January 21, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



107 



-daughter nucleus later moves up between the 

 asters and prepares for the next division. 

 •Comparative independence and parallelism of 

 the processes undergone by the centrosomes 

 and asters, on the one hand, and those of the 

 nuclei, on the other, become very strongly 

 probable. Detailed evidence in support of the 

 .above points will be given in the published 

 paper. 



Gaey N. Calkins, 

 Secretary of Section. 



TOREEY BOTANICAL CLUB. 



The first paper of the evening was by Mr. 

 Marshall A. Howe, ' The Genus Anthoceros in 

 North America,' and was illustrated by draw- 

 ings and specimens. The paper, which will 

 soon appear in print, described three new 

 species and reviewed those before known. Mr. 

 Howe also indicated the intermediate position 

 of Anthoceros between the Hepaticse and 

 Musci. The antheridia arise within the thallus 

 as nowhere else among Bryophytes ; and the 

 archegonia finally become immersed within the 

 thallus, though not endogenous in origin. The 

 aporophyte diflfers from all other hepaticse in 

 having stomata and assimilative tissue on the 

 capsule wall, in the presence of continued 

 growth at the base, and in the elongated two- 

 valved capsule. By the bryologist C. F. 

 Austin, of Gloucester, N. J. , the cognate genus 

 Notothylas was united with Anthoceros ; but it 

 lacks stomata and differs in the form, direction 

 and position of its capsule. Austin's herbarium 

 was sold in England, and now belongs, in part, 

 to the bryologist Pearson, and in part to Owens 

 ■College, Manchester. 



Discussion by President Brown and others 

 followed. Dr. Underwood remarked that he 

 had known Notothylas spores, unlike those of 

 Anthoceros, to germinate without resting- 

 period. Anthoceros Isevis he finds among the 

 hemlocks at the Botanic Garden at Bronx Pai-k, 

 and elsewhere in moist, flat, sandy and grassy 

 land, fruiting August to November. In Cali- 

 fornia, said Mr. Howe, they occur on banks 

 and in springy places, beginning to fruit in 

 February and shrivelling in May. One of the 

 aew species of the California coast is found by 

 Mv. Howe to develop curious globose storage- 



bodies serving as food-reservoirs to carry the 

 plant over the dry season. 



The second communication was by Dr. T. F. 

 Allen, entitled, ' Contributions to the Japanese 

 Characese,' composed, in fact, of four papers, 

 soon to be printed, descriptive mainly of certain 

 Japanese Nitella forms displaying interesting 

 correspondences with our own. Dr. Allen then 

 exhibited numerous mounted specimens and 

 etchings and discussed the taxonomic characters. 

 Spore-characters, though important, are not to 

 be relied on exclusively. Measurements of any 

 one species prove very constant. In some the 

 form of the mucro terminating each ray is de- 

 cisive. The spores afford specific characters 

 both by their arrangement and their markings, 

 as shown by the yV or xV immersion lens. Their 

 reticulations are very constant. The spirals 

 which invest the spore ar.e very early formed 

 from the five bracts which form a cup about it 

 and soon become spirally twisted, as all parts 

 of the Characese do, and as the protoplasm 

 current does even before its cell has become 

 twisted. Discussing their life-history, Dr. Al- 

 len said that the Characese increase in part by 

 nutrition dependent on absorption from their 

 radicals. Pluck a Chara with the greatest care 

 to avoid breaking these short unicellular 

 roots, and yet the plant will finally die after 

 the lower cells have yielded up their contents 

 toward the maintenance of the others. Chara 

 coronata, the finest of all in showing circula- 

 tion, survived in his aquarium half a year 

 without any rooting. Nitella flexilis will, how- 

 ever, root in the aquarium, seed, germinate and 

 make a protonema, which divides immediately 

 into an upward ray -bearing axis and a descend- 

 ing root-bearing portion. 



In answer to remarks by Dr. Underwood 

 and by Professor Burgess, Dr. Allen described 

 the peculiar increase of the plant by absorption 

 of water and by decomposition of sulphuretted 

 hydrogen, occluding oxygen. The spore-shell, 

 . formed by thickening and calcareous develop- 

 ment of the cell-walls of the enveloping bracts, 

 hardens so as to survive as part of the rock 

 through several geological periods. The aber- 

 rant genus Colcochsete among green algse sug- 

 gests the Characese, in tending to form a spiral 

 around a spore. Chara resembles certain other 



