368 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [MAY 
Preserving plants.—PoLvacct, speaking before the Italian Botanical Society,3? 
commends his method, proposed in 1900, for preserving plants in a watery solu- 
tion of sulfur dioxid. Specimens so preserved in 1900 have retained perfectly 
their form and are in as good condition for sectioning as when fresh. He has 
- improved the method of making the solution and has devised a means of retain- 
ing perfectly the green color. To make the solution, place sodium bisulfid in a 
large flask, add sulfuric acid drop by drop, and conduct the gaseous SO, 
through water, which quickly becomes saturated and may be preserved for use 
as needed. To retain green color immerse the material in a 1 per cent. watery 
solution of copper sulfate, leaving it 24 to 48 hours ee to the consistence 
of the tissues; then transfer to the preservative solution.—C. R. B. 
Teratology in Salix.ss—Morr records various cases of teratology in the 
flowers of two Californian willows, S. /asiandra Benth. and a hybrid of S. lasiandra 
Benth. and S. babylonica L. In making the statement that no mention has been 
made for Salix of an intimate association of microsporangial and megasporangial 
tissue he overlooks an earlier account by the reviewer,3+ who described and figured 
equally intimate associations. According to Mort, the abnormalities indicate 
that the ancestral Salix flower consisted of a pistil and two stamens with a four- 
parted perianth, the present unisexual condition having been reached by the 
suppression of the organs of one sex. Hybridization seems to offer the most 
‘likely explanation of the abnormalities—CHARLES J. CHAMBERLAIN. 
Nectaries of Cruciferae——Vi1LANr has made an exhaustive comparative 
study of the nectaries of Cruciferae35 and concludes that on the basis of their 
number the Cruciferae can be divided into four types, and on the basis of their 
position into generic groups. The diverse forms as to nectaries are referable 
to one primitive type, having four nectaries, two of which are at the base and 
external to each stamen, constituting an external dimerous cycle, and two at the 
base and between each member of each pair of long stamens, constituting an 
internal dimerous cycle. The tetramery of the corolla is only apparent, the 
whole flower being purely dimerous. The nectaries function both for securing 
Cross pollination and protection. —C. R. B. 
Morphology , of Chloranthus.—Miss Herren M. Armour3® has published 
the results of her study of Chloranthus, especially interesting as extending our 
3? Pottacct, G., Nuovo metodo per la conservazione di organi vegetali. Bull. 
Soc. Bot. Ital. 1905: 242. 
33 Morr, Witt1am WarNER, Teratology in the flowers of two Californian wil- 
lows. Univ. Cal. Publ. Bot. 2:181-226. pls. 19-20. 1905. 
34 Bot. GAZ. 23:147-179. pls. 12-17. 1897. 
35 VILLANI, A., Dei nettarii delle Ce e del loro valore morfologico nella 
simmetria florale. Malpighia 19: 399-439. 1906. 
36 ArMouR,’ HELEN M., On the morphol of Chloranthus. New gone 
5:49-55- pls. +4. 1906. 
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