890 
gland is either an organ which was for- 
merly of use and is now passing away, or 
that it is connected ‘ with some unknown 
process of nutrition.’ That its activity ‘is 
decidedly connected with the growth of 
young fronds’ stands in favor of the latter 
view. A supplementary suggestion has al- 
ready been made by the writer to the effect 
that the solution of actively secreted sugar 
may act as a carrier for some other sub- 
stance in the nature of an excretion.* 
The writer has observed on the surface 
of the gland in some eases a felt of dark- 
colored fungal hyphae. The occurrence of 
these, when the leaf-blade has not yet un- 
folded, carries with it the suggestion that 
the nectarial surface is a constant infection- 
point, the sugary fluid acting as a nutrient 
medium and the entrance of the hyphae 
being made easy by the large stomata. 
ORIGIN OF THE NECTARY. 
Certain facts which have been pointed 
out give us grounds for offering a view of 
the origin of the nectaries, to the effect that 
they have arisen as portions of the respira- 
tory areas of the petiole and its branches, 
which have become secondarily specialized 
as nectar-secreting glands. 
In support of this view, we recall the re- 
lation of the nectaries to the stomatal bands 
(pneumathodes), with which they have a 
practically identical structure, with, how- 
ever, a more intimate connection with the 
vascular system. We regard the wide 
distribution of these band-shaped pneu- 
mathode regions in the ferns as indicating 
a phylogenetically greater age than that of 
the nectaries assuch. If this be true, Fran- 
cis Darwin’s suggestion, quoted above, that 
the nectary is an organ once useful but 
now on the wane, must probably be thrown 
out of court, though not necessarily. 
Further, the stomata, while clearly func- 
* Bonnier (7. c.) has shown that other substances 
are thrown off in small quantities. 
SCIENCE. 
(N.S. Von. XIII. No. 336. 
tionless as pneumathodes during the period 
of the gland’s activity, and deprived of the 
delicate mechanisms for closure both by 
their own development and the manner of 
growth of the surrounding epidermis, are 
nevertheless to be regarded as respiratory 
mechanisms, serving the function of setting 
free the nectar. The analogous conditions 
in Tropaeolum and other plants may be 
cited as a parallel case save in the nature 
of the exudate. The presence of the sub- 
stomatic spaces, usually broader beneath 
the stoma than represented in Fig. 3, to- 
gether with the intercellular spaces both 
suggest the same thing. 
It is to be questioned if the presence of 
chlorophyll in the gland has any necessary 
relation to the activity of the organ asa 
gland, upon which point further study of 
the cytological phenomena may throw light. 
Haberlandt* has drawn the provisional 
conclusion with regard to nectaries in gen- 
eral, that they have been derived phylo- 
genetically from hydathodes. In summar- 
izing the present paper we submit the case 
described herewith as one in which the 
nectaries have been derived both ontoge- 
netically and phylogenetically from pneu- 
mathodes. 
Franeois E. Lioyp. 
TEACHERS COLLEGE, 
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. 
THE BRITISH NATIONAL ANTARCTIC 
EXPEDITION.+ 
Tue resignation of the man who is, be- 
fore all others, fitted to be the Scientific 
Leader of the National Antarctic Expedi- 
tion will lead the fellows of the Society to 
expect some statement of the causes which 
have produced a result so disastrous to the 
interests of science. The following state- 
ment gives an account of the efforts which 
* * Physiologische Pflanzenanatomie,’ p. 432. 
+ A letter addressed by Professor Edward B. Poul- 
ton, of Oxford University, to the fellows of the Royal 
Society. 
