1905] CURRENT LITERATURE 235 
THE NUTRITION of the chromatin thread and the chromosomes by nucleolar 
material is well shown, according to VON DERSHAU,3? in the active nuclei of the 
parietal endosperm of Fritillaria imperialis. The increasing staining capacity 
of the chromatin thread is correlated with the dissolution of the nucleoli; besides, 
slender connections unite the nucleoli and the thread and indicate a streaming 
of material. Resting nucleoli are spherical or ellipsoidal, while those in the active 
condition are more or less irregular or star-shaped. A study of karyokinesis 
showed a direct relation between the nucleoli and spindle formation. An investi- 
gation of the development of the peristome of Funaria hygrometrica and Bryum 
argenteum showed that the nucleoli play an active part in the local thickenings of 
the cell wall. Von DersHav draws the conclusion that the nucleoli consist of 
reserve substance.—C. J. CHAMBERLAIN. 
BISPORANGIATE STROBILI have not hitherto been observed in Juniperus, and 
only a single case has been reported for the Cupressineae. An interesting case is 
described by RENNER33, who discovered a plant which bears such strobili almost 
exclusively. Only on a few twigs, and here only toward the tips, was there a 
transition to purely ovulate strobili. In the base of the bisporangiate strobilus 
there are a few sterile leaves, above these are two or three whorls of staminate 
sporophylls, and at the tip are the ovules. There may be a whorl of sterile leaves 
between the staminate sporophylls and the ovules. The pollen develops nor- 
mally, but so much later than the ovules that there is no possibility of self- 
pollination. RENNER sees in these bisporangiate strobili a suggestion of the 
method by which the bisporangiate flowers of angiosperms may have arisen.— 
J. CHAMBERLAIN. 
Waires+ has published the first American contribution to our knowledge of 
those paleozoic fern-like plants which had acquired the seed-habit, a subject 
under active investigation abroad of late. He records abundant gymnospermous 
fruits in the fern-genus Aneimites from the lower Pottsville of West Virginia. 
They are usually borne singly at the apices of the slightly dilated terminal exten- 
sions of the outer pinnae, and show some slight indications of a pollen-chamber. 
They have been found only as impressions and therefore cannot be compared 
Properly with the beautifully preserved foreign specimens showing internal 
structure. The author is of the opinion that the American form is more closely 
related to Lagenostoma than to any other cycadofilicinean type at present recog- 
hized as seed-bearing —EDWARD W. BERRY. 
3? DeRSHAU, MAx vON, Wanderung nukleolarer Substanz wahrend der Kary- 
okinese und in lokal sich verdickenden Zellen. Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Gesells. 22: 400- 
411. pl. 21. 1904. 
33 RENNER., Orro, Ueber Zwitterbliithen bei Junip mmunis. Flora 93:297- 
300. 7ig. 3. 1904. 
: 4 WauitE, D., Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 47:322-331- pls. 47-48. 
904. 
