356 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [may 



Inflorescence of Euphorbia. — Another student, Schmidt, has undertaken to 

 interpret the morpholog}' of the cyathium of Euphorbia,^^ regarding which there 

 are nearly as many views as investigators. He considers the cyathium as an inflo- 

 rescence, of unequal development in different species, in which the primar)- stami- 

 nate flowers arise first m a spiral of f divergence sometimes so low as to bring the 

 flowers almost into a whorl. Next arise the involucral leaves (except in E. melo- 

 formis). The shoot which forms the.primar}^ staminate flowers branches at first 

 dichasially; next to form Wickeln (perhaps also Schrauheln) so that the whole in 

 the axil of an involucral leaf is a Doppelwickel (Doppelschraubel). The scales 

 arise mostly at the base of the second and third staminate flowers of each group 

 and are to be looked upon as their bracts. They are unequally developed, 

 being generally larger the more open is the spiral of the involucral leaves, 

 whose insertion is sometimes enlarged on the inside, and concrescent with the 

 scales. The nectaries are to be considered as emergences. £. capitulata Rchb. 

 is separated from the genus to form a new one, Diplocyathhim, on account 

 of its aberrant inflorescence. — C. R. B. 



Spectrum of chlorophyll. — It is well known that the absorption bands m the 

 spectrum of a live leaf do not correspond in position to those of a solution oi 

 chlorophyU. To account for this "displacement" two theories have been current: 

 that the chlorophyU exists as solid particles like a precipitate in the chloroplast 

 (Hagenbach, LoMiiELL, Reixke) ; or that the chlorophyll in the chloroplast is 

 dissolved and its solvent modifies the spectrum because it has a higher dispersive 

 power (KuNTH, Tschirch) . Iwanow^ski, after spectrophotometric studies, 

 agrees with neither of these views. ="9 He succeeded in producing a spectrum 

 almost exactly like that of a live leaf by precipitating chlorophyU in strong alco- 

 holic solution by dUuting with water and adding a few drops of MgS04. On 

 this and other grounds he concludes that the spectrum due to the light reflected 

 from the chloroplasts themselves superposed on the true absorption spectrum 

 produces the displacement, which increases with the size of the granules. This 

 resembles in fundamentals Timiriazeff's hypothesis of 1872. — C R. B. 



Morphology of AspergiUus.— Fraser and Chambers,3o [^ ^ study of Asper- 

 gillus herbariorumj reach the following conclusions. The conidiophores are 

 multinucleate, and each conidium contains about four nuclei. The female organ 

 consists of a septate stalk, a one-ceUed ascogonium, and a one-celled trichog}'ne, 

 aU of which are multinucleate. The antheridium is a small, long-stalked, multi- 



reaching this stage. Normal 



trichogy 



and 



1 _ F 



*8 Schmidt, H., Ueber die Entwicklung der Bluten und Blutenstande von Euphor- 

 bia L. und Diplocyathium n. g. Beih. Bot. Centralbl. 22^ : 21-69. ph. 2-5. ^9°V 



»9 IwANOwsKi, D., Ueber die Ursache der Verschiebung der Absorptionsbander 

 in Blatt. Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Gesells. 25:416, 1907. 



_ 30 Fr.\se», H. C. I., and Chambers, H. S., The morphology of Aspergillus her- 

 bariorum. Annales Mvcnl. <-Arn-^-,T a/c rr^rr, .^^^ 



