_x913] CURRENT LITERATURE 95 
____ but there is a summary in German, the principal features of which are as 
. follows: Among the seed plants there is an evident tendency to reduce the male 
} gamete so that the male cytoplasm does not take part in fertilization. In this 
reduction the binucleate generative cell has played an important part. Its 
appearance in the gymnosperms (Abietineae, some Taxaceae, Gnetales) is 
embryo sac without disorganization, and correspond exactly to the binucleate 
aay cells of certain gymnosperms. In this feature, therefore, these 
i species occupy an intermediate position between gymnosperms, in which the 
. cytoplasm reaches the egg cell, and the higher angiosperms, in which the male 
cytoplasm disorganizes in the pollen tube or even in the pollen grain. 
The persistence of the male cytoplasm in Juglans is thought to be a primi- 
tive character retained from their gymnosperm ancestors, and the appearance 
of this character in chalazogams is said to be significant and is a further proof 
of the great age of these plants. The tendency in seed plants to reduce the 
male gametes seems correlated with the appearance of the pollen tube, for the 
simplification of the male gametes goes hand in hand with the evolution of the 
pollen tube 
While some of these conclusions seem rather nba he ee peat 
reduction of the male gametes is a fact which all must rec 
are left for those who can read the full paper.—CHARLES t 
Winter condition of brown rots.—Conflicting and uncertain statements 
n the literature regarding the manner in which the fungi producing the brown 
rots of stone-fruits and pomaceous fruits live through the winter have led 
EWERT™® to study the behavior of the conidia of these fungi with regard to their 
capacity for persisting through the winter. The rarity of the apothecia makes 
it improbable that these play an important part in maintaining the brown 
rot fungi. 
Ewenrt finds that the two species of brown rot fungi, Monilia cinerea and 
Monilia fructigena, differ radically in their mode of passing the winter, a fact 
which may account for the discrepancies in the literature, since most of the 
conflicting statements regarding the persistence of the spores during winter 
were made before WoronIN had shown that the two species are clearly dis- 
tinct. Ewert finds that the conidia of Monilia cinerea, which occurs primarily 
on stone-fruits but which can also infect pomaceous fruits, are capable of ger- 
minating at any time during the winter. They persist during the winter in 
the spore-cushions on mummies of cherries, plums, and other stone-fruits, and 
also on pomaceous fruits if these happen to be infected. Exposure to tempera- 
2 Ew ERT, E., Verschiedene Ut BY iF “15 a a. Se 
und ihre biologische Bedeutung. Zeitschr. Pflanzenkrank. 22 aos -H- 1912. 
