476 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [DECEMBER 
hyphae, if present, would be most easily found. As Barker states, there is 
little trace of their presence in later stages when the spores are formed. 
The account of Ikeno is, however, very positive as to the entire absence of 
ascogenous hyphae, and it is hard to see any place for them in the series of 
figures that he presents. Barker and Ikeno must either have had very 
different organisms, or there is a slip somewhere in one of the accounts of 
these authors.— B, M. Davis. 
OLIVER® characterizes the Paleozoic gymnospermous seeds by the 
importance and dimensions of the pollen chamber and the complicated vascular 
system which embraces the body of the nucellus. He considers chiefly the 
cordaitean genus Stephanospermum, representing Brongiart’s Radiosperms, 
and Cardiocarpus representing the same author’s Platysperms, both from the 
French Permo-carboniferous. The latter possess many cycadean features, 
such as the relatively small pollen chamber and the thickening of the cells of 
the beak of the nucellus. They are more archaic, however, than the former. 
While paleobotanical terminology denominates these remains “seeds,” they 
are usually preserved at a stage just preceding fertilization, and therefore 
answer to the modern unfertilized ovules. He next considers the genus 
Lagenostoma from the Lower Coal-measures of Lancashire and Yorkshire, 
chiefly as exemplified by Lagenostoma ovoides of Williamson, It is small 
and circular, and has a chambered apex with vascular prolongations which 
are quite unique. It resembles Cycads in the considerable area of “fusion” 
between the nucellus and testa, as well as in the presence of vascular strands 
in the plane of fusion. The confined form of the pollen chamber marks an 
advance in precision on the open type of the ordinary Paleozoic seeds. 
Modern cycadean structures are considered, as shown in Cycas Rumphii, and 
the paper closes with an examination of the modern species of Torreya, 
which, though siphonogamous as in all other conifers, still retains marked 
traces of the fertilizing contrivances that became obsolete when siphonogamy 
appeared. 
Oliver also records*® the discovery that the Sforocarpon ornatum of 
Williamson is really a transverse section of Lagenostoma physoides of the 
same author. 
He also notes” a fungus on the fronds of Alethopteris from the Stephanian 
of Grand Croix, and of chytridineous sporangia in the nucellus layers of 
Sphaerospermum from the same formation.— E. W. BERRY. 
VARIATION in the number of stamens of 4 /sine media L. has been studied 
during several years by Reindhl,* using a combination of the statistical and 
*SQLIVER, F. W., The ovules of the older gymnosperms. Annals of Botany 
17:451-476. pl. 24, fig. 20. 1903. 
7°OLIVER, F. W., New Phytologist 2:18. 1903. 
27 OLIVER, F. W., New Phytologist 2:49. 1903. 
22 REINOHL, FRIEDRICH, Die Variation im Andrécium der Stellaria media Cyr. 
Bot. Zeit. 61*: 159-200. pls. 2-4. 1903. 
