* 
1910] CURRENT LITERATURE 479 
all species peculiar to New Zealand, but familiar genera such as Scirpus, Festuca, 
Calamagrostis, and Euphorbia are conspicuous. The “sandgrass” dunes and 
the shrub dunes represent the chief dune plant associations, the almost entire 
absence of forests being noticeable. A bibliography of the literature relating 
to the New Zealand dunes completes the interesting report—Gro. D. FULLER. 
Isolated ovulate plants of Mercurialis.—In a recent paper on the determina- 
tion of sex?3 STRASBURGER described the behavior of isolated ovulate plants 
of Mercurialis annua. The subsequent behavior of these plants is now de- 
scribed. They remained sterile for months, then formed staminate flowers 
and began to fruit. The pollen of staminate. flowers is shed immediately 
when the anthers dehisce, and the flower drops off the next day, so that 
they might easily escape observation. Isolated sterile ovulate plants, 
when pollinated with the pollen of staminate individuals, produce staminate 
and ovulate plants in about equal numbers; but when pollinated with 
pollen from the scattered staminate flowers of ovulate plants, the result- 
plants are almost exclusively ovulate. When ovulate plants have been 
begin to produce scattered staminate flowers. The haploid number of chromo- 
mes, as counted in the pollen mother cells, is 7, and the diploid, both in young 
STRASBURGER’Ss already important contributions to the problem of the deter- 
mination of sex.—CHARLES J. CHAMBERLAIN. 
Coastal deserts of Jamaica.—Studying the south coast of Jamaica, SHREVE 
has explained the desert-like character of an area extending some 70 miles 
west of Kingston as edaphic areas of desert in a savanna region. The rainfall, 
32 inches a year, is capable of supporting a savanna where the soil is deep, 
the desert being sharply confined to limestone areas with very thin soils and 
an extremely ough surface. The use of the porous cup atmometer shows an 
e vege 
tion, however, closely resembles that of the continental desert, being charac- 
terized by various species of Acacia, Cassia, Cereus, and Opuntia. Borderin 
coasts of Cuba, San Domingo, and many of the smaller West Indian islands.— 
Gro. D. FULLER 
23 Review in Bor. — _ 3: Rife ; 
14 STRASBURGER, E li iblichi Mercurialis 
annua-Pfianzen. secs fiir Botanik 1:507-524. pl. 14. 1909. 
*s SHREVE, Forrest, The coastal deserts of Jamaica. Plant World 13:129-135. 
Ig10. 
