356 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [MAY 
plants it my have become hereditary, i. e., due to internal causes. RAUNKIAER 
finds in certain plants also that direction of light determines the orientation of 
the palisade cells; in the great majority, however, their orientation is established 
independent of this factor.—C. R. B. 
Inheritance and gynodioecism.—CorrENS”? makes a third report on the 
inheritance of sex in gynodioecious plants, the species dealt with being Satureia 
hortensis and Silene inflata, previously reported on, and in addition, Silene 
dichotoma and Plantago lanceolata. All of these species confirm the two laws 
previously derived by the author, namely, that in gynodioecious plants each sex- 
form produces gametes which have the tendency to produce the same sex-form, 
and that the oe newer unisexual form dominates more or less com- 
pletely the older bisexual form. There seems to be a third class in the case of 
laniago lanceolata, mein by an intermediate condition. These are 
described as gynomonoecious or as stunted bisexual. The offspring of these 
contained 28-32 per cent. 2, as compared with o-3 per cent. among the offspring 
of normal bisexual parents, and 71-96 per cent. among the progeny of fully pistil- 
late individuals—G. H. SHULL. 
Commercial forage seeds.—The adulteration of commercial forage seeds has 
become a question of great importance in the western agricultural regions, and 
reliable, easily applied distinctions between the adulterants and the genuine seed 
are being sought for energetically at the Agricultural Experiment Stations. Two 
recent bulletins from Kansas deal with two of the most important forage crops, 
namely alfalfas® and blue grass.3 To recognize without fail the commercial 
seed of alfalfa is to protect one of the largest financial interests of the region. 
In the case of the distinction between the grains of Poa pratensis and Poa com- 
pressa, it is interesting to note that these observers have discovered what seems 
to be an unfailing character in the toothing of the palet, which agrostologists 
have overlooked.—J. M. C 
Progress of accretion during growth.—As stated by HEDLUND,’ it is impor- 
tant to ascertain the amount or rather the rate of accretion correlated with internal 
processes of the protoplasm during growth. This author has made a quantita- 
tive study which is certainly a step in advance. He finds that a single cell (alga) 
grows more rapidly when free than when in contact with a neighbor. Growth 
declines for a period before division and remains slow while the protoplasm is 
' 29 CorRENS, C., Die Vererbung der ie ae bei den gynodiécischen 
Pflanzen. Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Gesells. oe 474. 
3° Roperts, H. F., and Freeman, G. F., Alfal 7 ae its adulterants, substi- 
tutes, and impurities, cats their detection. ay heels. Coll. Bull. 133. 1906 
3 , Commercial seeds of brome grass and of English and Kentucky blue 
siete adulterants and substitutes and fheis detection. Kans, Agric. Coll. Bull. 141. 
9°7- 
32 HEDLUND, T., Ueber den Zuwachsverlauf bei kugeligen Algen wihrend des 
Wachstums. Bot. Stud. tillagn. F. R. KyELEMAN 35-54. pls. 4. Upsala, 1906. 
