about 9g per cent. of similar adhesions, and the seventh with 64 per cent. 
AE NG UR eee COE SS ee en Tt = aa ee 
1896] CURRENT LITERATURE 345 
defined in Bentham and Hooker’s Genera Plantarum. American plants 
recently figured, and with full descriptive text, are Clematis Addisonii," 
Lonicera hirsuta? L. hirsuta < Sullivantii,? Aquilegia Jonesti,® Rhododen- 
dron Vaseyi."4 
Dr. B. L. RoBINSON, in a recent discussion of the fruit of Tropidocar- 
pum, calls attention to its great variability, and its consequent uselessness for 
taxonomic purposes, a fact which militates strongly against certain propos 
species. Aside from the taxonomic features of the discussion the fact of 
greatest general interest is the occurrence of the internal capsule which fre- 
quently appears in what is known as the capparideum type of capsule. This 
internal capsule is variable in size, ‘from the merest obscure rudiment to a 
capsule half the length of the outer one.” The outer capsule is always 3 OF 
4-valved, and the inner one always 2-valved, and when well developed con- 
tains two seeds, “which mature in just the same way as those in the surround- 
ing capsule.” The embryo also is apparently perfect, and the capsule regu- 
larly dehisces. As Dr. Robinson suggests, the fertilization of these inner- 
most ovules is a very interesting problem. If they are reached by pollen 
tubes, these tubes must penetrate two styles. The inner capsules are usually 
axial in position, but sometimes arise near the base of the outer capsule. The 
author suggests that these inner capsules “represent a second whorl of car- 
pellary leaves.’ Similar internal capsules have been noted by Peyritsch in 
Draba alpina.—J. M. C. 
HuGo DE VRIES" has convinced himself by a long series of cultures that 
: large part of the teratological anomalies in plants are in their nature hered- 
"tary. His already known observations on the hereditary nature of fasciation 
and torsion are now followed by a discussion of adhesions and cohesions, or 
Symphyses. 
Having transplanted from a wheat field to his garden som 
‘ypocheris glabra showing adhesions, he found the second gener 
e individuals of 
ation with 
A 
similar selection of Helianthus annuus with united cotyledons produced 46 
the third generation plants showing 76, 81, and 89 per cent. of syncotylous 
vos. 
To these De Vries adds a host of similar facts from cultures and many 
observations of the repetition of teratological variations upon shrubs and 
trees. All, he thinks, point to the hereditary nature of the phenomena. 
This heredity, he adds, sometimes appears “ lateral,” #. ¢» 
“Gard. and For. 9: 324. 1896. 14 Gard. Chron. 20: 71- 1896. 
™ Gard. and For. 9: 344. 1896. 5 Erythea 4: 109. 1896. 
"SGard. and For. 9: 365. 1896. 16 Botanisch Jaarboek 7 : 129-197: 
it shows itself 
1895- 
