178 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 474. 



rise to an embryo. The normal number of 

 free nuclei is in general four. The single 

 suspensors are very long and thrust the 

 embryos deeply into the endosperm. Only 

 one of the embryos develops. 



The Effect of Chemical Irritation upon the 

 Respiration of Fungi: Ada Watterson. 

 These experiments concerning the ef- 

 fect of chemical irritation upon the res- 

 piration of fungi were carried on with the 

 Kunstmann and with the Pettenkofer 

 forms of apparatus. The fungi used were 

 Sterigmatocystis nigra and Penicillium 

 glaucum, and the irritants were ZnS04, 

 FeSO^ and LiCl. The results go to show 

 that although the economic coefficient of 

 the sugar is increased, yet the CO, re- 

 spired by the fungus remains proportion- 

 ally the same. 



The Dehiscence of Anthers by Apical 



Pores: J. A. Harris. 



The author presents a systematically ar- 

 ranged descriptive list of all genera in 

 which the dehiscence of the anthers is by 

 apical pores, and makes a series of com- 

 parisons of the floral structure of these 

 forms with other members of the same 

 family, showing the modifications in not 

 only the stamens, but the other floral parts 

 as well, upon the assumption of the apically 

 dehiscent habit. The forms are divided 

 into groups or 'types' on structural 

 grounds and the ecological relations of 

 these considered. While the types as a 

 whole are not sharply limited, a pro- 

 nounced similarity of form in the corre- 

 sponding parts of the different genera is 

 observable even when these belong to sys- 

 tematic groups differing widely in floral 

 habit. For some of these types the geo- 

 graphical distribution of the genera and 

 species has a similarity which does not 

 seem to depend on systematic relation- 

 ships. The only explanation which seems 



possible is that of the somewhat similar 

 distribution of the Apidas, upon which 

 their structure indicates they are largely 

 dependent for pollination. 



Francis E. Lloyd, 



Secretary. 



GEOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES. II. 

 It has been maintained that one of the 

 embarrassments from which geography 

 suffers is the incoherence of the many 

 things that are involved in its broad rela- 

 tionships. This is not really a serious em- 

 barrassment, and so far as it is an embar- 

 rassment at all it is not peculiar to geog- 

 raphy. It is not a serious embarrassment, 

 because when any element of geography is 

 treated in view of the relations into which 

 it enters, it becomes reasonably interesting 

 to all who are concerned with scientific 

 geography. The embarrassment is not pe- 

 culiar to geography, for it is found in all 

 other studies; in history, for example, 

 where an essay by a specialist on the mod- 

 ern history of South America is not likely 

 to excite an enthusiastic interest in the 

 mind of the student of classic times in 

 Greece, or in the mind of the student of 

 medieval church history in Germany; the 

 embarrassment is known also in geology, 

 where the student of the petrography of 

 the southern Appalachians, or of the pa- 

 leontology of the Trias in California, may 

 care little for a paper by a colleague on 

 the glaciation of the Tian Shan Mountains 

 in Turkestan. Yet, however unlike these 

 various topics in history or in geology may 

 be, they are welcomed, if well treated, by 

 all the members of the expert society or by 

 all the readers of the special journal in 

 which they are presented, because they so, 

 manifestly make for progress in the science 

 to which they belong. Geographers need 

 not, therefore, be embarrassed on finding 

 discussions of magnetic declination as af- 

 fecting the navigation of the antarctic re- 



