73 





NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



Biologische tind Morphologische Untersuchwigen iiber Wasser- und 



Sumpfgewachse, II. Von Prof. Dr. Hugo Gluck in Heidel- 

 berg. 8vo, pp. xvii, 256, 28 figs, in text, and 6 plates. 

 Jena : Fischer. 1906. Price 18 marks. 



Dr. Gluck's second contribution to our knowledge of the biology 

 and morphology of water- and marsh-plants comprises the results 

 of his study of the Central European species of Utricularia, of winter 

 buds in a number of genera of water-plants and of points in the 

 biology of Ceratophyllum. His study of Utricularia confirms the 



view taken by Goebel — to whom the author dedicates his book — as 

 to the morphology of the vegetative organs. That is to say, shoot 

 and leaf are here not contrasting morphological ideas ; no limit 

 can be set between them — shoot, leaf, and pitcher arise one from 

 the other, or may be changed one to the other. Comparative 

 systematic study, history of development and abnormal formation, 

 all confirm this view. 



In the course of his work Dr. Gliick has made a detailed study 

 of one and the same species from different localities, with special 

 attention to differences in situation, such as deep and shallow water 

 or land ; and gives in a tabular form the relative length of shoot, 

 relative size of leaf and other details in the forms from the various 

 localities. The water-shoots are best developed in the deep-water 

 forms, while those from shallow water are intermediate between the 

 deep-water and the land form. A systematic arrangement is given 

 of the six Central European species, based on presence or absence 

 of rhizoids on the base of the inflorescence, and presence or absence 

 of aerial shoots ; and diagnoses of the vegetative organs are in- 

 cluded for each species. 



The author has also made a detailed examination of the struc- 

 ture, germination and functions of the buds which serve as resting- 

 or winter-buds, and for means of vegetative propagation in a large 

 series of water-plants, including Elodea, Stratiotes, Hydn'lla, Myrio- 

 phyiluw, Utricularia, Potamogetov , and Hydrocharis. These are 

 grouped according to the morphological character of the scales by 

 which the bud is protected, which represent the whole leaf-blade of 

 a foliage-leaf as in the first five genera mentioned, or the leaf-base 

 only as in Aldrovanda and Caldesia, or an axillary stipule as in 

 Potamogeton, or a pair of stipules as in Hydrocharis. Finally, a 

 point of interest is described in the biology of Ceratophylhim. 

 Contrary to the general view that this is a free-swimming plant, 

 the author finds that it is in the first instance anchored to the sub- 

 stratum by peculiar rhizoids, which also take up nourishment. 

 These rhizoids are metamorphosed shoots. The value of the 

 work is enhanced by the excellent drawings, both in the text and 

 in the large double plates at the end of the volume. 



. A. B. R. 



Journal of Botany.— Vol. 45. [Feb. 1907.] o 



