61 



Anglo-Saxon figures of Aster and other classic plants. In other 

 copyists a desire for balance and symmetry overcame their 

 fidelity to the original, so that they conventionalized their plants; 

 as seen strongly in later Italian work exhibited, developed in the 

 14th century from the Salernitan school ; and as retained in early 

 printing, Italian woodcuts of 1499 inheriting the same tendency. 

 A fourth source of error in plant-figures was the mediaeval love 

 of the marvelous, so that many copyists outdid their text in de- 

 picting fictitious monstrosities ; as in the 1 5th century pictures of 

 mandrakes, Tartarian lamb, etc. 



Some of the earliest plant-figures of which we know were 

 those made by Cratevas, a Greek physician to Mithridates, about 

 100 B. C. Something of their character and form probably still 

 survives to us in certain illustrated manuscripts of Dioscorides, of 

 the fifth century, with figures evidently copied not from each 

 other, but from an earlier common source. There is great need 

 in the interests of the history of botany, that the project of pub- 

 lishing the figures of the Anician Vienna codex, now laid aside 

 for nearly two centuries, should be revived and carried to suc- 

 cessful issue. 



In the discussion following this paper, Dr. Britton, Dr. Un- 

 derwood, Professor Lloyd and Mr. Eugene Smith participated. 



The second paper was by Mr. W. A. Cannon, entitled " Ob- 

 servations on the Structure of the ovular Integuments of Dichelo- 

 stemma capitatum." 



It was stated that the entire inner cell-wall of the outer integu- 

 ment and, also, the basal portion of the inner wall of the inner 

 integument were cuticularized, and colored figures were shown, 

 indicating the final resorption of the inner integument by the de- 

 veloping endosperm. The haustoria of the mistletoe penetrate 

 the oak cortex by secreting a ferment which dissolves the neigh- 

 boring cell-walls ; excepting certain lignified cells which may be- 

 come incorporated in the haustoria. So also in this liliaceous 

 plant, better known to many as Brodiaca, the enzyme of the de- 

 veloping endosperm is unable to dissolve the cuticularized mem- 

 brane of the integuments, a fact which appears to limit the exten- 

 sion of the endosperm. 



