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1903] CURRENT LITERATURE 7% 
Spain. Two newspecies, Pityophyllum flexile and Pseudoasterophyllites Vidal, 
are likewise figured and described. The first is considered, as the name indi- 
cates, to represent fossilized leaves of a species of Pinus. The second after 
a process of exclusion, the author is disposed to regard as of cupressineous 
affinities. — E, C. JEFFREY 
In Comptes Rendus de l’Académie des Sciences, Paris (March 30, 1903), 
M.C. Queva gives an account of the structure of the rootlets of 77afa natans.™ 
These are of particular interest because they present the only case known 
among the phanerogams of a monarchous root. Roots of this type have in 
the past only been known for the lycopods (unless the rather doubtful case of 
Ophioglossum be also included), and indeed are almost diagnostic of the 
radicels of that group.—E, C, JEFFREY. 
FROM AN extended study of protoplasmic streaming in plants, carried 
out by Ewart,” it appears that these movements are produced by the energy 
of surface tension, this being made available perhaps, by the action of elec- 
tric currents transversing the moving layers. Such currents could be main- 
tained by chemical action in the protoplasm. The movement does not 
depend directly upon oxygen access, for species of Chara and Nitella con- 
tinue to exhibit motion for six to eight weeks in entire absence of free oxygen. 
— Burton E. Livineston, 
FROM INTERNAL structure and by comparison with specimens having 
the exterior preserved, Weiss*3 identifies a reproductive branch of a 
lepidodendroid found near Stalybridge, England, as belonging to the well- 
known species Lefidophiloios fuliginosus, and constituting its reproductive 
branch. The identification is of interest, not only because it reveals the 
nature of the reproductive main axis of Lepidophiloios fuliginosus, but also 
because the axis in question differs from other axes of the genus in having a 
biseriate instead of a quincuncial arrangement of the cone-scars.—E. C. 
JEFFREY 
THE curiously modified leaf-members, found in a few living ferns, ¢. g., 
Hemitelia capensis, but occurring much more commonly in fossil genera, 
were examined by Potonié" from the physiological and morphological stand- 
points. He concludes that the structures in question are water-absorbing 
organs, and are specialized pinnae or pinnules as the case may be. Th 
aphlebia or modified pinnae of Aemitelia capensis have been compared by 
™*QUEVA, C., Structure des radicelles de la macre. Compt. Rend. Acad. Sci. 
Paris 136: ‘sg 03. 
Ewart, A. J., On the physics and igs of protoplasmic streaming in 
plants. aie ‘Hy. Soc. London 69 : 466-470. 1902 
*3WEIss, F. E., A biseriate halonial branch of Leip fuliginosus. Trans. 
Linn. Soc. London Bot. II, 6:217-235. pls. 22-26. 
™ POTONIE, H., Zur Physiologie und orl der fossilen Farnaphlebien. 
Ber. Deutsch, Bot. edehie. 21 :152-164. p/. 8. 
