502 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [DECEMBER 
phenomenon than previous observations would have indicated. | Although stocks 
behave in a rather simple way when the analysis given by the authors is compre- 
hended, the recombination of the allelomorphs that have been discovered in this 
plant yields in the second generation 243 distinct types, and it is plain that in 
still more complex cases a perfectly typical Mendelian behavior would easily 
exceed the keenest human power of analysis to unravel.—Gro. H. SHULL. 
Sterilized soil —Scuu1ze finds?s that plants grown in sterilized soil are affected 
by two opposing factors: (1) the formation of more or less injurious decom- 
position products in the sterilizing process, which act upon the plants ‘“‘according 
to the degree of their sensitiveness” (this phrase obviously hides ignorance of 
other factors); (2) an advantageous release of nutritive materials, especially 
of the otherwise unavailable nitrogen. According as one or the other of these 
factors prevails the crop is increased or diminished by sterilizing the soil. But 
even when the crop is diminished the N-content may be markedly increased. 
By the addition of lime the injurious effect of the decomposition products may be 
almost or wholly counteracted. The significance of these researches for pot- 
cultures in sterilized soil is obvious, invalidating many conclusions based upon 
such experiments when this factor had not been considered.—C. R. B. 
Moss rhizoids.—Kurt ScHOENE finds*® that rhizoids rarely arise from the 
germinating spores of any mosses except Funaria, in which they regularly appear. 
Lack of nitrogen suppresses the chloronema of Funaria, reducing it much in 
others; and lack of either nitrates or phosphates enormously lengthens the rhi- 
zoids of Funaria. These peculiarities of spore germination mark Funaria as a 
ruderal plant. The rhizoids show a gradation in their significance as organs 
of food supply, diminishing from the forms with a central strand to those without 
it, this function entirely disappearing in water forms. (The experiments on 
which this statement rests are too few and inconclusive to be convincing.) 
The oblique position of partitions is held to be a mechanical arrangment for 
resisting longitudinal strains and too great deformation of plasma on bending. 
It is not obvious that in nature such dangers often threaten.—C. R. B. 
Items of taxonomic interest.—Oaxes Ames (Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington 
Asclepiadaceae from Guatemala—C. B. CLARKE (Kew Bull. 1906:251) has 
published a new African genus (Crossandrella) of Acanthaceae.—A. D. E. ELMER 
(Leaflets on Philipp. Bot. 1: 42-73. 1906) has published new Philippine species 
under Pandanus (2), Ficus (8), and the Rubiaceae (14).—J. M. C. 
25 SCHULZE, C., Einige Beobachtungen iiber die Einwirkung der Bodensterilisa- 
tion auf die Entwickelung der Pflanzen. Landw. Versuchs-Stat. 65:137-147. 1906. 
26 SCHOENE, Kurt, Beitriige zur Kenntnis der Keimung der Laubmoossporen 
und zur Biologie der Laubmoosrhizoiden. Flora 96: 276-321. 1906. 
