280 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



this species, of the kind known as automatic, and evidently intended 

 to render self-fertilization possible. Similar movements, but less 

 pronounced, were observed in A. nemorosa and ranunculoides. 



SeK-fertilization in Orchideae.* — Mr. H. 0. Forbes describes the 

 contrivances to assist fertilization in a number of tropical orchids 

 from Java. Phaius Blumei furnishes a very remarkable instance of 

 an orchid which has every facility for attracting insects, a large showy 

 flower with some perfume and a distinct nectary, which appears, how- 

 ever, never to be yisited by insects, but to be always self-fertilized. 

 As a general conclusion, Mr. Forbes states that many orchids with 

 showy flowers never set their seeds, while many genera are always 

 self-fertilized, and in many cases cannot be fertilized in any other 

 way. The great family of Vandese, however, seem rarely, if ever, to 

 be self-fertilized ; they are either cross-fertilized or do not produce 

 fertile seeds. 



Morphology and Physiology of Germination, t — Herr G. Klebs 



classifies flowering plants under the following heads in relation to 

 the phenomena connected with their germination : — 

 I. Germination with two or more cotyledons. 



A. Cotyledons above-ground (five types). 



B. Cotyledons under-ground, and serving only as reser- 



voirs of food-material. 

 II. Dicotyledons, with one or both cotyledons rudimentary 

 (parasites, saprophytes, &c.). 



III. Monocotyledons (seven types). 



The author then describes in detail the following points connected 

 with germination : — The fixing of the seed in the soil and the absorp- 

 tion of water ; the first emergence of the seedling ; the fixing of the 

 seedling in the soil, and the absorption of the endosperm; the 

 emergence of the cotyledons from the seed and the penetration of the 

 soil; the unfolding of the cotyledons and of the first leaves above 

 the soil. 



Formation and Transport of Carbohydrates in the Leaves.:]: — 

 Dr. A. F. W. Schimper has made a long series of experiments on this 

 subject, the plant observed being chiefly Impatiens parviflora. To 

 determine the presence of starch in the cells, the leaves, after ex- 

 traction with alcohol, were placed in a solution of iodine in aqueous 

 hydrate of chloral (eight parts of chloral to five of water), and left for 

 twelve to twenty-four hours. The leaves, if not too thick, were by 

 this means rendered so transparent that they could be easily examined 

 by the strongest immersion-system, and the chloral causes the starch- 

 grains to swell so strongly that the smallest could be detected by the 

 iodine reaction. The presence of glucose was determined by the 

 sugar-reaction. 



The experiments showed clearly that the product of the solution 



* Journ. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Bot.), xxi. (1885) pp. 538-50 (1 pi.), 

 t Unters, aus dem Bot. Instit. Tubingen, i. (1S85) pp. 536-635. See Bot. 

 Oentralbl., xxiv. (1885) p. 260. 



X Bot. Ztg., xliii. (1885) pp. 737-43, 753-63, 769-87. 



