BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 265 
Mr. J. Revercuon will collect extensively in Western Texas this season, 
and if sufficiently encouraged, will undertake in subsequent years a thorough 
exploration of that very interesting region. We hope that all botanists who 
ean will promise to Mr. Reverchon their share of support in this great under- 
taking. His address is 411 Houston street, Dallas, Texas. 
IN THE CURRENT VOLUME of the Proceedings of the Philadelphia Acade- 
my, Dr. Gray makes some remarks upon Mr. Meehan’s discovery of the retrac- 
tion of the anther-tube in Helianthus. It is similar to that which takes place 
in the thistle tribe generally, but Dr. Gray claims that it is the “result of 
automatic or irritable shortening of the filaments,” and not of the “elasticity 
of the filaments,” which Mr. Meehan had suggested. 
: RST TWO numbers of the Journal of the New York Microscopical Society 
giveexcellent promise for this new venture. The number of journals shows 
that if in America microscopical science has not sent its roots down very deep, 
they are at least spreading widely. The new claimant for favor is well gotten 
up and well printed, and its matter interesting and appropriate. Only nine 
numbers a year are to be issued. We shall look to it for some valuable con- 
tributions to knowledge. 
Dr. A. C. Assorr, of Baltimore, Md., has offered a series of twelve 
slides of pathogenic bacteria, which we have examined with more than usual 
interest. They have been prepared from material furnished by Dr. G. M. 
Sternberg, the most noted American bacteriologist, and include several slides 
of Bacillus Anthracis, B, tuberculosis, and a number of species of ierococeus, in- 
cluding that of swine plague. The fine slide of B. Anthracis showing spores 
Will be especially appreciated by morphologists. 
Waurer Garpiner, in a recent number of Nature, comments upon De. 
Schearschmidt’s paper on continuity of protoplasm, mentioned in our last 
issue. Among other things he points out that several eminent investigators have 
been led astray by the tests they have relied upon to demonst 
Intercellular spaces. He believes that its existence has not yet been demon- 
strated, and that the substance mistaken for it is mucilage. As to interlamellar 
ryeteand complete obstruction to the passage of water. 
“nd remain so. They are pushed off in the spring by the swe 
ing tissue just underneath. 
Tae BuLLerrn of the Royal Botanical Society o 
n i Paper (with two plates) by E. Bernimoulin, upon the division of the 
eh in Tradescantia Virginica. The breaking up into worm-like filaments Is 
Mme remarkable and the plant so easily obtained that these observations could 
lling of the liv- 
f Belgium, for 1884, con- 
tai 
