SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
85 
considerable progress during the year 1871, is yet unfinished. Two mono- 
graphs were issued — those on Menispermacece and Berberidacece with 73 
illustrations, and on Nymphceacece with 34 illustrations. M. Baillon follows 
our chief English botanists in referring the Lardizabalece to the Berberidacece. 
Some other peculiarities are of importance. The author does not seem to have 
noticed the fact pointed out in “ Silliman’s American Journal,” that Podo- 
phyllum occasionally exhibits more than one carpel, and he signifies a doubt 
whether the pulpy investment of the seeds is an arillus. There are some 
other peculiarities in the work which are worthy of notice by the English 
botanist, more especially as Lovell Peeve and Co. publish an English edi- 
tion of it. 
The Arrangement and Morphology of the Leaves of Baptisia perfoliata . — 
A paper on this subject has been read by Prof. Gray for Mr. Eavenel at the 
last meeting of the American Association. It had been hastily supposed by 
Prof. Gray that the leaves were five-ranked, and became one-ranked by a 
continuous torsion of the stem. Mr. Eavenel points out that the phyllotaxis 
of the plant in question is really of the two-ranked order, which inspection 
of the growing shoots makes abundantly clear, and that they become one- 
ranked by the alternate twisting of the successive internodes right and left, 
i. e., one twists to the right, the next as much to the left, the next in the 
opposite direction, and so on, thus bringing the leaves into a vertical posi- 
tion all on one side of the horizontal branch. It occurred to Mr. Eavenel 
that this vertical position of the leaves was correlated with the remarkable 
alternate torsion of the axis, namely, that the leaves on the reclining 
branches were adjusting themselves so as to present their two faces as 
equally as possible to the light, as is done by those of the compass plant in 
a different way ; and that it was therefore probable that the stomata would 
be found to be as numerous on the upper face of the leaf as on the lower. 
A microscopical examination proved the correctness of Mr. Eavenel’s con- 
jecture \ the stomata are about equally numerous on the two faces. Whether 
the leaves take a vertical position because the stomata occupy both surfaces, 
or whether the stomata are so distributed because the leaves stand edgewise 
to the zenith, is a question. The fact is that the two are thus correlated, 
and such correlation is ordinarily essential to the well-being of the plant. 
It may be remarked, however, that the stomata do not manifestly appear 
until the leaf is pretty well developed. Also that this distribution of the 
stomata is peculiar to the species in question. — Stillman's American Journal 
of Science , October. 
The Sun-dew ( JDrosera ) as a Fly-catcher. — A lady, Mrs. Treat, writes of 
the properties of this plant as follows. She says, “For several summers I 
have taken Drosera rotundifolia , I). longifolia, and I). Jilifolia from their 
moist beds, and placed them in sand and water in such a way that they 
made most charming window-plants. What I take for D. longifolia has 
spatulate, oblong, reddish leaves, and long erect reddish petioles covered with 
glands like those of the leaf. This species I find a much more effective 
fly-trap than _D. rotundifolia, the name of the plant in my window this 
summer : almost every leaf held a common housefly prisoner until it died, 
and it did not take the leaf very long to fold amply round its victim. My 
husband was terribly shocked, and thought it the most cruel thing he ever 
