224 The American Naturalist [March, 



in death before the missive had reached its destination. He called 

 attention also to the fact that he had observed similar asymmetry in 

 Mormodes ignea and had similarly used the terms " right handed " and 

 " left hTnded." The fact is published in his " Fertilization of Orchids." 

 —J. E. Todd. 



University of South Dakota, Vermillion, S. D., Dee. 2, 1895. 



VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. 

 Water Pores. — Dr. Anton Nestler contributes an interesting 

 " Kritische Untersuchungen uber die sogenannteu Wasserspalten " 

 (pp. 38, pi. 2) to Band LXI V, No. 3 of Nova Acta d. Ksl. Leop.- Carol. 

 Deutschen Akad. d. Naturforscher. The term " water pore " was intro- 

 duced by DeBary to designate a mechanism supposed to be distin- 

 guished from ordinary stomata by (1) Presence of liquid water, at 

 least at times, in the substomatic opening; (2) Rigid guard cells; (3) 

 Often very considerable differences in form and size; (4) Location near 

 the edge of the leaf in the teeth over the end of a vascular bundle. The 

 following subjects are considered in this paper : Previous literature ; 

 development of the water pores ; structure, number, and size ; rigidity 

 of the guard cells ; plants destitute of water pores. Dr. Nestler shows 

 that water pores originate from stomatic mother cells in the same way 

 as ordinary stomata (48 species of Ranunculus were examined and 

 also plants of many other families) ; that while water pores sometimes 

 exceed ordinary stomata in size they are quite as often of the same size 

 or smaller, and frequently show plain transitions into the latter; that 

 rigidity of the guard cells is not always present in the water pores nor 

 always absent in ordinary stomata; that water pores sometimes dis- 

 charge vapor of water ; and, finally, that the ordinary stomata some- 

 times, and probably often, excrete liquid water (over the whole upper 

 surface of the leaf in Vieia Faba).— Erwin F. Smith. 



Biology of Smut Fungi. — The third part of Dr. Brefeld's Smut 

 Fungi (Heft XII of the Untersuchungen) contains 140 pages of quarto 

 text and 267 figures packed into 7 lithographic plates, the crowding 

 together of which makes difficult the comparison of text and figures. 

 All told 13 genera and 64 species are described, of which latter 22 are 

 reckoned as new. The germination of the smut spores is figured for 

 most of the species as well as described. The descriptions are long and 

 include a wealth of biological detail drawn from the behavior of the 



