^9o8] CURRENT LITERATURE 215 



Embryo sac of Cassia.— W. T. Saxtox34 has investigated the South American 

 Cassia tamentosa, as growing in private gardens in Cape Town, South Africa. 

 The usual linear row of four megaspores appears, but curiously enough the function- 



spore 



a tubular prolongation at the antipodal end, which is filled by a row of antipodal 

 cells, as in certain Compositae. The number of chromosomes in the divisions 

 of sporophytic nuclei is reported to be twelve.— J. M. C. 



Functionless chlorophyll. — Boxxier long ago discovered that chlorophyll in 

 some parasites appears to have lost its synthetic power. Friedel^s finds that 

 in the ovaries of Ornithogalum arabicum the abundant chlorophyll has no synthetic 

 power, or at least that the gas exchange is so slight as to be entirely masked by 

 the respiratory^ gas exchanges. Ovaries of O. umbelldtum, however, have vigorous 

 synthetic powers.— H. C. Cowles. 



Gametophytes of gymnosperms. — Porsch,^^ in a general review of investiga- 

 tions upon the gametophytes of gjTnnosperms, has considered more than thirty 

 papers, most of them published since 1903. The material is arranged systemati- 

 cally under Cycadales, Ginkgoales, etc., and is illustrated by a few well -chosen text 

 figures. Some of the comments are very suggestive. — Charles J. Chamberlain-. 



Codonotheca. — In 1903 Sell^ards described this form-genus from material 

 obtained from the iron-clay concretions of ]Mazon Creek, Illinois, He has just 



xpresses the belief 



microsporangiate 

 :eris t}^.— J. M. 



Apo^amy in Rumex- — MtTstBECK^^ has reported the discovery of apogamy 

 form of R, Acetosella which he calls angiocarptis. This announcement comes 

 ay of BoL Noiiser 1907: 238.—!. M. C. 



Saxton- W. T.. On the- fTpvf-lnnmpnf nf thf- oviil*^ anH embrvo sac in Cassia 



tomefUosa. Trans. S, Africa Phil. Soc. 18:1-5. pis. I, 2. 1907 



Friedel, T., Sur un cas d'ortmne vert denourvu de nourv-oir assimilatetir, 



'^ompt. Rend. Acad. Sci. Paris 142:1092, 1093. 1906 



PORSCH 



phy logene tlach 



t-rgebnisse der Gametophytenerforschung der Gymnospermen. Kritisches San* el- 

 referat. Festschrift des Xaturwiss. \ ereines an der Universitat WIen. pp. 39. jigs- 



16, 



1907. 



37 Sellards, E. H., Notes on the spore-bearing organ Codonotheca and its rela 

 tionship vdth the CycadofiHces. New Ph>tologi5t 6: 175-178. 1907- 



38MURBECK, S., Verh. Naturh. Vcrein. Preussisch. Rheinl. Bonn. 63^:—, 190? 



