440 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [JUNE 
more the tracing of the auxanometer. He finds the increase in diameter 
rhythmic, with maxima once or twice or oftener in 24 hours, followed by 
minima when growth ceases or nearly so. There are indications of a grand 
period, and some connection between the periodic growth of the aerial parts 
and tubers.— C. R. B 
Miss MATHILDE GOLDFLUS® finds that chlorophyll not only persists under 
the cork of many branches, but that it is present in the medullary rays, in 
the pith, and is even formed in the cortex of trunks of trees at the bottom of 
the crevices in a ridgy bark, as in Quercus and Robinia, Indeed it may 
develop in any living tissues. Photosynthesis by this chlorophyll is active, 
more than counterbalancing the production of CO, in respiration, though no 
quantitative determinations seem to have been made. Inasmuch as. the area 
exposed by branches is considerable, and as photosynthesis continues in 
winter, it is evident that it is of considerable importance to the plant. Miss 
Goldflus and Mr, Miyake* have thus called attention to hitherto overlooked 
activity of the chloroplasts.—C, R. B 
S. Kusano (Bot. Mag. Tokyo 15:42-46. 1901) has published a short 
account of the parasitism of Buckleya Quadriala, one of the Santalaceae of 
Japan. Its haustoria apparently attack the roots of almost any plant, as 
witnessed by the artificial cultures made. As a result of the attack the 
activity of the cambium of the host-root seems to be much increased, since 
a transverse section of that part shows the greatest diameter of wood and 
cortex. ‘“If the age of a haustorium may be estimated from the annual 
rings of the host-root which overlie the sucking process, it is safe to conclude 
that the same organ of Buckleya can maintain its activity during fifteen 
years, and probably longer.”” The author found no difficulty in cultivating 
these green parasites by sowing the seeds in the same pots with the seeds of 
other plants which might serve as hosts.—J, M. C 
IN A RECENT PAPER Noll" takes up again the much discussed subject of 
polarity among the marine algae. Beginning with the statement that in 
Bryopsis muscosa, on which he worked, the polarity is as pronounced as in 
Pinus, he states as a result of his experiments that very few of his plants 
reversed their root and shoot poles when inverted. By measurements and 
dates he ascertained that the young and actively growing plants were SO 
strongly polarized as to resume the original manner of growth ; that only the 
older more slowly growing forms succumbed to the force of external condi- 
tions and turn root into shoot and shoot into root. Hence the inherited polar- 
*2 Revue gén. de Bot. 13: 49-92. 1901. 
*3 Bot. Mag. Tokyo. 14: 44. 1900. See Bot. Gaz. 30: 141. 1900. 
‘4On reversion experiments on Bryopsis, with remarks on energids. Ber. d. deut. 
bot. Gesell. 18 : 444-451. I900. 


