
134 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [FEBRUARY 
not develop. Experiments with colored liquid screens show that yellow and 
orange rays are most efficient, as Heald found in studying the germination of 
moss and fern spores. Heat apart from light is incapable of inciting to 
development ; and no cou of food, either carbohydrate or nitrogenous, 
awakens to activity. No zymogen was found in resting buds, and Terras 
activity, leading to the development of a zymogen, which in its turn is con- 
verted under the influence of the light into a zymase by which the utilization 
of the stored food becomes possible.—-C. R. B. 
IN HER RECENT WORK on Lavatera,® Miss Byxbee describes a process of 
spindle development as follows: In the young pollen mother cells the cyto- 
plasm consists of a fibrous network and a granular substance. As division 
approaches, the network surrounding the nucleus pulls out parallel to the 
membrane, forming a felt of fibers, and at the same time the granular sub- 
stance of the cytoplasm collects in a wide dense zone about the nucleus. 
* The nuclear wall now breaks down, and the fibers outside begin to grow into 
the nuclear cavity and mingle with the linin threads, which appear to have 
increased in quantity. This central mass of fibers now grows out into several 
projections, which become the cones of the multipolar spindle. Two of 
these cones become more prominent than the others, which they finally 
absorb, and the result is a bipolar spindle. Just how this absorption of the 
smaller cones is brought about is not made clear either in the description or 
in the figures. 
The work is well illustrated by four beautiful lithographic plates. While 
the results differ in certain minor details from previous work on the subject, 
it confirms the more important points that have already been worked out in 
such forms as Equisetum, Cobaea, Passiflora, Gladiolus, etc. The paper is 
an addition to the very interesting series of contributions on spindle forma- 
tion recently issued from the Botanical Laboratory of the University of 
rnia, 
ing’s strong solution, with an excess of acetic acid, palladium 
acid was added, were used for fixing; saffranin, gentian violet, and orange 
G were rie for staining. — A. A. Lawson. 
THE GEOLOGICAL SuRVEY of New Jersey has just issued a publication? 
which contains some valuable information concerning the forests of that 
state. In this C. C. Vermeule discusses the physical conditions of the forests 
of the state, and gives some field notes on forest conditions. Gifford Pinchot 
8 BYXBEE, EpiIrH SUMNER: The on of the karyokinetic spindle in the 
pollen mother cells of Lavatera. Cal. Acad. Sci. III. Bot. 2: 63-81. p/s. 10-73. 1900- 
® Annual Report of the State Geologist for was Report on forests. Geol. Surv- 
of New Jersey, pp. ix+-327, pls. 27, with maps. 

