164 Scientific Intelligence. 



ticular application of his terms, and avoided a double use of the 

 word "paraphysis." The observations too, would seem to war- 

 rant rather more wide-reaching conclusions than those drawn, 

 since they have a very important bearing upon the whole question 

 of apogamy among the Basidiomycetes. As a result of his study 

 of the rare Michenera Artocreas, Mr. Peirce concludes that the 

 flask-shaped spore-bearing cells are a normal form of fruit of this 

 species, and not, as has been thought, the fruit of a parasite. 

 Furthermore, although 31. Artocreas is not infrequently accom- 

 panied by a Corticium-Wke fungus bearing basiospores, the latter 

 have in no instance been observed upon mycelia clearly identified 

 with the Michenera. The article closes with some details of 

 methods found useful in the investigation. b. l. e. 



-i. JRecherches sur Porigine morphologique du liber interne ; 

 by Professor M. Lamottnette. (Ann. des Sciences nat. bot. VII, 

 xl, pp. 193-282, t. 11-13.) — The occurrence among the dicotyle- 

 dons of anomalous bast in the pith has in recent years been 

 demonstrated in a large number of plants of widely different 

 systematic position, and the development, morphological relations, 

 and physiological significance of this remarkable tissue have 

 proved exceedingly inviting themes for investigation. As a 

 result a considerable literature upon this subject has sprung up, 

 and in the case of the morphological origin of the tissue in ques- 

 tion, the views expressed have been widely diverse. A brief 

 resume of the chief opinions held may here be given, as it will 

 better show the precise bearing of Professor Lamounette's re- 

 searches. 



From the accuracy with which these internal strands of bast 

 follow the primary fibro-vascular bundles, and the structural 

 identity which exists between the anomalous and normal bast, 

 de Bary regarded the former tissue as belonging to the bundles in 

 the same sense as the wood and normal bast, and applied the term 

 u bicollateral " to this peculiar form of bundle. Petersen subse- 

 quently examined a great number of plants with internal bast, 

 confirming the opinion of de Bary, and arriving at the conclusion 

 that this tissue arises, in common with the other parts of the 

 bicollateral bundles, from the procarubium. Herail, however, 

 observed the significant fact that the internal bast develops in 

 most if not all cases distinctly after the normally oriented tissues 

 of the bundle. He infers therefore that it cannot be morpholog- 

 ically equivalent to the outer bast, and discards on this account 

 the term bicollateral bundle, except as applied in the single group 

 of the Cucurbitaceoe, where, in his opinion, the correspondence 

 between external and internal bast is much more complete than 

 elsewhere. Dr. J. E. Weiss approaches the subject from a very 

 different standpoint, in an attempt to prove that the anomalous 

 strands of bast are nothing less than branches of the leaf -trace 

 bundles, which enter the pith at the nodes. The paper* elabor- 



* Weiss, Das markstandige G-efassbundelsystem einiger Dikotyledoneu in seiner 

 Beziehung zu den Blattspuren. Cassel, 1883. 



