1909] CURRENT LITERATURE 317 
The new flora of Krakatau.—Under this title CaAmpBrtt?5 has published an 
interesting account of a visit to the island of Krakatau, which was “efficiently 
sterilized” in August 1883, the hot ashes and pumice completely covering the island 
to an average depth of 30™. The nearest land is an island rokm distant, on which 
the vegetation was largely destroyed; while Java and Sumatra are 35 and 45km 
distant. TReruB visited the island in 1886 and 1897, and it was examined again 
in 1905 and 1906. By 1886, three years after the catastrophe, a considerable 
number of plants had been established, the ferns predominating in species (11) 
ment of higher vegetation, the blackish slimy films of species of Oscillatoria coating 
the surface of the ashes. In 1897, while there were almost no trees, most of the 
island was covered by vegetation, 62 species of vascular plants being recorded 
(12 pteridophytes, 50 seed plants), and the ferns stil) predominating in the number 
of individuals. In the present flora 137 species have been recorded, representing 
all the principal groups; the ferns are no longer predominant, and the — 
vegetation is rapidly encroaching toward the center of the island. There 
remarkable paucity of bryophytes, only two mosses and one Anthoceros having 
been recorded.—J. M. C. 
Mechanism of anthers.—ScHNEIDER, having investigated the tulip carefully, 
objects*® to the conclusions of STEINBRINCK that the rupture of anthers is due to 
the cohesion of the diminishing water with Gees in 2 te cel ae In we fisen 
he would distinguish the mechanics of t! 
valves, and of their subsequent rolling and unrolling. In Tulipa he finds the frst 
Tupture due to the pressure of the growing pollen mass—an explanation already 
more than a century old. He does not enlighten us as to the remaining processes; 
Possibly be are treated in an earlier paper which we have not seen.”7 
replies at some length,’ in the usual lively polemic 
style of our Teutonic friends. Though talipes were out of bloom before 
SCHNEIDER’s article came to his attention, his preserved material even furnishes 
some arguments, which are further supported by an examination of the behavior 
of a large number of plants of other genera. The only one in which STEINBRINCK 
is willing to admit that anything but cohesion mechanism plays a part, even in the 
first opening of the valves, is the rye. In this anther “another strong tissue tension 
Must cooperate, because the broad cleft remains open when one throws the anther 
: *S CamMPBeLL, D. H., The new flora of Krakatau. Amer. Nat. 43:449-460. 
wg 
*° ScuNeweR, J. M., Zur ersten und zweiten Hauptfrage der Antherenmechanik. 
Ber, ersten Bot. Gesells. 27: 196-201. 1909 
» Der Oeffnungsmechanismus ae Tulipanthere. Altstatten, 1908. 
augur Di Dissectutons. ) 
D TEINBRINCK, C., Ueber den ersten Oceana ane bei Antheren. Ber. 
ay Bot. Gesells, 2°73 300-312. figs. 7. 1909. 
