SEPTEMBEb 27, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



419 



ventral skin to open the abdomen, the hind 

 legs kick vigoroxisly. The exceptional species 

 is Bufo variabilis, about a dozen of which I 

 killed in Naples. 



The living Bufo variabilis is very sluggish. 

 When handled, especially if roughly handled, 

 it remains perfectly quiet, only distending the 

 body to a great size by inflating its lungs. 

 One can prick or cut the animal and produce 

 no effect except a further distention, till the 

 skin is stretched taut as a drum-head. Even 

 cutting the spinal cord never produces much 

 action and often produces none. 



The interesting thing is that after one has 

 cut the spinal cord and has destroyed the 

 brain, the animal refuses to react by observ- 

 able movements to any sort of abuse or in- 

 jury, remaining as quiet as would an animal 

 upon which no operation had been performed. 



Bufo variabilis, like most toads, has very 

 perfect protective coloration. It is further 

 protected by the' poisonous secretions from its 

 skin glands. (I have had Bana esculenta die 

 from being left twelve hours in a small 

 aquarium, in a little water, with this toad.) 

 The toad's habit of remaining quiet, even 

 under abuse, is probably connected with its 

 protective coloration and poisonous skin secre- 

 tions, and is doubtless a recent acquisition. 

 This reaction, or rather lack of reaction, in 

 the normal animals may be either " conscious," 

 or reflex, or both. In the animal whose brain 

 has been destroyed it must be purely reflex. 

 Maynaed M. Metcalp 



WURZBUKG, BaVAKIA, 



July 3, 1907 



BOTANICAL ^WTES 



THE OEIGIlsr OF ANGIOSPERMS 



Within the past few months two important 

 papers have appeared upon the origin of the 

 higher seed plants (angiosperms). The first 

 is by E. A. Newell Arber and John Parkin, of 

 Cambridge University, and appeared in the 

 Journal of the Linnean Society, Botany (vol. 

 38, pp. 29-80, July 11, 1907). In it the 

 authors first refer to the recent progress in our 

 ideas as regards the phylogeny of the gymno- 

 sperms, which are evidently closely related to 



the Fteridophyta, and to the increasing isola- 

 tion of angiosperms. Just as we find closer 

 afiinities between gymnosperms and Fteri- 

 dophyta, we find the gap between Fteridophyta 

 and angiosperms increased, until " it may be 

 said that no definite theory as regards the 

 origin of angiosperms has up to the present 

 been elaborated." While " the gap that origi- 

 nally existed between the phanerogams and 

 vascular cryptogams was now bridged, in its 

 place there appeared a wide gailf between the 

 gymnosperms as a whole and the angio- 

 sperms." 



After a summary reference to certain prin- 

 ciples of evolution (the law of corresponding 

 stages, homoplasy and mutation) the authors 

 discuss " primitive features among living 

 angiosperms," basing their discussion upon the 

 theory that the typical angiospermous flower 

 is essentially a strobilus. They regard " the 

 simpler, unisexual flowers, including apetalous 

 forms, as derived from an amphisporangiate 

 strobilus by reduction." They restrict the 

 term " flower " to the angiosperms alone, and 

 regard it as typical " when it possesses both 

 micro- and megasporangia, as well as a peri- 

 anth which in many cases has an attractive 

 function." 



In their critical examination of Engler's 

 theory they hold that Fiperales, Amentiferae, 

 and Fandanales are not primitive in type, but 

 that they are reductions from hermaphrodite 

 types with well developed perianths. They re- 

 gard Apetalae as forms " reduced from 

 amphisporangiate strobili, in each case pos- 

 sessing a perianth," and not as primitive 

 plants from which the petalous forms have 

 evolved. In further criticism of Engler's 

 theory, while admitting its merit of simplicity, 

 they afiirm that " its application as a work- 

 ing hypothesis does not assist us in our search 

 for a clue to the phylogeny of the angiosperms 

 as a whole : nor does it help to bring this 

 group into line with any of those now known 

 to us in the fossil state." 



For the theory which they adopt, namely, 

 " that the monosporangiate apetalae were de- 

 rived by reduction from an amphisporangiate 

 strobilus possessing a distinct perianth " they 

 affirm that it " leads us back naturally to a 



