1908] CURRENT LITERATURE 313 
eet eS Ce ae Bie ee hen: aera IR | nT q 
However, very p t 
as to include the root-system, especially of herbarium specimens.—THEo. Hom. 
Anatomy of the leaves of Ranunculaceae.—Gorrart' has described the 
leaf structure of species representing 2 3 genera of Ranunculaceae, nearly all . 
from the old world. The paper is illustrated by about 400 excellent figures of 
the leaf outline and the internal structure. So many anatomical details are 
recorded that an abstract in brief space is impossible. 
The author has followed the method suggested by his teacher, the distin- 
guished anatomist A. GRAvis, to examine the leaf at very many places and at 
various stages of its development, and to give due consideration to the course 
of the mestome strands from stem to petiole and throughout the blade. In 
this way one obtains a most complete idea of the structural peculiarities, and 
such are highly welcome to students of affinities, expressed not only by floral 
structures but also by internal organization. Much has been written about the 
validity of several of these genera, considered from a systematic point of view, 
especially judging from the floral characters. It is therefore interesting to learn 
m this paper that, so far as concerns the leaf structure, Hepatica is not dis- 
tinct from Anemone, and the same seems to be the case with Nigella-Garidella, 
Actaea-Cimicifuga, and Ficaria-Oxygraphis-Ranunculus. However, in respect 
'o Oxygraphis, the author has examined only O. Cymbalaria, which in the 
reviewer’s opinion is no true O graphis, but a Ranunculus. examination 
of O. glacialis, for instance, would no doubt have led to a different conclusion. 
On the other hand, Pulsatilla appears to be generically distinct from Anemone, 
and Batrachium from Ranunculus. Future investigations, for instance, of the 
singular North American representatives of Ranuculus constituting the section 
Crymodes, Cyrtorhyncha, and Pseudaphanostemma might lead to the segrega- 
tion of these from Ranunculus altogether. For such a purpose GOFFERT’S con- 
tribution is a very important one; and it might be stated at the same time that 
the same family has been treated by other pupils of Gravis in regard to the 
Structure of the pericarp and spermoderm, the embryo and seedlings, etc., the 
result of which have appeared in the Archives since 1897.—THEO. HoL. 
Prothallia of Kaulfussia and Gleichenia.—One of the results of CAMPBELL’s 
recent visit to Java is the publication of an account?? of the prothallia of the oriental 
and monotypic Kaulfussia and of Gleichenia. The account fills in an important 
84P In our knowledge of the prothallia and sex organs of Filicineae; and it is of 
interest to note that the account satisfies the desire for completeness rather than 
the desire for new things, 
** Gorrarr, Jutrs, Recherch Pana les feuilles dans les Renonculacées. 
i Bot. Univ. Ligge III. pp. 187. pls. 14. rg01- The editors feel justified 
~ 48 attention to so old a publication in view of the fact that it has an important 
bearing Upon the current taxonomic study of the family. 
Bot, pe aMPBELL, D. H., The prothallium of Kaulfussia and Gleichenia. Ann. Jard. 
Buitenzorg II. 7269-102. pls. 7-14. 1908. 
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