﻿free as a number of raphid-like bodies. Dr. Eoulet has succeeded 

 in finding these raphidines in at least one organ of all the species 

 examined by him. 



Besides the stems, the roots, petioles, leaves and peduncles 

 liave also been sectioned, the upshot being that abnormalities in 

 stem-structure are usually accompanied by peculiarities in the 

 structure of the other organs. 



Dr. Eoulet then goes on to discuss the classification of the 

 species with reference to their structural peculiarities, and it is 

 interesting to compare his arrangement with that recently published 

 by Dr. Lindau. Both agree in degrading Nees von Esenbeck's 

 Hexacentris, Eoulet because of the many transitions between the 

 normal Hexacentris and other types of structure, and we may 

 remark that the connection is even closer than he admits, since he 

 includes in Hexacentris T. ijnnvJijiora Eoxb. better placed, as by 

 Lindau, among the Euthunbergias. Both authors agree in rejecting 

 the nature of the calyx (toothed or truncate) as of sectional value, 

 but from this point onward they frequently diverge ; Lindau finds 

 his primary sectional character in the form of the stigma, whether 

 funnel-shaped or bilobed; and though he often places close together 

 species structurally similar, this is by no means always the case. 

 Whether we have in either character a firm basis for the con- 

 struction of a pedigree may well be doubted, for the shape of the 

 stigma is probably correlated with pollination, and abnormalities 

 in stem-structure with climbing habit. 



The memoir is lavishly illustrated, there being no less than 

 eighty-five figures interpolated with the text, and we have no 

 hesitation in expressing our belief that this is a solid contribution 

 to our knowledge of the Acanthaceae. It is to be hoped that in 

 future, with these figures before him, no systematist will describe 

 a Thunbergia without at least making a section of the stem and 

 telling us roughly what its structure is. It may be remarked that 

 systematists even now seem hardly alive to the advantage of 

 adopting modern methods of research. A tiny piece of stem or 

 leaf, the taking of which does not in any way spoil a specimen, is 

 sufficient for scores of sections, and when it is remembered that a 

 trained eye can in most cases readily distinguish the slight micro- 

 scopic differences between allied species, the help afforded by 

 sections becomes at once obvious ; indeed, the time cannot be far 

 distant when every sufficient description will be expected to contain 

 at least some reference to minute structure. jfl, 



Sur la necmiti d'une nouvelUs Monographie des Bom de VAngletene, 

 By Francois Cbepin. 

 Under the above title Professor Crepin has contributed to the 

 Bulletin of the Soc. Bot. Belg. (t. xxxiii. pt. 2, pp. 14-25) a paper 

 on the state of the British literature of the genua Bosa. He calls 

 attention to the fact that, since the publication of Baker's Mono- 

 graph in 1870, great strides have been made in the knowledge of 

 the genus and its synonymy, and a number of new forms have been 



