366 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [ NOVEMBER 
mission of the stimulus is observed with diminishing strength to the distance 
of 0.5 to 0.7" from the wound. The movement takes place in similar 
manner in the air and in the water. It is influenced by light and perhaps 
also by temperature; no influence of gravity could be determined. In the 
guard cells of the stoma the transposition was never observed. In some 
cases the effect of the stimulation caused the nuclei to increase considerably 
in size.—C. R. B 
ITEMS OF TAXONOMIC interest are as follows: Miss Alice Eastwood has 
published (Prec. Calif. Acad. Sci. 111. (Botany) 1: 89-146. 1898) a second 
fascicle of her “Studies in the herbarium and the field.” A study of a 
collection of eighty or more species of plants from San Nicolas island results 
in the description of nine new species and three varieties, the new species 
belonging to Abronia, Astragalus, Hosackia, Peucedanum, Amsinckia, 
Lycium, Plantago, and Malacothrix. Three new species of Cnicus from 
southern Colorado and Utah are described. Two new species of Synthyris 
from the alpine region of southwestern Colorado are added to the solitary 
alpine species heretofore recognized as occurring in the mountains of Colorado. 
Two new species of Eriodictyon are recognized as having been included 
heretofore under £. somentosum. New species of Pacific coast plants are 
described under Campanula, Romneya, Sedum, Cercocarpus, and Calochor- 
tus.—In the Journal of Botany (36 : 361-378. 1898) S. Schénland and E.G. 
Baker describe twenty-six new species of Crassula from South Africa, and R. 
. 
A CAREFUL investigation of the phenomena of fertilization in Onoclea™ 
by Mr. W. R. Shaw has brought some interesting facts to light. All previous 
accounts of fertilization in plants agree in making it consist of the fusion of 
two germ-nuclei in the resting condition; and similar descriptions ate 
given by zoologists of fertilization in animals. In Onoclea, however, the sper™- 
nucleus does not pass into a resting condition before uniting with the egs- 
nucleus, but enters the latter without visible change either of form or struc 
ture. Within the egg-nucleus it slowly enlarges and becomes granular before 
the final building of the nuclear substances. Mr. Shaw was not able to deter: 
mine with certainty the fate of the cilia and band of cytoplasm, which, 
together with the nucleus, make up the spermatozoid; though from certain 
appearances he conjectures they are left outside the egg-nucleus. This con- 
6 Annals of Botany 12: 261-285. 1808. 
