76 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [JANUARY 
MINOR NOTICES. 
Japanese vegetation —Professor Mryosut, of the University of Tokyo, has 
begun the publication of photogravures of Japanese vegetation,® to represent 
wild and cultivated plants and plant societies. Each picture is on a separate 
sheet of cardboard 20.5 27°™, the size of the print being 16X23°". Accom- 
panying the illustrations is a descriptive text in both English and Japanese. 
The author has not yet determined the number of plates to be issued. So far, 
two parts have appeared, part I containing eight plates of cultivated and semi- 
cultivated an and part II containing eight illustrations of the vegetation of 
the island o 
The illustrations are well chosen and well made. Among the most effective 
and characteristic are the long avenues of giant mountain cherry trees, gorgeous . 
with their spring blossoms, the graceful bamboos bending beneath their burden 
of winter snow, and the forest vegetation around the Hannya waterfall. The 
descriptive text is precise, and interspersed by interesting remarks which show 
that the ae has an eye for color and setting. 
e hoped that the series may be continued to give us many more 
Testes of the flora of this interesting country.—F. C. NEWCOMBE. 
A botanical cyclopedia—-An illustrated German dictionary of botanical 
terms has appeared under the editorship of Camitto K. SCHNEIDER,’ with the 
assistance of a number of other German botanists. This volume of almost 700 
pages presents much more than a list of definitions, for there are illustrated 
descriptions of the morphology and minute structures of organs, of the sort one 
would expect to find in a cyclopedia. The terms, of course, are those em- 
ployed in the German language, and the work will not take the place, for the 
English or American botanist, of Jackson’s excellent Glossary of botanic terms. 
—B. M. Davis 
NOTES FOR STUDENTS. 
Chemotaxis of spermatozoids.—The chemotaxis of the spermatozoids of Isoetes 
has been studied by Surpata.8 In Jsoetes japonica, which was used for the 
study, the sporangia ripen in autumn. Microspores, sown in tap water in Perti 
dishes late in November, begin to germinate about the middle of January. The 
duration of the swarming movements of the spermatozoids is shorter than in the 
ferns, vigorous movements lasting only about five minutes; some movement of 
6 Miyosur, M., Atlas of Japanese vegetation. With explanatory text. Tokyo: 
Maruzen Kabushiki Kaisha. 1905 
7 SCHNEIDER, C. K., Illustriertes Handwoérterbuch der Botanik. Imp. 8vo. 
pp- 690. figs. 341. Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann. 1905. M 16. 
8 SHIBATA, K., Studien tiber die Chemotaxis der Isoetes-Spermatozoiden. Jahrb. 
Wiss. Bot. 41:561-610. 1905. 
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