1898] BRIEFER ARTICLES 277 
It is here that Casimir DeCandolle and his son Augustin do their 
botanical work, and although the library and collection is a private 
one, the keeping up of which involves considerable expense, they are 
always willing to have other botanists avail themselves of any appoint- 
ments which the large collection offers. 
M. Casimir DeCandolle speaks English fluently, and his intense 
interest in all matters pertaining to botany, and his characteristic 
modesty, together with his exceedingly broad and comprehensive knowl- 
edge, afford astriking contrast to what one often meets in other parts of 
the continent. As in the case of the other DeCandolles, he has con- 
tributed to every department of botany. We find the name associated 
not only with an enormous amount of systematic investigation, but 
also with the physiology, histology, morphology and aad of plants.— 
G. E. Stone, Mass. Agric. College, Amherst. 
SOME RESULTS FROM THE STUDY OF ALLIUM. 
DurING the summer of 1897, at the University of Chicago, I began 
a morphological investigation of certain species of Allium, being 
attracted chiefly by the often quoted polyembryony of A. ¢ricoccum Ait. 
My results in the case of this species indicate that if polyembryony 
occurs at all, it is very rare. Besides A. ¢ricoccum, | examined more 
or less thoroughly A. cernuum Roth, and A. Canadense Kalm, with the 
same general result. Seventy-five embryo-sacs of A. ¢ricoccum were 
examined at the stage in which both egg apparatus and antipodal cells 
ought to have been found. The egg apparatus was found in seventy 
of them, and the appearance of the sacs in which it was not found 
would indicate that it had been lost by accident, as all other structures 
were normal. Of the seventy-five sacs, only sixteen contained antip- 
odal cells, and these antipodal cells were usually small, and it was 
seldom that more than one or two could be found. In one sac there 
were three antipodal cells in a row, but in other cases where three 
were found they were crowded together irregularly. Wherever antip- 
odal cells were found, they had a shriveled, dead appearance, and 
Stained with difficulty or not at all. Twenty-six embryos were 
examined, all of which had developed from the egg cell. No trace of 
antipodal cells could be found in any sac in which the embryo had 
begun to develop. 
