BRIEFER ARTICLES. 
A remarkable macrospore.—In recent literature references to Treub’s 
“Casuarina”’ are becoming quite frequent, and deservedly so, for 
Casuarina is a remarkable plant and the monograph gives the results 
of extensive investigations. The account of chalazogamy alone would 
make the paper a classic, but the peculiarities in the embryo-sac seem 
to merit equal attention. Treub says that the embryo-sac of Casuarina 
contains a sex-apparatus normally composed of two or three cells 
which seem to be derived from a single mother cell, yet the author 
claims that the cells associated with the oosphere are not synergide, 
but have anentirely different origin. The assertion is also made that 
in Casuarina no antipodal cells are formed. The lack of a secondary 
nucleus formed by the fusion of two polar nuclei is another excep- 
tional feature, while the formation of endosperm and also the forma- 
tion of cell walls around the oosphere and other cells of the sex-appa- 
ratus before fertilization complete a list of striking variations from the 
normal angiosperm type. 
I have been deeply interested in Casuarina’s embryo-sac without 
antipodals, as I have been studying Sa/x, and for more than a year 
was unable to discover any trace of antipodals. However, Salix has 
antipodals, as some of m preparations now prove. Some slides also 
show the fusion of polar nuclei to form the endosperm nucleus. 
There is no doubt that the antipodals of Sa/ix are exceedingly transl 
tory but they are formed nevertheless. It may be that Caswarina has 
antipodals of this evanescent character. Since the technique betray ed 
by Treub’s figures and text could be greatly improved, I should be 
glad to see the Casuarina sac studied again and in much greater de- 
tail, in order that Treub’s conclusions may receive additional confir- 
mation or be corrected.—Cuas. CHAMBERLAIN, University of Chicago. 
Aster tardiflorus: a correction.—My attention has been called to 
a clerical error in my paper on Aster tardiflorus in the preceding 
number of the Gazetrr. On age 275, in the last clause of the first 
paragraph, the words “inner” and “outer” should be transposed; and 
the clause should read: the outer scales of the imbricated involucre 
longer than the inner. The error originally arose through mistaking 
the phrase “inferioribus longioribus” for interioribus longioribus.—MER- 
RITT LYNDON FERNALD, Cambridge, Mass. 
— les Casuarinées et leur place dans le systeme naturel. Ann. Jard. Butt. 
[374] 
