.518 



JOURXAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



tions, and is necessary for the protoplasm. Salts of magnesium appear 

 • to be injurious unless there be sufficient salts of lime to counterbalance 

 its ill effects. Both Potatos and Beetroot are said to be more susceptible 

 to cryptogamic disease on soil that has been limed. Bacteria and 

 Penicillium require a small quantity of magnesia to germinate and grow. 

 Magnesia helps in the assimilation of phosphoric acid. Where lime 

 is in excess the assimilation of phosphoric acid is retarded. Magnesia 

 in the seed is favourable to the quick development of the embryo. In 

 applying kainit, one should take account of the amount of magnesia 

 contained. It may be advisable to lime the land in order to combat the 

 effects of too great a quantity of magnesium salts. — C. H. H. 



POLYPOMPHOLYX AND ByBLIS. 



Polypompholyx und Byblis gigrantea, Untepsuchungen 

 uber Morpholog'ie, Anatomie, und Samenentwickelung* von. By 



Franz Xaver Lang {Flora, vol. Ixxxviii. Pt. 2, pp. 149 206 ; t. xii. and 

 thirty figures ; March 2, 1901). — The former is a Ftricularian genus of 

 terrestrial habit dwelling in moist sandy places. PoliipouLpholjix 

 multifida forms the chief object of study ; the material was collected by 

 Goebel in W. Australia. It has entire, linear, long, petiolate leaves 

 (12 X 2 mm.) ; runners, arising from the base of the terminal scape, 

 thread-like organs (25-28 mm.) which bury themselves in the ground, 

 and serve possibly for absorption as well as fixation ; bladders of t^vo 

 slightly different kinds, those with longer stalks sunk in the soil, while 

 the short-stalked ones protrude above it. The contents observed are sand 

 and organic materials, including, besides humus, algas of various kinds, 

 remains of insect larvfp, and nematode worms ; their structure and 

 histology are essentially identical with those of the bladders of Utricularia. 

 The base of the stem is thickened into a corm, below the slender cyme, 

 -and is rich in schizogenous air-canals. The fibrovascular elements have 

 the same separation of phloem and xylem that exists in other Utricularias. 

 The inflorescence is racemose ; the flower has four distinct sepals, five petals, 

 forming a bilabiate corolla with an anterior spur; two anterior stamens, 

 and often rudiments of two postero-lateral ones. The arrangements 

 for cross-pollination are described ; the development of ovule and embryo- 

 sac presents no very exceptional characters. After pollination, the centre 

 of the embryo-sac becomes full of endospemi by " free cell-formation " ; 

 but the two ends grow out, each into a haustorium that branches and 

 burrows fungus-fashion in the nutritive tissue of the nucellus. Finally, 

 the endosperm is absorbed, all but a thin investing membrane ; and the 

 embryo is spheroidal, unsegmented, with a depressed growing point. P. 

 tenella, collected at Melbourne, only difiers in minor points. Byblis 

 gicjantca, Lindl., has hitherto been referred to Droscracece ; it is a 

 perennial undershrub with an obliquely ascending rhizome, sending up a 

 thick erect annual stem (40 cm.), with equidistant, spirally arranged grass- 

 like leaves, and solitary axillary flowers with long pedicels. The leaves 

 and axes bear nmnerous glands, recalling those of Pinguicula, to which 

 insects adhere. The leaves are 27 cm. x 2^ mm. at the base, narrowing 

 to 1 mm. at the middle, ending in a bulbous expansion. The histological 



