ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 663 



and Erijnijium maritbnum, where the fruit is but slightly aromatic, the 

 vittiB have no layer, but in>tead a fluid !^ecretion. 



At a very early i)eriod in the formation of the vittai, even in the 

 flower-bud, substances of two different kinds are exuded from the walls 

 of the epithelial cells into the vitta, viz. a watery fluid and an ethei'cal 

 oil insoluble in water. The vittoe themselves are always of schizogenoiis 

 origin. The object of the layer above described is clearly to retain the 

 secretion in the vitta and to prevent its flowing into the siu-rounding 

 tissue. The auise oil contained in the vittfe of Fcenicidiim officinale and 

 Pimpinella Anisum and the caruol in those of Aneihum graveolens and 

 Carum Carui are highly poisonous to birds. 



Fruit of Grasses.* — M. H. Jumelle is unable to accept the ordinary 

 view of the structure of the caryopsis of the Gramineae, that it is a fruit 

 in which there is complete fusion of the integument of the ovule with 

 the pericarp. He finds no evidence of such a fusion taking place at 

 any time, but, on the contrary, the pericarp is jjartly absorbed during 

 maturation, and the integuments of the seed completely disappear. The 

 caryopsis is, in fact, an ordinary achene inclosing a single seed without 

 integuments. 



Primula with Anatropous Seeds.j — M. A. Franchet states that one 

 point of difference between the genera Hottonia and Primula is that in 

 the former the seeds are anatropous, while they are hemitropous in the 

 latter. He then describes two Primulas, P. Delavayi and P. vincijlora 

 from China, having anatropous seeds as in Hottonia. The anatropy of 

 the seeds is only complete at maturity. In the ovule and young seed 

 hemitropy is still evident, especially in P. Delavayi. If the ripe seeds 

 of Hottonia are compared with those of these two Primulas, it is readily 

 seen that anatropy exists to the same degree, and is present under the 

 same conditions in the two genera. 



Seed of Victoria. J — lu^ pursuance of his researches on the structure 

 of the Nymphteacete, Prof. G. Arcangeli has now carefully examined 

 that of the seeds of Victoria regia. He finds an outer integument and 

 an inner much thinner one, closely adpressed to the seed. The seed 

 itself consists of three parts, embryo, endosperm (albumen), and peri- 

 sperm ; and, as in Euryale, Nymphsea, and Nitphar, the amylaceous 

 reserve-material is found chiefly in the perisperm, which is much the 

 most developed of the three, while the albuminoid and fatty reserve- 

 materials abound in the embryo, although an albuminoid network is also 

 present in the perisperm, inclosing the grains of starch. 



Borragoid Inflorescence.§ — Herr K. Schumann compares the peculiar 

 inflorescence, to vrhich he gives the term borragoid, characteristic of the 

 Borraginese, Hydrophyllacese, Solanacese, and some Labiatfe, with the 

 true cyme, such as obtains in Ru'a and Echeveria, and finds the differ- 

 ence not so great as has been maintained by f;ome w'riters. The 

 dorsiventral structure occurs also in true cymes. The borragoid is only 

 a special case of the true cyme, the determining factor of which is the 

 dichotomous division of the cone of growth, in contrast to the lateral 



♦ Comptes Reiulus, cvii. (18SS) pp. 285-7. 



•f Joum. de Bot. 'ISIorut). iii. (1889) pp. 49-52 (3 figs.). 



X Nuov. Gioru. Bot. Ital., xxi. (1889) pp. 286-9. Cf. this Journal, nnt<\ p. 407 



§ Ber. Deutich. Bot. Gesell., vii. (1889) pp. 52-80 (1 pi.). 



