronto address upon 

 " Protoplasm " was printed in full. As it was evidently set up from the 

 pages of the Gazette a reference to that fact was looked for, but in vain. 

 The occasional abstraction of a short note without credit is not seriously 



objected to, but the wholesale appropriation of a leading article is some- 

 what bewildering. Legal rights are not referred to, but common cour- 

 tesy. 



Dziewulski has redetermined the specific gravity of wood fibers. 

 Those of deciduous trees vary between 1.540 and 1.560; of coniferous trees, 

 between 1.535 and 1.555. After complete removal of the resin, however, 

 the latter become 1.560. Curiously enough, with few exceptions the spe- 

 cific gravitv of the fibers from the softer deciduous trees is higher than 

 that of the hard woods. In general the results confirm those of bachs and 

 Hartig. 



Dr. Hermann Dingler has lately published an elaborate monograph 

 on the movements of the winged organs of plants. He treate we me- 

 chanics of the free fall of such winged structures, determining thenteot 

 fall in still air. In the more perfectly developed wings the rate is trorn 

 2 to 6.5 times slower than when the organ is deprived of its wings, ne 

 distinguishes twelve types of wings, using the word in such a broad way 



as to include the adhering layer of air, which by re ^ on f .l^' r P XvP 

 size retards the fall of spores and small seeds. Of course these types have 



numerous intergradations. 



Aerenchvma is the name of a tissue homologous wi ^. cor T ^^ 

 Dr. H. Schenck describes in Pringsheim's Jahrbiicher, xx^ 0-6^ It occurs 

 in marsh plants on submerged parts of the stems, arising from the phei 

 logen usually. The cells have thin walls (notsubenzed) and conUm pro- 

 toplasm, nucleus, a large vacuole with clear cell-sap, minute eucopla * 

 in some cases sUrch grains, but never air. They are in. ^J* th 

 each other only in small areas, and therefore have ™yJWl n *™£ 

 lar spaces which are filled with air. As the tissue ;^vf ^P 8 ^ l P^ 

 the epidermis and primary contex.so that the > nte ^l a "£ te J$ ™£J 



into communication with "the exterior by n » m «^ 0U t^Xsesmces con 

 which, however, the water never penetrates. The a,r in ^W*™* 

 tains a large percentage of oxygen (30 p. c. m Ly thrum, licara) and t 

 is safe to conclude that this tissue aids « W 1 ^ ^" foj *e j« 

 spiratory needs of the submerged parts of plants \ n J^ e °? t e / £' *",£ 

 the abundant development of lenticels on the ^ htt ^^ n J*j£ °I £e 

 formation of airotropic roots or of pneumatodea seems to subsene the 



same function. 



