320 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [APRIL 
monocotyledonous leaves, which involves the nature of the cotyledon and the 
origin of the stem. The arrangement of the material is in a series beginning with 
an illustration “in which the leaves always appear lateral, and ending with as 
extreme a case of stem suppression as possible.” The genera presented in the 
present paper are Asparagus, Ruscus, Danae, Semele, Polygonatum, and Smilax. 
—Jj. M. C. 
Physcia villosa from North America.—In the Hasse collection of lichens, 
recently purchased by the New York Botanic Gardens, I found included with the 
genus Evernia, and labelled E. prunastri (L.), a specimen of Physcia villosa 
(Ach.) Duby, collected in 1892 at the Santa Barbara Islands, California, by 
BLANcH TRASK. The specimen is fertile; the spores normal, bilocular, 5-6 by 
13-16 u. This is the first record for this plant in North America, so far as Iam 
aware. The type came apparently from Peru. Through the kindness of DR. 
N. L. Brirron the specimen was forwarded by Mr. R. S. Wiiztams to DR. 
Hassr, who writes me under date of February 25, 1910: “I have collected the 
same [plant] near Point Loma, near San Diego, California, and farther 
north near Newport, Orange Co.—R. HEBER Howe, Jr., Thoreau Museum, 
Concord, Mass. 
The resting nucleus.—In discussing the structure of the resting nucleus ROSEN- 
BERG33 pays particular attention to the occurrence of distinguishable chromo- 
somes in the resting cells of various parts of plants of several families. These 
chromosomes, or ‘‘prochromosomes,”’ the existence of which has been denied 
y some writers, he now identifies in about forty new cases, figuring the 
debatable structures in Nuphar, Helianthus, Atriplex, Lupinus, Pinguicula, and 
Drosera. The paper is an added argument for the theory of the individuality of 
the chromosome.—CHARLES J. CHAMBERLAIN. 
Morphology of Geissoloma.—STEPHENS*4 has studied the embryo sac and 
embryo of Geissoloma marginata, a small shrub of southwestern South Africa, 
and representing a family (Geissolomaceae) closely related to Penaeaceae, whose 
genera he had investigated previously. It proved to be “normal” in these struc 
tures, showing none of the peculiarities of Penaeaceae. In general, the results 
showed an embryo sac derived from one of a row of megaspores, very evanescent 
antipodal cells, a pear-shaped (later spherical) proembryo, and no suspensor-“~ 
33 ROSENBERG, O., Ueber den Bau der Ruhekerns. Svensk. Bot. Tidskrift 
3:163-173. pl. §. 1909. 
34 STEPHENS, E. L., The embryo sac and embryo of Geissoloma marginal. 
New Phytol. 8:345-348. pl. 6. 1900. 
