January 26, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



133 



to the higher forms of research which it is 

 the object of the institution to promote. 

 R. S. Woodward. 



November 11, 1905.- 



ANNVAL MEETING OF THE CENTRAL BOT- 



TANISTS HELD AT ANN ARBOR, 



DECEMBER 28 AND 29, 1905. 



The annual meeting of the Central Bot- 

 anists was held on the afternoons of De- 

 cember 28 and 29 at Ann Arbor, conjointly 

 with morning sessions of the Society for 

 Plant Morphology and Physiology on the 

 same days. The meeting was opened by 

 past-president Professor Stanley Coulter, 

 and Professor F. C. Newcombe was elected 

 president for the ensuing year and pre- 

 siding officer for this session. He with the 

 past-president. Professor William Trelease, 

 and Secretary-treasurer Dr. H. C. Cowles 

 will constitute the executive committee for 

 next year. 



The following papers were read: 



The Structure and Division of the Oospore 

 in Coleochaete: Charles E. Allen. 

 Three species were studied — C. scutata, 

 C. soluta and C. pulvinata. The oospore 

 contains a large nucleus and eight parietal 

 chromatophores, each of the latter contain- 

 ing, usually, one pyrenoid and many starch 

 grains. In the cytoplasm are many large 

 rounded vacuoles, which are not fat drops, 

 but which contain varying amounts of a 

 substance which stains blue in the triple 

 .stain. The time of germination in the 

 spring depends upon the season, the pro- 

 phases of the first division appearing (in 

 C. scutata) about three weeks after the 

 disappearance of the ice. Divisions were 

 induced in the oospore of C. soluta by 

 bringing the plants indoors in the fall and 

 keeping them in changing water at a tem- 

 perature of about 12°-13° C. The first 

 and second nuclear divisions in the germ- 

 ination of the oospore display the charac- 

 teristics respectively of the heterotypic and 



homeotypic mitoses in the higher plants. 

 From these facts it is concluded that chro- 

 mosome reduction occurs immediately upon 

 the germination of the oospore; there is, 

 therefore, no cell generation, except the 

 oospore itself, which contains the double 

 number of chromosomes, and hence no 

 sporophyte generation. 



Spore Formation in Derlesia: Bradley M. 



Davis. 

 The Life History of Polysiphonia: Shigeo 



Yamanouchi. (Presented by Dr. Davis.) 



Variation of Habitat of some Bog Plants 

 in Michigan: Charles A. Davis. 



Spore Formation in the Many-spored Asci 

 in Streptotheca and Ehyparohius : J. B. 

 Overton. (Presented by Dr, Allen.) 



The Division of the Nuclei in Living Fila- 

 ments of Oscillato7-ia: Edgar W. Olive. 

 (Presented by Dr. Allen.) 

 Living filaments of Oscillatoria show, 

 under dim illumination, two sharply dif- 

 ferentiated regions — lens-shaped, refract- 

 ive, granular bodies, alternating with clear, 

 vacuole-like spaces. The latter are the so- 

 called 'central bodies.' These on examina- 

 tion are seen to be in a state of division, 

 and their constriction is accomplished by 

 the growth inward from the periphery of 

 a ring-formed partition. Every few cells 

 apart in a filament will be seen regions 

 of maximum division, where constriction 

 has progressed farthest, and regions of 

 minimum division. Thus maxima and 

 minima alternate rhythmically with one 

 another. The 'central bodies' prove to be 

 nuclei, on sectioning and properly staining, 

 ■which are constantly in a state of division, 

 since they never appear to enter on a state 

 of rest. 



Cortinarius as a Mycorhiza-producing 

 Fungiis: Calvin H. Kauppman. 

 It was shown that the red-colored my- 

 celium of an undeseribed species of Cor- 



