400 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [NOVEMBER 
with the formation of primary cleavage products, in which case these are elabo- 
rated into alcohol and CO,.—C. R. B. 
A new fossil araucarian.—SInNott’® has described a new genus of araucarian 
wood from the Cretaceous (?) clays of Scituate, Mass. The structure of Parace- 
droxylon scituatense consists of tracheids and pith rays, the radial pits of the former 
being circular (not flattened by mutual contact), and the cells of the latter thin- 
walled and without pits except in the walls adjacent to the tracheids. Groups 
of thin-walled cells which occur in wounded regions are thought possibly to repre- 
sent abortive resin canals, and in the bands of wound tissue which occur near 
— oe ee some — appear which are said to represent 
nals. Th lusion is that Paracedroxylon 
is another primitive araucarian wick’ is ‘fon the border line between this group 
and their ancestors, the primitive Abietineae,” which “probably left the ascending 
araucarian line before the appearance of flattened pitting,” and whose “traumatic 
canals were subsequently much reduced from the typical abietineous condition.” — 
Oospheres of Sargassum.—lIn a short preliminary note, TAHARA'’? announces 
the periodic liberation of the oospheres of the species of Sargassum (about ro in 
number) at the Misaki Marine Biological Station of the Tokyo Imperial Univer- 
sity, S. enerve being the species chiefly under observation. The liberation occurs 
simultaneously not only in a given individual, but also in all the plants of 
the locality, proceeding in fortnightly crops on a particular day, at a fixed interval 
after the highest spring tide, this interval varying in different species. All the 
oospheres of a single conceptacle are not discharged at one time, but in two or 
three successive fortnightly crops—J. M. C. 
‘Light and protein synthesis.—ZaLEsKI, after further experiments, 18 has 
supported the general view that light promotes the synthesis of proteins only 
indirectly, because of the relation to the synthesis of carbohydrates. He rejects 
the researches of LAuRENT and of GopLEwskI as insufficient to show the direct 
influence of light upon any molecular combination in the proteins.—C. R. 
‘6 Stnnott, Epmunp A. W., Paracedroxylon, a new type of araucarian wood. 
Rhodora 11:165-173. pls. 80, 81. 1909. 
‘7 Tawara, M., On the periodical liberation of the oospheres in Sargassum. Pre- 
liminary note. Bot. Mag. Tokyo 23:151-153. 1909. 
18 ZALESKI, W., Ueber dei Rolle des Lichtes bei der Eiweissbildung in den 
Pflanzen. Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Gesells. 27: 56-62. 1909 
