ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 99 



Gouteuts diminish ; their walls thicken, and a deposition takes place 

 of crystals of calcium oxalate. A branching of the internal surface 

 of the cell-wall, by which the whole cell-cavity becomes filled up by 

 the confluence of the branches. A suberous tissue is thus formed 

 differing from any hitherto observed, in the presence of large inter- 

 cellular cavities which are usually entirely wanting in suberous tissues. 



Lignification of the Testa of Seeds.* — Herr C. 0. Harz discusses 

 the value of the various tests for liguin in vegetable tissues. Wiesner 

 discovered that all lignified membranes are stained yellow by anilin 

 sulphate ; but a still better test is moistening the object by an 

 aqueous or alcoholic solution of phloroglucin with addition of hydro- 

 chloric acid, when a very beautiful red colour is obtained. This test 

 is an extremely delicate one for the least trace of lignification. 



In the case of seeds, lignification occurs in certain cases in the 

 hairs, as in those of some Bombacese and Asclepiadeae. The nucellus 

 very rarely exhibits the presence of lignin, nor does the embryo, 

 endosperm, or perisperm, even in the case of the horny endosperm of 

 Rubiacefe, Colchicacese, and palms, or the comparatively hard nucellus 

 of many Leguminosfe. The testa, on the contrary, is very commonly 

 more or less lignified. 



The author then enters into considerable detail with regard to 

 the presence or absence of lignin in a large number of seeds. In 

 ConifersB the testa is almost always more or less lignified. In 

 Graminea9 this was never found to be the case, though lignin occurs 

 in the paleae. 



Strobili of Walchia pmiformis.t — According to M. J. Bergeron 

 a large number of the cones described in various works as belonging 

 to this species are so described erroneously. He gives the characters 

 by which the undoubted cones of this plant may be known. 



Sexual Differentiation in the Fig.| — Graf zu Solms-Laubach 

 discusses the different varieties of the common cultivated fig, and 

 accepts the view of Fritz Miiller that both the cultivated form and 

 the Caprificus or wild fig probably existed in the wild state, the 

 latter being the female and the former the male form. The ancestor 

 of both forms he considers to have been probably Ficus elastica, in 

 which the two kinds of flowers are irregularly intermixed. 



/3. Physiologry. § 

 Evolution of Phanerogams. |1 — MM. Marion and de Saporta con- 

 tinue their researches into the genesis of the various forms of vegetable 



* SB. Bot. Verein. Munchen, May 13, 1885. See Bot. Centralbl., xxiv. 

 (1885) pp. 21, 59, 88. 



t Bull. Soc. Geol. France, xii. (1884) pp. 533-8 (2 pis.). See Bull. Soc. Bot. 

 France, xxxii. (1885). Kev. Bibl., p. 171. 



X Bot. Ztg., xliii. (1885) pp. 513-22, 529-40, 545-52, 561-72 (1 pi.). 



§ This subdivision contains (1) Reproduction (includinoj the formation of the 

 Embryo and accompanying processes); (2) Germination ; (3) Nutrition ; (4) Growth ; 

 (5) Respiration ; (6) Movement ; and (7) Chemical processes (including Fermen- 

 tation). 



il Marion et Saporta, ' L'Evolution du Regne Vc'ge'tal,' Paris, 1885. Seo 

 Nature, xxxii. (1885) p. 289. 



H 2 



