﻿68 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [January 



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many of his satisfied the reviewer ^^ that no transmission occurs. Massart*s 

 method of experiment deserves imitation ; his cultures were photographed at 

 intervals on the same plate, without moving the camera. For the many indi- 

 vidual results the paper must of course be read, but it may be noted here that 



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stems and roots were found most irritable geotropically when horizontal. In 

 the second paper it is shown that the secondary thickening of stems and nour- 

 ishing roots of Ficus species climbing by clinging roots is localized on the 

 less illuminated side. In Massart's terminology this is cataphotanisopachy- 

 nosis, which tells the story ''in a word." Several other instances of unequal 

 thickening (anisopachynosis) are described and figured. The third paper 

 treats of the aerial roots of Ficus, There are three kinds, and the geo-, 

 photo-, and haptoneism (origin) and -tropism of each is described. — E. B. 



COPELAND. ' 



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Pure cultures of Stichococciis bacillaris have been again obtained by \ 



Matruchot and Molliard,^" who have carried on some rather extensive experi- i 



ments upon this alga when grown in various media. Although it does not 

 need large amounts of oxygen for its development, it is not a true anaerobe. 

 The glucoses appear to be the best food tested ; dextrine, gum, glycerin, and 

 mannite are all foods, but not as available as the glucoses ; while the sac- 

 charoses (cane sugar, lactose, maltose) are hardly available at all. Salts of 

 ammonium are foods, but nitrates are not assimilated. Several different 

 concentrations of glucose and saccharose were tested. In stronger solutions 

 the short diameter of the cells is diminished, the cells thus becoming some- 

 what longer in proportion to their width. It is to be regretted that the authors 

 persist in the use of the percentage system in making up their solutions, and 

 that they have made no observations on the influence of osmotic pressure 

 Perse. The plant deVelops normally in the dark. Some studies on the 

 changes in the nucleus according to the culture medium were also made. 

 Careful quatititative work in such researches as this would probably advance 

 our knowledge of physiology much more rapidly than this sort of qualitative 



observation. — Burton E. Livingston. 



The development of swarm-spores in Hydrodictyon is described in 

 great detail in a recent paper by Timberlake.33 The nucleus resembles that 

 of the higher plants in the behavior of its chromatin, and also in having a well- 

 defined nuclear membrane and a nucleolus. The spindle is bipolar, and at 

 the poles there are sharply defined bodies which the writer interprets — and 

 doubtless correctly — as centrosomes. When spores are about to be formed, 

 a progressive cleavage takes place in the multinucleate protoplasm until the 



3*Bot. Gaz. 29 : 187-188. 1900. 



3^ Matruchot, L. et Molliard M., Variations d'une algue verte sous I'influence 

 du milieu nutritif. Rev. Gen, Bot. 40 : 114-130,254-268,316-332. 1902. 



33T1MBERLAKE, H. G., Development and structure of the swarm-spores of Hydro- 

 dictyon. Trans. Wis. Acad. Sci. 13 : 486-522. pis, 2g~-jo. 1902. 



