584 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 303. 



mottled with a yellowish or greenish brown. 

 When they fall from the tree the cell con- 

 tents (besides the organized contents) are 

 made up largely of starch grains. With 

 the development of the larva certain changes 

 are observed in the cell contents. If the 

 galls are placed in solutions of copper ace- 

 tate (7 per cent.) and allowed to remain for 

 several weeks or months, there separates in 

 the parenchyma cells of the middle zone 

 yellowish crystals or crystalline masses, 

 which may be lens-shaped, star-shaped or 

 fan-shaped, much resembling the different 

 carbohydrates as hesperidin, inulin, etc., 

 which separate in certain plant cells when 

 apecimeus are placed in alcohol. They are 

 insoluble in water, alcohol, glycerin or 

 chloral solutions. The appearance, reac- 

 tions and a comparison with copper gal- 

 late crystals lead to the conclusion that 

 they are of this composition. When the 

 winged insect has developed, specimens 

 which have been treated with copper ace- 

 tate solutions show in the pai-enchyma 

 cells numerous brownish-red tannin masses 

 to which may be adhering some yellowish- 

 brown crystals of gallic acid. The gallic 

 acid appears to be formed at the expense of 

 the starch in the gall during the chrysalis 

 stage of the insect. With the development 

 of the winged insect this then is changed 

 (by simple condensation of two molecules 

 of gallic acid with the loss of one molecule 

 of water) to tannic acid. 



A New Speeies-Hybrid, Salsify : By B. D. 



Halsted. 



Tragopogon, a rather large genus of the 

 Chicory family has two species in the flora 

 of the United States, namely, T. porrifolius 

 cultivated for its roots as the ' oyster plant ' 

 and a wild species the T. pratenais L. The 

 cultivated species is in many ways very 

 different from the wild form, being larger, 

 but most strikingly in the heads of flowers. 

 The T. porrifolius has purple corollas, while 



the T. pratensis has yellow and much smaller 

 flowers. The hybrid obtained under gar- 

 den culture is a close average between the 

 two plants as to size, style of branching and 

 the like, while the flowers are of a peculiar 

 rose color. Perhaps the most interesting 

 feature of the hybrid plants is their great 

 vigor, they blooming profusely after the 

 parent types are out of season and even 

 dead and gone. The number of seeds pro- 

 duced in each head is small in the hy- 

 brids, not more than four usually, and a 

 small fraction of the number in the heads 

 of the parent. The individual seeds, how- 

 ever, in the hybrid are much larger than in 

 the true porrifolius the larger of the parents. 

 The hope of getting greater vigor of plant 

 and size of root, with possibly a diminished 

 tendency to disease in the hybrid than now 

 found in the old garden form is fully sus- 

 tained for the first year. Several photo- 

 graphs were shown of flower, fruit, etc. 



The Development of the Ovule in Delphinium ex- 

 altatum Ait : By Louise B. Dunn. 

 The gynoecium of Delphinium consists 

 normally of three separate carpels, each 

 bearing two rows of anatropous ovules ; the 

 development of the ovule as far as deter- 

 mined was the usual angiosperm type. 

 Some of the earlier stages of the embryo- 

 sac were missed. The archesporial cell is 

 one or two layers below the epidermis of 

 the nucellus. The integuments arise flrst 

 as two annular thickenings around the 

 nucellus, but as the ovule becomes anatro- 

 pous the integument appears single. The 

 cells of the embryo- sac divide — until they 

 number eight, and the endosperm nucleus 

 is regularly formed by a fusion of two nuclei, 

 one from each pole. The three gourd- 

 shaped antipodal cells are unusually large 

 before fertilization; as in Aconitum and others 

 of the RanunculacecB they seem active from 

 the appearance of their cytoplasm and the 

 staining of the surrouuding cells ; mitosis 



