336 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [APRIL 
with scalariform end walls, copiously pitted fiber tracheids, both uniseriate 
and multiseriate rays, and very few or possibly no wood parenchyma cells. 
The vessels and tracheids are of an undoubtedly primitive character, but the 
rays, according to recent investigations, represent a high state of development. 
The second, Woburnia porosa, has multiseriate rays, and parenchyma groupe 
around the vessels, as it is in such high families as the Leguminoseae, Ulmaceae, 
Oleaceae, etc. The third, Sabulia Scottii, is imperfectly preserved, but shows 
mainly uniseriate rays. Whether they represent the primitive condition, like 
certain species of Alnus, or are reduced, like Castanea, Salix, Populus, etc., 
it is impossible to say. Dr. Stopes seems to think that.the antiquity of these 
specimens indicates that theirs is necessarily the primitive type of angio- 
spermous wood structure. It is significant, however, that in formations con- 
siderably older than the Lower Greensand, there are abundant impressions 
of the Cupuliferae, which comparative anatomy has shown to represent the 
really primitive conditions—R. S. HoLpEN. 
A new cretaceous palm.—Srevens” has described a new palm from the 
Upper Cretaceous of New Jersey, the fossil having been found on the beach at 
Seabright, not far from Sandy Hook. The details are well worked out and 
illustrated, and the name assigned is Palmoxylon anchorus. It seems that 
petrified stems of palms are not so rare as has been supposed, and the author 
thinks it probable that palms occur abundantly from the Upper Cretaceous on, 
both on the coastal plain and in the formations of the continental interior.— 
1M C. 
Haustorium of Striga.—Miss StepHENs” has investigated the remark- 
able haustorium of Siriga lutea, a South African annual growing as a root 
parasite on native grasses and on maize. The haustoria arise exogenously 
from the many adventitious roots, and when one encounters a root of the maize 
it bores its way into the host by means of a ferment, a line of tracheids is 
formed down the center of the haustorium, and vascular connections are 
established with the host.—J. M. C 
7 Stevens, N. E., A palm from the Upper Cretaceous of New Jersey. Amer. 
Jour. Sci. 34: 421-436. figs. 24. 1912. 
20 STEPHENS, Epitu L., The structure and ee of the haustorium of 
Striga lutea. Ann. Botany 86310672076: pl. 03. 
