NOTES AND ABSTRACTS. 



619 



AndPOSaceS, The. By Henry Correvon (Gard. p. 332, 16/5/03; 

 p. 351,23/5/03; p. 370, 30/5/03; p. 391, 6/6/03; illustrated).— Of all 

 the plants of the mountains none are more closely tufted or more com- 

 pletely alpine in their appearance and character than the genus Androsace. 

 One may say they are the most alpine of alpines, and that they may be 

 taken as the most characteristic type of the flora of the mountain heights. 

 Low of growth, brilliant of aspect, extremely pretty, and covered with 

 bloom, they are the purest of the jewels of alpine vegetation. — E. T. C. 



Anemone polyanthes. By W, Irving (Gard. p. 43 ; 18/7/03).— 

 Somewhat resembling the European A. narcissiflora, but of more robust . 

 habit, the Himalayan A. polyanthes is a common plant in Kashmir and 

 Sikkim at elevations of 10,000 and 12,000 feet. It is usually found 

 growing in moist, shady places. A similar position should be selected 

 for it in the rock-garden. The large white flowers are sometimes 2 inches 

 in diameter, borne in compound umbels of often twenty flowers on stout 

 pstioles some 20 inches high. — E. T. C. 



Annuals, The Use Of. By Hugh A. Pettigrew (Gard. p. 331 ; 

 16/5/03). — By a generous and constant use of annuals and certain 

 perennials it is easy to alter the whole tone of a garden and give it an 

 entirely different complexion summer after summer. To be effective, as 

 every lover of these flowers knows, they must ba used more or less freely 

 in masses, and discrimination exercised in the grouping of colours. 



E. T. C. 



Anthogronium gracile. By R. A. R. (Orch. Bev. Nov. 1903, 

 p. 343). — Descriptive particulars of this Bletia-like Orchid and its habitat 

 are included. — H. J. C. 



Aphanomyces, Development of the Spores of. By W. Rothert 

 (Flora, vol. xcii. 1903, pp. 293-301 ; 7 cuts). — The base of the sporange 

 is usually within the substratum, so that the septum is rarely seen ; it is 

 thickish, refractive, and convex to the sporange. The formation of the 

 spore origins takes place by localised thickenings of the parietal plasma, 

 which finally meet across the lumen, and are thus cylindrical, united by 

 tubular continuations lining the sporange wall. A short stage of relative 

 homogeneity follows, due here as elsewhere to some localised plasmolysis, 

 and is at once succeeded by contraction away from the wall and segmenta- 

 tion into a line of cylindrical bodies, united by the filaments due to the 

 contraction of the intersporal tubes ; these axial filaments grow thinner by 

 retraction of their substance into the spores, but persist until discharge. 

 No contraction of the sporange (save a shortening of 1 : 300-400 in one 

 instance), nor bacterial dance was certainly made out. Discharge takes 

 place thus : the front spore presses forward, pushes a moment against the 

 apical wall, and squeezes through an apparently very fine opening ; the 

 others in succession do the same, the rate of discharge progressively 

 slackening and the last one or two often remaining behind. The spores 

 narrow and lengthen as they approach the slender end of the sporange, 

 always leaving a space between themselves and the wall. The distance 

 between successive spores augments during the forward movement. [All 

 this the abstractor has seen and confirms.] The expulsion of the spores 



x 2 



