38 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [JANUARY 
has described germinating seeds of ZL. minor, and shows that the 
“plumule” emerges from between the folded edges of the coty- 
ledon; that the embryonic root is small and quite transient; that 
at the base of the “ plumule,” which persists but a short time, there 
appear quite early the young pouches in which new plants are 
developed vegetatively. The writer falls into a common error 
when he speaks of this vegetative reproduction as “an interest- 
ing case of parthenogenesis.”’ 
With reference to the time and conditions of flowering and 
forming vegetative shoots, Guppy (10) thinks that were tempera- 
ture and moisture constantly at the optimum point no flowers 
would be produced. He suggests, further, that the ‘“ winter 
buds” are formed by plants which have been weakened by 
flowering. This does not accord with the cases reported by 
various other observers, who state that they are formed with- 
out the intervention of flowers. 
_Hegelmaier dealt sufficiently with the morphology of the 
sporophyte to show that it is practically reduced to a structure 
for the work of photosyntax; that part of this structure is so 
arranged as to form pouches which protect the vegetative buds 
and flowers ; and that abundant air spaces, which float the plant, 
are formed by the separation or the breaking down of cell walls. 
By means of numerous figures he showed the history of the 
vegetative structures of the sporophyte. 
None of the above authors investigated the gametophytes. 
THE SPOROPHYTE AND ITS VEGETATIVE MULTIPLICATION. 
According to the usual interpretation, the adult plant ( fig 
1)" is a flattened stem divided into three regions, the basal stalk 
region (fig. 7, 2) which represents the first internode, the nodal 
region ( fig. z, 6) from which arise new shoots and flowers, and 
