472 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [JUNE 
secured a very complete series of stages in the organogeny of both staminate 
and ovulate flowers from material furnished by PEARSON. The illustrations 
are so carefully drawn and the stages so close together, that one can study 
the problem for himself, from the first divergence in the topography of the 
staminate and ovulate flowers, up to the condition at the time of pollination. 
The facts of development are made still more valuable by detailed descriptions 
which prevent any misinterpretation of the figures. 
When it comes to conclusions, however, each one will probably have his 
own theories in regard to the plant which so thoroughly deserves its specific 
name. That the ancestral flowers were functionally bisporangiate, all stu- 
‘dents of comparative morphology must agree. The evidence in favor of 
insect pollination is also rather complete. CHuRcH does not believe that the 
evidence supports the contention that the “perianth” consists of decussate 
bracts. He believes that the reductions which have brought about a dioecious 
condition from an orginally bisporangiate flower are of the same type as those 
known in Cycadeoidea and Williamsomia, but that no relationship is involved 
in the similarity. He also fails to see any relationship to the flowers of Angio- 
sperms, the resemblances being merely a “‘parallel progression of physiological 
mechanism devoted to seed production.””—C. J. CHAMBERLAIN. 
Myrmecophilous plants.—Cuopat and Carisso” have found that in certain 
plants the relationship of the symbiotic ants is a secondary matter, the excres- 
cences which they inhabit being really galls caused by hymenopterous larvae. 
All stages in the gall formation, from the deposition of the egg to the escape 
of the larva leaving a hole for the entry of the ants, were found in several 
South American species of Cordia (Boraginaceae) and in Acacia Cavenia. 
It is also pointed out that the symbiosis could not be regarded, as heretofore, 
as a protection against leaf-cutting ants, since the inhabitants of the galls on 
Cordia are themselves leaf-cutters, and their “ant gardens” within the galls 
are composed of bits of leaves and flowers which they have cut off and brought 
in.—Geo. D. FULLER 
Umbelliferous cushion plants.—Two closely related umbelliferous sti 
Azorella and Bolax, are notable for their compact cushion habit. They occ 
in the high Andes, in Patagonia, and in the subantarctic portions of South 
America. HavuMAn* has reviewed the 24 species occurr ing in Argentine, giving 
ecological and taxonomic notes and describing one new species, A. yarelda. 
The vegetation of the celebrated “balsam bogs” of Tierra del Fuego has 
Bolax gummifera as its characteristic species. A key has been constructed 
for the determination of the species and a very complete bibliography given.— 
Geo. D. Futter. 
HODAT, R., and Carisso, Luis, Une spinon — de la myrmécophilie 
sais Rend. ‘Soc. Phys. et Hist. Nat. Genéve. 37:9-12 
AUMAN, LuctEN, Notes sur les espéces Arentn nee genres Azorella et Bolax, 
Rev. oc Arg. Ciens. Nat. 4:468-500. figs. 7. 
