344 BOTANICAL GAZETTE : [APRIL 
Embryo of Helminthostachys.—Lanc* has supplied some much needed 
but the present study furnishes many additional details. The embryo extends 
down into the prothallium before segmentation takes place, and the first two 
walls are transverse. The cell next to the neck of the archegonium, which may 
divide or not, forms the upper suspensor tier; the middle cell, which divides, 
forms the second suspensor tier; while the terminal cell forms the embryo 
proper. The hypobasal half of the embryo forms the foot, while from the 
epibasal half the stem tip, first leaf, and probably the first root arise. A com- 
parative study of the embryogeny of Marattiaceae, Ophioglossaceae, and seed 
plants leads to the suggestion that “the suspensor represents the last trace of 
e filamentous juvenile state in development of the plant, and may have 
persisted in the seed-plants from their filicineous ancestry.’’—J. M. C. 
Basidiomycetes of the Philippines—Grarr has published a list of 
additions to the known Basidiomycetes of the Philippines with descriptions 
of new species. These additions number 33, about equally distributed between 
Hymenomycetes and Gasteromycetes. The new species are described in 
Exidia, Laschia, Lentinus, Voloaria, Naucoria, and Bovista.—J. M. C 
Nectaries and phylogeny.— After examining the nectaries of a large number 
of monocotyledons and dicotyledons, Porscu3? reaches the conclusion that the 
nectary is not only an organ of some phylogenetic significance, but that it 
rnishes additional proof of the derivation of the former from the latter-— 
Gok CHAMBERLAIN. 
# Lanc, Wit11Am H., Studies in the morphology and anatomy of the Ophioglos- 
saceae. II. On the embryo of Helminthostachys. Ann. Botany 28:19-37- figs. 9 
pl. 3.. 1914. 
38s Ann. Botany 24:611. 1910. 
dditions to a Se flora of the Philippines- 
Philippine one. Sci. 8: 299-307. pls. 8 
37 Porscu, Orro, Die aa er Monskote und die Bliitennektarien- 
Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Gesells. 31: 580-590. 1 
