NOTES AND ABSTRACTS. 



G73 



winter and in spring. At the same time he examined the tissues 

 microscopically for starch. He finds that whatever reacts to potassium 

 bichromate examined in the cases cannot be ascribed to transformed 

 products of starch, or only to a very limited extent. Nor can these 

 tannin materials be due to the factors which influence starch trans- 

 formation.— G. F. S: E. 



Teratology, Studies in Tropical. By J. C. Costerus and J. J. 



Smith (Ami. Jard. Bot, B'uit. ser. ii. vol. ix. pt. ii. pp. 98-116; 1911; 

 5 plates). — The present paper gives a record and description of the 

 teratological deviations collected by Dr. J. J. Smith at Buitenzorg, 

 or which had been sent him by residents in the East Indies. Some 

 deviations in the pine-apple {Ananas safivus) are described. A branched 

 pine-apple with no less than ten crowns springing from the one 

 fruit is figured. Cocos nucifera, in which the normal pairs of male 

 flowers upon the inflorescence had been replaced by single female 

 flowers; abnormalities in Alpinia Schumanniana, in which the single 

 stamen is replaced by two, and the petal is also doubled; deviations 

 from the normal structure of several orchids (Calanthe triplicata, 

 Dendrobium cymbidioides , Vanda Hookeriana, PJialaenopsis amabilis, 

 Saccolabium micranthum, Brassia sp.) are described. 



A three-carpelled fruit of Myristica fragmns is noted. The develop- 

 ment of a small pitcher from the terminal leaflet of the trifoliate leaf 

 of Aegle Marmelos is described. 



A seed of Mangifera indica which had germinated in the fruit had 

 produced in addition to the ordinary plumule and radicle a second 

 root, also ascending and then curving sharply back like the radicle. 

 This root is not in any connexion with the axis, but arises from one 

 of the cotyledons. 



A fruit of Nephelium lappaceum with two seeds is noted. 



A case of synanthy in Hibiscus Rosa-sinensis is mentioned. 



Other instances of teratological deviations are described in Tectona 

 grandis, Justicia procumbens, and Gaillardia picta. In the last-named 

 plant the flower-head possessed foliaceous bracts from a number of 

 which branches had grown out. Some of these produced a secondary 

 flower- head as well as leaves. This recalls the well-known case of hen 

 and chickens in Bellis perennis, &c. — R. B. 



Thielavia basicola on Ginseng, Infection Experiments. By 



J. Eosenbaum {Phytopatliology, ii. pp. 191-196; figs.). — Cultures from 

 various sources of the fungus Thielavia basicola proved to be identical 

 in their morphology and infective capacity. Infection experiments 

 were carried out on seedlings of ginseng which showed the fungus to 

 be a true parasite on that plant. It proved to be capable of attacking 

 both the aerial and subterranean parts of the plant and of infecting 

 the young roots without previous injury, though the older ones were 

 infected only after injury. — F. J. C. 



Tidal Marshes and their Reclamation. By G. M. Warren 

 {U.S.A. Dep. Agr., Off. Exp, Stn., Bull. 240; Oct. 1911; 16 plates, 



VOL. XXXVIII. X X 



