Febeuaky 28, 1908] 



SCIENCE, 



333 



matters as may be referred to it by the 

 society; (b) that a fourth edition of its 

 course with appropriate accessory matter 

 be printed at the expense of the society for 

 wide circulation; (c) that it be authorized 

 to cooperate with a similar committee of 

 the American Society of Zoologists in for- 

 mulating a high school course in biology. 

 The committee further recommended (d) 

 that all members of the society engaged in 

 college or university work be requested to 

 call the attention of their respective facul- 

 ties to the fact that college entrance exam- 

 inations are now being held every June in 

 all the principal centers of the country in 

 a year 's thorough course in botany, a course 

 ample to count as one point out of fourteen 

 or fifteen for entrance. It seems desirable 

 for all the interests concerned, the colleges, 

 the schools and the science, that this course 

 should be accepted as an option for en- 

 trance by all colleges. The recommenda- 

 tions were all adopted by the society. 



The next annual meeting will be held in 

 conjunction with the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science. 



An important feature of the program 

 was the session devoted to a symposium on 

 "Aspects of the Species Question." Six 

 twenty-minute papers were read, by C. E. 

 Bessey, N. L. Britton, J. C. Arthur, D. T. 

 MacDougal, F. E. Clements and H. C. 

 Cowles, and these were followed by an 

 hour's general discussion. These papers 

 will be published soon in Science. The 

 remaining scientific sessions were devoted 

 to the reading of botanical papers, of which 

 abstracts follow: 



The Foot in Bryopliytes: Professor C. R. 

 Barnes and Dr. "W. J. G. Land, Univer- 

 sity of Chicago. 



Cell Lineage in Fern Roots: Professor H. 



S. CoNARD, Iowa College, Grinnell, Iowa. 



Lateral segments of the initial cell of 

 homosporous leptosporangiates are not di- 



vided in the sequence described in German, 

 English and American text-books. On the 

 contrary, the first division is periclinal, and 

 the second and third walls divide the seg- 

 ment into sextants. The fourth wall is 

 periclinal, and lies ultimately between peri- 

 cycle and endodermis. An attempt was 

 made to determine whether the serial ar- 

 rangement of rhizogenous cells in eyathe- 

 aceous ferns is a trustworthy ordinal char- 

 acter. The series is found to be so much 

 interrupted in Alsophila australis as to be 

 of very doubtful taxonomic value. 



Report on Dioon and Ceratozamia: Pro- 

 fessor C. J. Chamberlain, University of 

 Chicago. 



The life history of Dioon edule has been 

 studied and a paper dealing with the ovule 

 and female gametophyte has been pub- 

 lished. A second paper, which will be pub- 

 lished soon, contains a cytological study of 

 the development of the blepharoplast and 

 sperm, an account of fertilization and a 

 study of the embryogeny of Dioon edule. 

 The latter is peculiar and may throw some 

 light upon the origin of the free nuclear 

 condition of gymnosperm embryos. 



Dioon spinidosum is more primitive than 

 D. edide and may show some Bennettitales 

 characters. 



A preliminary survey of Ceratozamia 

 shows that the blepharoplast is the largest 

 yet discovered, that there are sometimes 

 more than two sperms, and that the embryo 

 develops very slowly, so that it may be 

 little beyond the free nuclear condition 

 when the cone begins to decay. There is 

 only one cotyledon. As in Dioon, the seed 

 does not necessarily pass into the resting 

 condition, but growth may be continuous 

 from fertilization up to the leafy plant. 



The field study, which is still very in- 

 complete, shows that there are probably 

 only two species of Dioon, the confusion 

 having arisen from the fact that the plants 



