CURRENT LIPERAIT Ure 
BOOK REVIEWS 
The Wiesner Festschrift 
As a testimonial of esteem and affection, the friends and pupils of Jurrus 
Wiesyer, the distinguished director of the plant-physiological institute of the 
University of Vienna, prepared for his seventieth birthday (January 20, 1908) 
a volume’ containing more than forty papers, which are of course predominantly 
Physiological. Only one is from this country: TRELEASE gives an account of 
variegation in the Agaveae, with many illustrations. It is only possible to give 
an idea of the scientific contents by stating most briefly the drift of each paper. 
TscHircH opens the volume with a brief sketch of some ideas on the rela- 
tionships and origins of the resins and gums, as to whose chemistry light is break- 
ing. Moxiscu shows that Xylaria Hypoxylon, X. Cookei, Trametes Pini, 
Polyporus sulfureus, and Collybia cirrhata are to be stricken from the list of 
uminous fungi. STRASBURGER discusses nuclear division in the Characeae, with 
special reference to the so-called amitosis, which he holds is not a senile process. 
Vow Hounet and LrrscHaver present a synopsis of Austrian Corticeae, includ- 
ing 131 species, of which 5 are new. Mostus figures and describes the siliceous 
accretions in the stem and leaf cells of the tropical American Callisia repens 
(Commelinaceae). Czapex discusses the relation of geotropism to certain fea- 
tures of plant form, especially to the position of branches both of stems and 
Toots. BURGERSTEIN gives a synoptical key to the genera of Coniferae, based on 
the anatomical characters of the wood. Von PorTHErm and Samec report less 
dissimilation (“respiration”) in seedlings of pea grown in Ca-free solutions than in 
Ose grown in Knop’s solution. Darwin shows by various methods that the 
Petceptive region for gravity and light is in the cotyledon of Sorghum, thus dis- 
Posing of objections that have been raised to this view. ae 
AUSEK gives a further account of the “‘carbon-layer” of the pericarp of 
certain Compositae. Gore finds the relations of symmetry in a considerable 
umber of flowers and inflorescences examined to be explicable neither by pres- 
Sure nor purpose, but rather by ‘“‘nutritive relations” (not more exactly analyzed). 
Ricurer declares (on results derived from the usual but inconclusive culture 
Methods) that calcium is a necessary food element for a colorless diatom, prob- 
ably Nitschia putrida. SeNFT demonstrates the occurrence of physcion and 
Parietin in lichens, and the methods of recognizing them microchemically. 
“BONS caer pegs een 
* WiEsNER-Festscurirt. Ed. by K. LiNsBAUER. 5vo. pp- vili+ 548. pls. 23. 
Ags. 56. Wien: Verlagsbuchhandlung Carl Konegen. 1908. Ar. 24 geb. 28.80. 
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