76 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [JULY 
is a nucleus of a “simple or rudimentary type,”although not to be regarded as 
one of normal type, similar to the nuclei of the higher plants. He enumerates 
twelve main chemical and morphological characters that belong to the nuclei 
of higher plants, and claims that at least seven of them belong to the central 
body of the Cyanophyceae, as follows: (1) presence of a nuclear network, (2) 
reaction to nuclear stains, (3) behavior toward digestive fluids, (4) presence of 
phosphorus, (5) presence of masked iron, (6) amitotic division, and (7) presence 
of chromatin granules on a linin framework. It differs from the nuclei of higher 
plants in the absence of a true mitosis with spindle fibers, and in the absence of 
a nuclear membrane and a nucleolus, although in certain conditions both mem- 
brane and nucleolus are said to be suggested. The author evidently regards 
this central body as a developmental stage in the evolution of the nucleus of 
higher plants.—J. M. C. 
Because of their perishable nature fungi are rare as fossils, and yet Weiss™* 
finds the remains of a parasitic fungus on stigmarian rootlets from the Lower 
Coal Measures. Magnus has compared this type with the existing Urophlyctis, 
which it resembles not only in so much of its structure as is discernible, but also 
in its similar habit of growing on plants which inhabit marshy or at least wet 
situations. Weiss accords in this identification to the extent of naming the fossil 
Urophlyctites Stigmariae. 
The same author’? notes a mycorhiza from the same geological horizon. 
Janse is quoted as saying that 69 out of 75 plants in a tropical forest have their 
roots infested by symbiotic fungi, and while this condition argues considerable 
specialization on the part of both, the similar conditions that prevailed during 
the Carboniferous mitigates our surprise at finding symbiosis occurring so far 
back as this. The roots have not been associated with the plant which bore 
them; they are possibly lycopodiaceous and are referred to the form-genus Rhizo- 
nium of Corda. The hyphae are for the most part intracellular, but in no case 
is there any sign of injury to the host. The fungus is named Mycorhizonium, 
and is considered as possibly belonging to the Phycomycetes. 
Zoppa* records the finding of a cone of a species of Pinus still living, in the 
Lower Pliocene of Sicily—Epwarp W. BERRY. 
A HYBRID between Drosera rotundifolia and D. longifolia was investigated 
about a year ago by Rosenberg.'* He found that D. rotundifolia has ten chro- 
Mosomes in the pollen mother-cells, while D. longifolia has twenty; further, 
that in the hybrid there are found pollen mother-cells with ten, twenty, and 
ce: Weiss, F. E., A probable parasite of stigmarian rootlets, New Phyt. 3:63-68: 
* WEIss, F. E., A mycorhiza from the Lower Coal Measures. Annals of Botany 
18: 255-265. pls. 18, 19. 1904. 
*3Zoppa, G., Pinus Pinea 1, fossile nel Pontico di Messina. Malpighia 17+ 
488-492. 1903. 
*4 Review in Bor. Gaz. 36:152. 1903. 
