552 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [December 



guided the writers in their selection of material for illustration is not clear. 

 As a list of parasitic fungi from a region where little systematic collection has 

 been carried on, this paper is a useful contribution. Its usefulness might have 

 been greatly enhanced if the authors had indicated what part of their material 

 constituted additions to the known fungus flora of Texas, and what part 

 represented species formerly known from that region, for it can scarcely be 

 doubted that so extensive a collection of material contains much that is new 

 to the region. — H. Hasselbring. 



A new type of Cycadofilicales. — From a study of numerous casts, 

 Schuster 25 has described the staminate and ovulate flowers of Schuetzia 

 anomala and has drawn some conclusions in regard to the position of the genus. 

 The impressions of the staminate flowers were so numerous that it was not 

 difficult to make reconstructions. The flower consists of 12-20 cyclic sporo- 

 phylls united throughout the lower two-thirds of their length and bearing 

 sporangia upon their inner surfaces, resembling Sellard's Codonotheca and 

 Stur's Calymmatotheca. The flowers are in a spicate inflorescence. The 

 longitudinally striated "seeds" described by Goeppert are regarded as mega- 

 sporophylls, and it is important to note that these megasporophylls are in 

 undoubted connection with twigs bearing conifer-like leaves. On account of 

 this association, Schuster would make Schuetzia the type of a new group 

 of Cycadofilicales, characterized by the conifer-like leaves. — Charles J. 



Chamberlain. 



Root nodules of Podocarpineae. — Miss Spratt 26 has found that root 

 nodules are present in Podocarpus, Microcachrys, Dacrydium, Saxegotkaea, and 

 Phyllodadus, being modified lateral roots. A root-hair is penetrated by 

 Pseudomonas radicicola (a nitrogen-fixing organism) and from thence enters 

 the cortex. In all cases the nodules are produced by the infection of the 

 meristematic tissue of the young lateral root before it emerges from the cortex 

 of the parent root. Many interesting observations are made upon the stages 

 of the bacteria and also upon the condition of the tissues of the host. The 

 conclusion is suggested that the morphology of the nodules favors the view 

 that Podocarpus and Saxegothaea "are the most widely divergent of the genera 

 in the Podocarpineae, and that they are connected through Microcachrys and 

 Dacrydium" The presence of the nodules in Phyllodadus is also further con- 

 firmation that the genus is related to the podocarps rather than to the taxads. 

 —J. M. C 



2 * Schuster, J., liber die Fruktification von Schuetzia anomala. Sitzungsb. 

 Kaiserl. Akad. Wiss. Wien 120:1125-1134. pis. 1,2. 1911. 



26 Spratt, Ethel Rose, The formation and physiological significance of root 

 nodules in the Podocarpineae. Ann. Botany 26:801-814. pis. 77-80. 1012. 



