1917] BRIEFER ARTICLES 437 
developed, on which in turn occurred an apogamous embryo. In the 
latter the root developed first. Only three cases of apogamy were 
observed in Osmunda Claytoniana in Prantl’s solution with K,SO, omitted. 
In two cases the sporophytes developed from a mass of cellular tissue, 
while the third arose as an outgrowth in the notch of the prothallium. 
A further study will be made of these apogamous forms.—ELizABETH 
Dorotuy Wuisr, Osborn Botanical Laboratory, Yale University. 
RAY TRACHEIDS IN QUERCUS ALBA 
(WITH ONE FIGURE) 
In the course of a recent study of the medullary rays of the Fagaceae, 
the writer was impressed with the manner in which some of the fibro- 
tracheids in Quercus were associated with the rays. It is very common 
to find the ends of these elements procumbent on the marginal ray cells 
for a considerable distance and communicating through semi-bordered 
pits. This condition is so similar to that found in certain coniferous 
woods that search was made in sections of oak wood at hand for tracheids 
that were distinctly radial. Fig. 1 shows a marginal ray tracheid of a 
uniseriate ray in normal stem wood of Quercus alba Linn. Another, 
somewhat smaller, was found in a different ray in the same section. 
The location is in the median late wood of the season’s growth and is 
not in immediate proximity to a large vessel. So far as the writer is 
aware, ray tracheids have not previously been reported in the woods of 
the dicotyledons.—SamvuEL J. Recorp, Yale University. 
