July 26, 1912] 



SCIENCE 



123 



physiological and ecological information con- 

 tained in the paper, and (2) for the descrip- 

 tions and illustrations of the very ingenious 

 apparatus devised and used by the two in- 

 vestigators. For the latter especially the 

 paper is to be very highly recommended to 

 ■teachers of plant physiology who are in search 

 of eifective apparatus. 



Plant physiologists will find some sur- 

 prising things in "A Preliminary Study of 

 the Forced Curing of Lemons as Practised in 

 California," by A. F. Sievers and E. H. True 

 (Bull. 232, Bureau of Plant Industry, TJ. S. 

 Dept. Agriculture, Feb., 1912). Lemons that 

 ripen on the tree, known as " tree-ripes," con- 

 stitute as a whole, " an inferior class of fruit, 

 both as to appearance and keeping quality, 

 and are largely consumed in near-by markets." 

 They are therefore picked when full-grown 

 but still uniformly green in color, and then 

 cured in the packing house, and it is said 

 that when so cured the lemon " has a better 

 appearance, better keeping quality, and a con- 

 siderably thinner rind." The reading of 

 some portions at least of this bulletin is com- 

 mended to plant physiologists. 



While the foregoing bulletin appeals to the 

 plant physiologist, one from the California 

 Experiment Station (No. 196) on the " Toler- 

 ance of Eucalyptus for Alkali," by E. H. 

 Loughridge, is of especial interest to the 

 ecologist. The increasing growth of Euca- 

 lyptus trees of various species raised the 

 question of the possibility of utilizing the 

 alkali lands for such plantings, and the ex- 

 periment station was asked to furnish the 

 necessary information as to the tolerance of 

 different species of Eucalyptus for the ordi- 

 nary alkali salts of the soil. It appears from 

 this bulletin that it is possible to grow good 

 trees of several species of Eucalyptus upon 

 soil which has much alkali in it, and that 

 there is a very considerable difference in the 

 tolerance of the different species for alkali. 



Dr. B. M. Davis's paper on the " Eeduction 

 Divisions of Oenothera lamarcMana and 0. 

 'Sigas " (^Ann. Bot., October, 1911) adds to the 



cytology of these related forms in which the 

 number of chromosomes in the second is twice 

 that of the first, the author affirming as one 

 of his conclusions that " 0. gigas is a progres- 

 sive mutant, its peculiarities being clearly 

 associated with the changes in its germ-plasm 

 incident upon the doubling of its chromosome 

 number." Seventy-nine figures on three 

 double plates illustrate the paper. 



Dr. J. M. Coulter has been studying the 

 endosperm of Angiosperms (Bot. Gaz.j No- 

 vember, 1911) and decides definitely in favor 

 of its gametophytic nature in spite of the 

 various nuclear fusions from which some have 

 argued its sporophytic character. " The prod- 

 uct of such fusions as do occur is merely an 

 undifferentiated tissue, which practically con- 

 tinues the tissue of the gametophyte; that is, 

 it is simply growth and not organization." 



L. W. Sharp described (Bot. Gaz., Sep- 

 tember, 1911) the embryo sac of Physostegia 

 in which a curious lateral lobe develops in the 

 antipodal region and in this eventually the 

 endosperm forms, and into it also the embryo 

 protrudes by the great elongation of the 

 micropylar cell of the proembryo. 



The same author and W. H. Brown pub- 

 lish (Bot. Gaz., December, 1911) their study 

 of the embryo sac of Epipactis which differs 

 in certain details from the usual structural 

 sequence. 



N. E. Stevens in the December (1911) 

 Torrey Bulletin publishes a paper on the 

 "Dioecism of the Trailing Arbutus (Epigea)" 

 in which he shows first that it is not properly 

 heterostylous, in spite of the fact that there 

 is much difference in the length of the styles. 

 On the other hand, he found that it is func- 

 tionally dioecious. 



A VALUABLE SERVICE TO SCIENCE 



The Historical Department of Iowa has 

 rendered a most valuable service to science 

 by procuring the preparation and publication 

 of a sketch of the life of the naturalist, Eafi- 

 nesque, accompanied by a voluminous bibliog- 



