1897 | CURRENT LITERATURE 297 
M. no. 20). Attention is called to the value of mushrooms and puffballs for 
food by L. M. Underwood (Ala. no. 73) in ten pages. Specific description is 
accorded Agaricus campestris, Amanita C@sarea, said to be common in Ala- 
bama, and its poisonous relative 4. muscaria. A chemical study of the Irish 
potato by T. L. Watson (Va. nos. 55 and 56) contains some facts of interest 
to vegetable physiologists.—J. 
NOTES FOR STUDENTS. 
Mr. THEO. Houy, in the continuation of his morphological and anatomi- 
cal studies in the Cyperace, has recently investigated Carex Fraseri,ta very 
rare and local sedge with an appearance so peculiar as to distinguish it easily 
from other species of Carex. His results still further emphasize this dis- 
tinctness. “The monopodial ramifications of its rhizome, with its single 
assimilating leaf destitute of sheath, ligule, epidermal expansions and bulli- 
form cells, in connection with its flat and hollow stem, besides the uninter- 
rupted pericambium of the root, constitute a structure that seems almost 
unique in the family of the Cyperacez.”—J. M. C. 
AN INTERESTING CONTRIBUTION to the subject of rhythm in plants is 
afforded by L. Jost’s recent work on Mimosa.s_ This plant is one of the few 
known examples in which etiolated leaves are irritable, and which exhibit 
periodic movements. In the experimental work etiolated leaves were 
temperature causes the leaves to assume the night position, and a fall in tem- 
perature the day position; exactly the reverse of the relations of flowers to 
temperature. This fact is remarkable in view of the fact that leaves and 
wers react alike to changes in the intensity of light —D, T. MacDouGat. 
Mr. T, parses canwane has see in Sa EEE bya ey 
simpled 
influence of light. While these indications of photosyntax were nak panded: 
to prove that diatoms are -plants, the simplicity of the device makes the 
tration an easy one to employ in illustrative work. Advantage is 
taken of the fact that an ordinary aqueous solution of eee loses its 
* Am. Jour. Sci. IV. 3 : 121-128. pl. g. 1897. 
Ze 5 Ueber die periodischen en Bewegungen der Blatter von Mimosa = pia unl 
—— ee a 1 Abth. Hft. VI, Feb. 16, 1897. 
‘i 
