SCIENCE- GOSSIP. 



partly be due to the general increase of education, 

 but more especially to the teaching of botany, 

 both in public and private schools. The methods 

 of imparting instruction in this subject show a 

 great improvement on the old system. The pupils 

 are now taught to regard our Field Flowers as 

 living organisms, replete with life, beauty, and 

 not merely as dried specimens to which purely 

 technical names are given. 



By means of the collected observations of 

 workers in all parts of the country, more par- 

 ' ticularly of the varieties of critical forms, 

 botanical authorities who possess the requisite 

 scientific acumen and grasp of the subjects are 

 enabled to arrange in their natural groups such 

 puzzling genera as the Kubi, Salices, etc. We 

 understand that, with these objects in view, 

 Messrs. H. & J. Groves have undertaken a new 

 and revised edition of Babington's Manual. The 

 new issue will contain the result of the labours 

 of many workers in these departments. This 

 statement recalls some pleasant associations with 

 these gentlemen in searching the pools and 

 streams of the South Midlands for Water Ranun- 

 culi, which section is having particular attention 

 in the new edition of the Manual. There seems to 

 be an awakening of interest in cryptogamic botany, 

 as we hear of much activity in the study of our 

 native mosses, especially of the sphagnums, of 

 which a new list has appeared. 



Another encouraging sign of the times is the 

 increasing popularity of science lectures as means 

 of recreation and instruction. In the town where 

 this is written we have just brought to a successful 

 termination the seventh annual series of science 

 lectures for the people. They are entirely self- 

 supporting, and the attendances have varied from 

 1,000 to 1,500, according to the popularity of the 

 subject and of the speaker. The best possible 

 talent has been secured, and a large proportion of 

 the audiences have been from the working classes. 

 Botany has not been overlooked in the series, our 

 field flowers having been beautifully illustrated. 



STRUCTURAL BOTANY IN 1901. 



By Harold A. Haig. 



A GOOD deal of interesting work has been done 

 during the past year in connection with cytology, 

 especially with regard to those peculiar bodies. 

 the centrosomes. Some doubt was cast upon the 

 existence of centrosomes in a good many cases, 

 but recently Bernard has settled the difficulty for 

 some plants, notably IAlium candid urn, L. Mart agon, 

 and Helosis guayanensis. Latterly, bodies akin to 

 centrosomes have been found in some plants in 

 addition to those always present. They are found 

 at the poles of the karyokinetic spindle, but are 

 soon absorbed and vanish before the actual cen- 

 trosomes. Several forms have been described 



("Journal of Microscopy," October 1901). The 

 centrosomes are of kinoplasmic origin and them- 

 selves divide, before the process of mitosis takes 

 place. 



Some very important facts have been discovered 

 io. connection with changes taking place prior to 

 fertilisation in the embryo-sac of Angiosperms. 

 The phenomenon of "double impregnation" is 

 perhaps the most important ontological discovery 

 that has for some years been made. Strasburger 

 demonstrated that in all Angiosperms the forma- 

 tion of Endosperm has as an essential precursory 

 process the fusion of one of the male nuclei from 

 the pollen-grain with one of the polar nuclei of the 

 embryo-sac, the three going together to form the 

 " definitive " or Endosperm nucleus. Professor 

 Campbell has recently shown that double im- 

 pregnation also takes place in that primitive type 

 of Angiosperm, Peperomia. 



In plant physiology interesting results have been 

 obtained by Dr. Waller in his investigations by an 

 electrical method of the power of germination of 

 seeds that have been kept for various periods of 

 time. His experiments were conducted on lines 

 that were perhaps suggested to him by the analo- 

 gous phenomena of after-currents in nerve when 

 stimulated by induction currents. He found that 

 if seeds are to germinate they must possess proto- 

 plasm capable of giving an after-response follow- 

 ing the stimulus of an alternating current of not 

 too great a frequency (" Proc. Roy. Soc"). 



Some work has been done by French botanists 

 with relation to the germinating power of seeds 

 that have been exposed for a loDg time to the 

 action of certain gases, or have been preserved air- 

 dried in these gases. The results were generally 

 positive. And just recently it has been shown by 

 Jencic that some seeds have their germinating 

 powers increased by exposure to low temperatures. 

 There has been a tendency to show that plants 

 are really more influenced by surrounding condi- 

 tions than they were formerly thought to be. The 

 results obtained by De Vries and others in con- 

 nection with the adaptability and variations of 

 plants placed under changed conditions are 

 especially interesting, from the point of view of 

 the possibility of protoplasm having its directive 

 action varied by measures that are not brought to 

 play on it too rapidly. 



The past year, then, shows that there has been 

 an increasing stimulus to the consideration of such 

 problems as the intrinsic structure of the cell- 

 body, the vitality, and variety of response to 

 stimuli, of protoplasm. Other work has of course 

 been done, more especially, as mentioned above, 

 in connection with fertilisation ; also the structure 

 of some peculiar organs and tissues (vascular 

 elements of Bryophyta) has been considered. The 

 trend of botanical investigation, however, has 

 been in the direction of elucidating individual 

 cell-structure rather than organography. 



