260 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



just as is the operculum of ordinary ciliated cells. In common with 

 the perisome, the aboral band is not invested by the adjacent cuticle. 

 Under varied illumination, it displays two apparently distinct 

 systems of oblique strife. More refined analysis shows that we have 

 here really to do with rows of granules upon which the cilia are 

 elevated, and which may still be seen in specimens whose cilia have 

 fallen off. 



Engelmann also compares the characteristic border of ciliated 

 cells elsewhere with the broad, flat, strongly refractive supports of the 

 adoral clusters of cilia (membranules of Sterki) found in the Oxytri- 

 china and Euplotina — " at least, so far as these btand on the ventral 

 aspect." 



Stylonychia mytilus has unquestionably a system of ventral fibres 

 trending from near the middle line, beneath the ectoplasm, to the two 

 conspicuous series of large admarginal cilia, which aid so powerfully 

 the motions of this huge animalcule. But these fibres are not like 

 the fibres of ordinary ciliated cells, nor are the lashes which they 

 supply cilia, properly so callei. The lashes are complex appendages, 

 remote from one another, moving independently under the control of 

 their possessor. Each has its own fibre, which is pale, soft, homo- 

 geneous, and not more than • 2 // across. The fibres are parallel, and 

 so delicate that they can only be seen for a short time in specimens 

 starved during some hours in filtered water, and then killed in osmic 

 acid. Are not these fibres truly nerves ? Why, asks Engelmann, 

 should not the higher Infusoria possess a nervous system ? May not 

 more exact researches soon decide this question in the affirmative ? 

 Has not Panophrys flava eyes ? If not so, what is the function of the 

 watchglass-shaped organ with its pigment-spot ? 



BOTANY. 



A. GENERAIi, including Embryology and Histology of the 

 Phanerogamia. 



Morphology of the Ovule.* — From a fresh examination of phyl- 

 loid ovules [Alliaria and others), J. Velenovsky confirms the generally 

 accepted theory that the ovule is the result of metamorphosis of 

 a segment of a leaf or of a carpel, with its metablast or nucellus. The 

 inner integument is composed of the middle part and central lobe of 

 the ovular leaflet, the nucellus being an outgrowth on the upper side 

 of the ovular leaflet or inner side of the inner integument, which in 

 the normal ovule includes the base of the integument-cup. 



Embryogeny of Lupinus.f — Professor E. Strasburger has examined 

 the development of the embryo in Lupinus Barkeri, polyphyllus, suh- 

 carnosus, leptocarpus, angustif alius, and luteus, and has found the 



* 'Flora,' Ixiv. (1881) pp. 33-45 (1 pi.). 



t Bot. Ztg., xxxviii. (1880) pp. 857-68 (pi. xii. figs. 23-64). 



