232 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [SEPTEMBER 
The first chapter describes the “principal groups of plants,” in which types 
are selected to represent the groups. The descriptions are systematic in form, 
encyclopedic in content, and entirely unrelated. Just what the student is expected 
to do with this part is not clear. There follow chapters on the “outer morphology 
of angiosperms” and “the inner morphology of the higher plants.” This old 
breaking-up of a subject that cannot be broken is artificial in the highest degree. 
The confusion is increased by referring to the first topic as ‘‘the anatomy or outer 
structure of the angiosperms;” and to the second as ‘“‘the inner structure or 
histology of the higher plants.”” This may be what students of pharmacy need, 
but it is not modern botany. 
The remaining chapters deal with the professional details of pharmacy; 
although under Part I, which bears the title “Botany,” there appear chapters 
on the “classification of angiosperms yielding vegetable drugs,” and “cultiva- 
tion of medicinal plants.’ Part II is entitled “‘Pharmacognosy”’ and contains 
chapters on crude drugs, powdered drugs, and foods. Part III is devoted to 
“reagents and microscopical technique.”—J. M. C 
NOTES FOR STUDENTS 
Synapsis.—GRE£GorrE has published3 an interpretation of synapsis opposing 
HERtTwIc’s new theory and confirming his own earlier view. He states that the 
nucleus in synapsis passes through three principal states (/eptoténes, pachyténes, 
strepsiténes), and that synapsis represents a primary state of heterotypic prophase 
He says that cytologists diverge into two schools: one believing that the pre-reduc- 
tion of ch in the zyg stage, the bivalent chromosomes in the 
strepsinema stage representing the paired true chromosomes in heterotypi¢ 
mitosis; the other believing that the pre-reduction is effected by a folding back, 
in the strepsinema stage, of a chromosome which is believed to be composed of 
two somatic chromosomes attached end to end. However, they all agree in con 
interpretation of synapsis, deduced from his theory of nucleoplasmic genes 
The gist of the theory is this: increase of protoplasm cannot continue witho 
proceed equally, the former generally being ahead of the latter; so the nue 
plasmic quotient (K/P) tends to diminish. Hrrrwic designates the a 
equilibrium as “‘nucleoplasmic tension.” This tension causes a sudden at 
considerable increase of the nucleus, which results in the increase of ghee 
The increase of protoplasm and consequent increase of chromatin can be — ee 
back to equilibrium only by nuclear division. Applying the theory to the 0 
division in tetradogeneses (sporogenesis, spermatogenesis, and ovogenesis ), 
. ésentent-ils une 
3 Grécorre, Victor, Les phénoménes de I’étape synaptique rep ihe 
caryocinése avortée? La Cellule 25:87-99. 1908. 
