300 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Symbiosis of an Alga with a Sponge. By S. H. Koorders (Ann. 

 Jard. Hot. Unit. vol. iii. pp. 8 1Gb ; 1901). — P. G. 



Syringa Emodi. By F. Burvenich pere (Rev. Hurt. Beige, xxviii. 

 No. 9, p. 193; col. pi.).— This is a shrub with very large elliptic-lanceolate 

 leaves and small white flowers, having a disagreeable odour. — G. H. 



Table Mountain in Spring, Flora of. Engler (in Not. Konig. Bot. 

 Berlin. Appendix xi. ; April 1, 1903).— This is an interesting account of 

 the journey in South Africa made by the author in connection with his plan 

 for arranging the plants of the new Botanical Gardens at Dahlem-Steglitz 

 according to their geographical distribution. It was given as a lecture, 

 and then expanded with notes on the South African flora in general, and 

 illustrations of some of the more striking plants in particular, many of the 

 latter from the well-known Pflanzcnfamilicn. 



After carefully comparing the different systems proposed the author 

 has adopted that of the Flora Capensis of Kew as the most satisfactory 

 classification of the floral regions, especially in the fusion of the Karroo 

 and " Roggeveld " into one Central Region. Engler then treats of the 

 several .sub-regions — (1) the South and South-east African coast lands ; 

 (2) the above-named Central Region ; (3) the South-east African High- 

 lands of the Orange, Transvaal, and Kalahari regions ; and (4) Western 

 Namaqua and Herero lands— in detail, and the whole comprises a very 

 interesting summary of the subject, in which botanists and horticulturists 

 will renew their acquaintance with many interesting types, for the most 

 part well known in our larger collections. — M. W. 



Taphrina, Spore-formation in. By S. Ikeno (Flora, vol. xcii. 

 1903, pp. 1-31, T. ii. iii. ; 2 cuts). — Taphrina (Exoascus) is a genus of 

 Ascomycetes whose hymenium is constituted by the simple outgrowth of 

 the asci through the epiderm on which they grow. The nucleus of the 

 voting ascus is constituted by the fusion of two, as first shown by 

 Dangeard. This conjugation nucleus then becomes disorganised, and 

 gives off the greater part of its chromatin to the cytoplasm, which 

 apparently digests it ; the remainder, having many resemblances to a 

 nucleolus, lies as a free single chromatin body in the nucleus. In T. 

 Joha/nsoni and Kusanoi the chromatin body undergoes fragmentation by 

 a sort of budding, the minute fragments behaving as so many nuclear 

 (cutrcs around which the cytoplasm concentrates to form the spores, 

 while the larger ones are digested by the cytoplasm. In T. ccrasi, pruni, 

 and deformans (including var. armcniaca) the chromatin body divides three 

 tunes in succession to form the 8 spore-nuclei, a very simple karyokinetic 

 process being recognisable in the first two. Epiplasm is left around the 

 pores. The author discusses the homologies of the nuclear vacuole, 

 winch contains diffuse chromatic substance, and the chromatic body; and 

 C mpari the former with the similar structure observed by Wager in the 

 ^ nist - notes the occasional formation of a clear space round the 



nucleolus in higher plants, as an artefact due to fixation. The micro- 

 chemical r« actions of the " chromatin body" are somewhat different from 

 those of a nucleolus on the one hand, and of Zacharias's nuclein on the 

 other. .V. //. 



