1908] CURRENT LITERATURE 141 



ous structure; many species contain inulin. It does not appear as if any decisive 

 conclusion may be drawn from the internal structure alone in regard to the question 

 of classification, and it must not be forgotten that the occurrence of bicollateral 

 mestome strands in the Campanulaceae is not common to all members of the 

 family. Of far greater importance seems to be the morphological structure of the 

 flower, and quite especially of the corolla and the stamens. This same view was 

 held by Gray, and we find in his Synoptical flora that the Lobeliaceae are kept 

 separate from the Campanulaceae. — Theo. Holm. 



Anatomy of Palaeostachya. — In an interesting article Hicklixg^ gives an 

 account of the cone of an important calamitean species. There are approximately 

 eighteen sporangiophores and an equal number of sterile bracts. The former are 

 axillary to the latter and are supplied by traces originating from the same node 

 above the vascular strands, which pass off to the bracts. In spite of the fact that 

 the sporangiophores are apparently in the axils of the bracts, the s{X)rangiophore 

 trace turns sharply upward in the secondarj' wood of the cone-axis through half 

 an intemode, to redescend afterward through the cortex to the sporangiophore. 

 It appears from this investigation that the condition which is present in Calamo- 

 stachys, in which the sporangiophore is placed high on the axis, is more primitive 

 than that found in Palaeostachya, where it is apparently axillary; but nevertheless 

 the sporangiophore in both these genera is an axillary structure and constitutes 

 the ventral segment of its subtending, divided or undivided, bract. A verj- interest- 

 ing statement on the part of the author, in view of the opinions recently expressed 

 by Campbell and Scott in regard to the presence of foliar gaps in the equisetal 

 series, is the following: "It (the trace of the sterile bract) arises from the primary- 

 wood of that (the main) bundle. Just where the carinal canal is obliterated and 

 passes radially outward and slightly upward tlirough the nodal secondar)^ wood: 

 . ... No gap is left in the main bundle** The italics are the re\-iewer's.— 

 E. C. Jeffrey. 



development in Saxifraga.— JuEL^ has published a rather lengthy 

 account of seed development in Saxijraga granuJata, including some reference to 

 and a few figures of Pyrola minor. In Saxifraga the nucleus of the megaspore 

 shows an apparently simple, homogeneous chromatin thread in synapsis stage, 

 and the double chromosomes of later stages seem to arise, not from a splitting, 

 but from a doubling of the thread. The number of chromosomes is about thirty. 

 The arrangement of the conducting tissue and the course of the pollen tube are 

 described. Xo plasma sheath can be demonstrated about the male nuclei in the 

 pollen tube, but a thin sheath is evident after the nuclei are discharged. The male 

 cells nn« intn q ^^-r^f^rrnA QTi(l nrnK'i>^lv thf^ U\he micleus also. The definitive 



s 



Annals 



21:369-386. pis. 32, 33. 1907. 



idata 



ScL 



