452 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [MAY 
Anatomy of Osmundites.—ScuustEer” has described the anatomical 
structure of a new species of Osmundites (O. Carneri) from Paraguay. He con- 
siders it an “ectophloic siphonostele,’’ and calls especial attention to the 
absence of leaf gaps. A ring of xylem, unbroken but very thin opposite the 
wide “‘rays,”’ is figured in a text diagram, but it is noteworthy that the attach- 
ment of leaf trace to stele has not been drawn. The plates of photographs, 
however, show broad and indisputable leaf gaps formed by the departure of 
leaf traces which are thin and arched from the very first. The preservation 
of tissues other than the xylem is not good enough to determine the presence 
or absence of internal phloem, but the wide gaps and other striking resemblances 
between the stele of this species and that of Osmundites skidegatensis, where 
internal as well as external phloem is well developed, would lead one to suspect 
very strongly the existence of this tissue in O. Carneri. There is doubt as to 
the horizon of the new species, but its author places it as probably Tertiary, 
though possibly Jurassic. Species of Osmundites have now been described from 
e continent of Europe, western Canada, Paraguay, South Africa, and New 
Zealand.—E. W. SInNotT 
Respiration and wounding.—ScHNEIDER-ORELLI® finds that wounding 
apples, pears, and potatoes which are no longer capable of forming wound 
periderm increases the amount of carbon dioxide given off by such fruits and 
tubers above that normally given off. He concludes, therefore, that the 
increased respiration is due to wounding alone, and not to renewed cell division 
which follows wounding in tissues which are still capable of growth. An 
attempt to apply the same idea to the study of the stimulation e respiration 
due to infection by fungi gave no results, since it was impossible to separate 
the carbon dioxide produced by the fungus from that produced by the host.— 
H. HASSELBRING. 
A glucoside.—Saponarin, a glucoside of the formula C2:;H2,O0y., has 
been found in 24 species of phanerogams (8 families) out of more than 1300 
species examined. It is contained in the epidermis of leaves and stains blue 
to violet with IKI. Motiscu” now finds it in Madotheca platyphyilla, the only 
liverwort out of 36 species examined. Its peculiar distribution in the plant 
kingdom and its liability of being mistaken for soluble starch make it of interest. 
It should be stated that the writer’s microchemical os do not prove that 
this substance is saponarin.—WILLIAM CROCKER 
17 SCHUSTER, J., Osmundites von Sierra Villa Rica in Paraguay. Ber. Deutsch. 
Bot. Gesells. 29: 534- ei pls. 2. 91K. 
18 SCHNEIDER-ORELLI, O., Versuche iiber Wundreiz und Wundverschluss an 
Sanerane: gens Bakt. II. 30:420-429. 1911 
, Hans, Uber das Vorkommen von Reco bei einen Lebermoos 
(Madotheca poy Sra Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Gesells. 29: 487-491. 1911. 
