1903] CURRENT LITERATURE 397 
RAUNKIER announces” that the dandelions in Denmark are partheno- 
genetic. He finds varations in the common species, on which he bases five 
new species, besides recognizing two others previously segregated, All these 
produce fruit freely without fertilization, and even when the flowers of an 
unopened head are so far sliced off that no stigmas or anthers remain. Zar- 
axacum obovatum (Willd.) DC. of southern Europe, 7. g/aucanthum (Ledeb.) 
DC. from Pamir, and 7. croceum Dahls, from Greenland and Norway produced 
fruit without fecundation. Though the author made no cytological study of 
the case, he searched in vain for germinating pollen or pollen tubes.—C. R. B. 
Dr. WILLIAM G, Situ, who has taken up the work of the late Robert 
Smith,” has published the first of a projected series of papers on the distribu- 
tion of British plants,”* entitled ‘Geographical distribution of vegetation in 
Yorkshire.” The methods of Flahault, as applied in Scotland by Robert 
Smith, have here been employed for the first time in England, and with high 
success. A map, worked out in extreme detail, forms the basis for the dis- 
cussion in the text. The moorlands form the most natural vegetation of the 
district, and are developed as moss moors with much cotton grass, or heather 
moors with Calluna. The woodlands are dominated by oaks. Much the 
greater part of the area is cultivated or otherwise modified by man, Nine 
photographic reproductions of plant associations are inserted in the text. 
In this connection it may be noted that Dr. Smith has given us an admirable 
critical review of Graebner’s recent studies on the North German heath, 
comparing the conditions of heath development in Germany and England.” 
aa LE 
S OF regeneration in the strict sense are of such rarity or of such 
dubious character among plants as to lead to controversy whether it occurs 
at all. Pischinger® has noted two instances of regeneration in Strepfocarpus 
Wendlandi Damm. (Gesneriaceae) which must be conceded to be of the same 
type as that found in animals. This remarkable plant normally produces no 
distinct epicotyl and no foliage leaves, but a meristem region develops near 
the base of the larger cotyledon, which then grows to a foliar structure about 
40 X 20™, From near the base of this structure arises the scape bearing the 
inflorescence. In a series of experiments in which a part or all of this leaf- 
like organ was removed, the entire structure was in two instances regenerated 
at the surface from which the original had been cut. 
%RAUNKLER, C., Kimdannelse uden Befrugtning hos Meelkebotte. Bot. 
skrift 25: 109-140. 1903. 
Tids- 
7See Bot. Gaz. 31: 136. 1901. 
SMITH, W. G., Geog. Jour. 21: 375-401. 1903. 
Scot. Geog. Mag. 18: 587-597. 1902. 
7° PISCHINGER, FERDINAND, Ueber Bau und Regeneration des ee ee 
Parates von oe und Monophyllaea. Sitz. Ber. Wiener Acad. = aye 
302. pls, 2. 
