﻿IQ031 CUKREN7' LITERATURE 69 



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protoplasm becomes segmented into small portions, each containing a single 

 nucleus. This segmentation is radically different from that which takes place 

 in the endosperm of higher plants. It is entirely independent of nuclear 

 divisions, and is accomplished by pairs of furrows pushing into the proto- 

 plasm from opposite directions, and not by intraplasmic vacuoles as described 

 oy Klebs. The spores have two cilia attached to a small, deeply staining 

 granule just beneath the plasma membrane. It is too early even to suggest 

 that this granule may be homologous with the blepharoplast of higher 

 forms. Two delicate threads connect the granule with the nucleus. The 

 cilia themselves stain like spindle fibers. After the spores come to rest, the 

 pyrenoid, which disappears at the beginning of segmentation, again becomes 

 visible. There is no organized chromatophore. — C. J, Chamberlain. 



Valuable additions to our knowledge of the process of respiration 



are outlined by Kostytschew 34 in a preliminary paper from the St. Petersburg 

 laboratory. He has studied the effect of the nutrient medium upon intramo- 

 lecular respiration in Mucor stolonifer and Aspergilbis 7iiger, The plants were 

 grown in chambers closed from the air, through which a stream of pure nitrogen 

 waspassed during the entire experiment. The intensity of intramolecular res- 

 piration is measured in terms of the amount of CO2 given off jper gram of 

 dry substance. Some of the results of the study are as follows: Intramo- 

 lecular respiration occurs in pure water and in a variety of organic sub- 

 stances. In sugar, peptone, and acetates the intensity of the process is 

 greater than in pure water, while in glycerin, free acetic acid, and quinic 

 acid it equals or falls below that in water. In solutions of acetates Mucor 

 stolonifer produces much oxalic acid, but in sugar solutions this substance is 

 almost wholly lacking. Presence of zinc salts increases the amount of oxalic 

 acid produced by Aspergillus. Low concentrations of the medium give 

 greater respiratory intensity than higher ones, the optimum concentration 

 being about two per cent. The author believes the last to be a purely osmotic 

 effect, but the molecular weights of the substances used are so different that 

 it is difficult to consider this proved until it is tested with solutions made up 

 by modern methods. — Burton E. Livingston. 



Dicotyledons with only one cotyledon still offer a problem to be solved. 

 The latest paper on the subject deals with several of these so-called **pseu- 

 domonocotyledons."3S The "pseudomonocotyledons" studied were Eranihis 



hiemalis, Cprydalis cava, Rammculus Fkaria, and Bunhim {Canon) Bulbo- 

 castanum. Corydalis nobilis and C, lutea, forms which always have two 

 cotyledons, were studied for comparison. Cyclamen persiciim was also 

 studied on account of its first leaf, which has sonietimes been mistaken for a 



3^KosTYTSCHEW, S. Der Einfluss des Substrates auf die anaerobe Athmung 

 der Schimmelpilze. Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Gesell. 20: 327-334- 1902. 



35SCHMID, B., Beitrage zur Embryo -Entwickelung einiger Dicotyledonen. Bot. 

 Zeit. 60: 207-230. ph. 8-10. 1902. 



