1898] BRIEFER ARTICLES 203 
tion is of little importance in this regard is shown by the fact that 
the palet also is inserted above the anterior lodicules. Tracing down 
the vascular strands of the three lodicules, they are found to unite with 
the central strand of the axis at approximately the same point, while 
the vascular strands of the palet unite with the axial strand below the 
insertion of the strands of the lodicules. The insertion is disguised by 
the adhesion of the palet to the posterior lodicules. 
Hackel in his discussion neglected the general law which governs 
the arrangement of leaves on a branch among the grasses. As is well 
known, the leaves on a branch are inserted in a plane at right angles 
to the plane in which the leaves on the main axis are borne. Hackel’s 
conclusions reverse this law and maintain that the leaves (lodicules) on 
the floral branch are in the same plane as the leaves (glume and palet) 
on the primary axis. Such a departure from normal arrangement is 
scarcely probable. 
It seems to me that Hackel attaches too much importance to the 
fact that the lodicules appear as a single rudiment afterwards becom- 
ing two-lobed. The rudiment (Anlage) of the corolla in a great 
many plants arises as a continuous collar of the receptacle, and after- 
Wards the lobes are differentiated. 
The question is one of considerable moment. Taking one view 
Res ‘Smore reason for believing the grasses a group connected by 
termediate forms to other monocotyledons; taking the other, the 
sa a stand as a more isolated group, and the recent assump- 
ia ey are but very remotely connected genetically with other 
Scotyledons would have more to support it. The question also 
on the primitive character of the bamboos. — W. W. RowLeE, 
Cornell Universi eas 
rsity 
