I 







1920] CURRENT LITERATURE 



327 



words, the efficiency of precipitation is least during the period of greatest 

 need. The interception by full grown field crops is comparable in value with 

 that from trees. 



Selections from previously collected data and a short bibliography add 

 their value to Horton's report. — Geo. D. Fuller. 



Hawaiian Lobelioideae. — Rock 23 has published an elaborately printed and 

 profusely illustrated monograph of the Hawaiian Lobelioideae. The very 

 numerous photographic reproductions make the monograph almost equivalent 

 to an herbarium set of the material. The tribe represents the family Lobeli- 

 aceae as ordinarily presented, and in the Hawaiian Islands includes 7 genera, 

 6 of which are endemic. The author has been studying this group for nearly 

 10 years, and has increased the 58 species of Hillebrand's Flora to 104, all 

 peculiar to the Islands; and in his opinion many more species will be brought 

 to light, especially in the genus Cyanea, which in the monograph includes 52 

 species. The only genus of world-wide distribution is Lobelia, which is credited 

 with 11 species in the Islands, 4 of which are new. The first part of the mono- 

 graph contains a general discussion of structure, habit, and distribution. 

 J. M. C. 



Evolution of cotyledony. — Buchholz** has investigated the ontogeny of 

 the cotyledons in a number of living conifers, and has reached some important 

 conclusions. He finds in certain conifers a considerable number of primordia, 

 which may develop a corresponding number of cotyledons, or fusions may occur, 

 thus reducing the number. In no case was there any evidence of increasing 

 the number of cotyledons by splitting. The fusions resulting in a reduced 

 number of cotyledons in some cases resulted also in cotyledonary tubes. The 

 inference is that polycotyledony is primitive; that dicotyledony was attained 

 by a general fusion of many cotyledons into two groups or by a bilabiate devel- 

 opment of the cotyledonary tube; and that monocotyledony is the result of 

 a cotyledonary tube becoming unilabiate. This evolutionary sequence seems 

 to be borne out by all the facts at hand, and relates the different forms of 

 cotyledony in a natural way. — J.M.C. 



Proceedings of the Indiana Academy. — The volume of Proceedings of the 

 Indiana Academy of Science for 1918 has just been distributed, including 

 327 pages and numerous illustrations. Among the botanical contributions 

 published are the following: The barberry and its relation to the stem rust 

 of wheat in Indiana, F. J. Pipal; A method of teaching diffusion and osmosis 



23 Rock, Joseph F., A monographic study of the Hawaiian species of the tribe 

 Lobelioideae, family Campanulaceae. Publ. Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum. 

 4*o pp. xvi+395. pis. 217. 1919. 



24 Buchholz, John T., Studies concerning the evolutionary status of polycotyled- 



ony. Amer. Jour. Bot. 6:106-119. figs. 25. 1919. 



