1897 | CURRENT LITERATURE 479 
seek protection by ceasing aerial activities and remaining essentially dormant 
within the soil. Areschoug divides the geophytes into tufted perennials, 
rosette perennials, perennials with much branched base, bulb perennials, and 
rhizome perennials. The tufted and rosette types are not true geophytes, but 
are transitional forms, The third type sends up an aerial shoot the first sea- 
son; this shoot dies down to the surface, and the next year branches from 
the base at several points; ultimately the basal parts are quite complex. 
Bulbous and rhizomatous plants represent the typical geophytes. Monocotyls 
have worked out better geophilous adaptations than have dicotyls. One of 
the important functions of geophilous plants is to store up a reserve food 
supply in the roots, stems or leaves. Plants with horizontal axes wander from 
year to year, more commonly in a straight line, though sometimes in a circle 
(orchids). Many plants become more deeply placed year by year. This 
burying is effected (1) by a downward growth of the stem, in which case the 
old stem parts are left behind ; (2) by root contraction, in which case the plant 
is pulled down into the soil asa whole; or (3) by the intercalary growth of 
the petiole. Plants seem to have the power of self regulation, burying rapidly 
if put in shallow soil, slowly if put in deep soil. Rimbach considers this to 
be a matter of reciprocal action between leaves and roots; deep stems use up 
more energy in getting to the light and have a shorter period for assimilation, 
hence less energy can be expended in the work of burying deeper—H. C. C. 
THE ANNUAL REPORTS of a few of the Experiment Stations contain valu- 
able botanical matter in addition to that issued through the bulletins. L. R. 
Jones, i in the Vermont Report for ‘1895 (pp. 66-115), writes on potato blights, 
potato scab, oat smut, onion mildew, making and use of Bordeaux mixture, 
With many valuable original observations and Pe OE W. C. Sturgis, in 
_ Connecticut Report for 1895 (pp. 166-190), writes on potato scab, onion smut, 
plum leaf curl, and notes on other diseases. S. M. Bain, in the Tennessee 
Report for 1896 (pp. 16-19), gives notes upon plant diseases observed within 
State. B. D. Halsted, in the New Jersey Report for 1895 (pp. 247-361), 
and also in the Report for 1896 (pp. 287-429), records observations upon a 
large number of plant diseases, the fungi causing them, and on trials of 
Lee fungicides, together with some other matters of botanical interest. —J.C. A. 
Mr. G. N. CALKINs finds tetrad erteatens. and. a reduction division i in : two 
ferns, Pteris tremula and Adiantum cuneatum.3 The mitosis of the spore 
mother cells was studied, and ee author finds that the chromosomes in both 
_ divisions behave in general as has been described by Hicker, Rickert, and : 
eduction,” and in the second division we have — cee transverse 
and no ee splitting of the ——— : 
