108 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. [Vou. XXXII. 
Dr. W. W. Row.eE: Zhe Morphological Significance of the Lodicules 
of Grasses. This study was based on an examination of bamboo 
flowers, in which genus three to six lodicules are present. In floral 
structures the bamboos are believed to represent the primitive type 
of grass flower.. Evidence obtained from an examination of numerous 
sections of the bamboo flower indicate that the lodicules must be 
regarded as the remnants of a perianth. The three lodicules in 
Arundinaria alternate on the axis with the stamens, and may, there- 
fore, be considered the inner whorl, or petals. The stamens are 
directly opposite the midribs of the carpels, and indicate that the 
inner whorl of stamens, present in some bamboos, is suppressed in 
Arundinaria. Hackel, as is well known, interpreted the lodicules as 
distichous bracts. The paper was illustrated by lantern slides. 
Dr. Lucy L. W. WiILson: Observations on the American Squawroot 
(Conopholis Americana Walir.). An exhaustive study of the vegeta- 
tive and reproductive parts has been made, but an account of the 
former only was read. The invariable host plant is the oak. The 
extreme degradation of the parasite and the intimate relation between 
it and the oak roots caused the author to compare it with members 
of the Balanophorez and Rafflesiaceæ, rather than with parasitic 
members of the Scrophulariacee. The seedling parasite seemed 
early to attack young oak roots, and steadily grew for ten to twelve 
years until a huge mass six inches across might be formed. This 
mass was characterized chiefly by the abundance of sclerenchyma 
patches developed by the oak host through the irritant action of the 
invading parasite. The presence of stomata onthe stem and their 
absence on the scale leaves was pointed out, while the double circle 
of bundles traversing the flowering stem is peculiar in that the xylem 
of one of these sets of bundles faces the xylem in the other. 
Dr. Jonn W. HARSHBERGER: Water Storage and Conduction in 
Senecio precox DC. from Mexico. Senecio precox (Cav.) DC. is a 
plant with a succulent, woody, cylindrical stem growing on lava beds 
in the valley of Mexico. It has clustered leaves at the top of the 
stem and stores up water in disk-like plates of pith. During the dry 
season the plant develops its corymb of composite flowers, and in 
doing so uses the water stored up in the pith. The loss of this water 
is prevented during the dry season by the fall of the leaves and by a 
protective cork and balsam, the latter secreted in the exocortex and 
endocortex. The leaves show no xerophytic structure. The water 
stored in the turgid disks of pith is gradually conducted by the woody 
