516 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
pylorus ; lienee, although the small intestine was known to possess the 
power of secreting hydrolysing enzymes, it was only necessary to examine 
the salivary and gastric juices. With saliva the results were purely nega- 
tive, and consequently the dissolving action occurred in the stomach. 
Herein it might be occasioned firstly by the churning or mechanical 
action of the stomach, secondly by the natural gastric acids acting 
directly or indirectly, thirdly by a special enzyme secreted by the 
gastric mucosa, and fourthly by the action of micro-organisms. For 
various reasons all these foregoing causes were disproved, and in the 
end the author had to fall back upon the hypothesis that the food is 
self-digested under the influence of a cellulose dissolving a cytohydro- 
lytic enzyme pre-existent in the grain before ingestion. 
y, General. 
Defoliation of the Vine.* — M. A. Muntz has investigated the effects 
of stripping the leaves from the neighbourhood of the grapes, which has 
been carried out from time immemorial in many parts of France, 
especially the Gironde. He finds it to be uniformly unfavourable, 
whether in wet or in dry seasons. The direct action of the rays of the 
sun is, he affirms, not favourable to the production of sugar in the 
grape. 
Composition of the Air contained within Seed-vessels.t — Sig. G. 
de Negri gives the following analyses of the air contained within the 
follicles of a species of Gomphocarpus (Asclepiadeae) ; — In immature 
follicles, C0 2 9*88 per cent., O 16*59 per cent., N 73*53 per cent.; in 
mature follicles, C0 2 3*48 per cent., 0 23*15 per cent., N 73*37 per 
cent. 
Absorption of Sodium Chloride by Plants. J — From the result of a 
series of experiments on cress and radish, M. P. Lesage finds that sodium 
chloride is present in large quantities in the stem and root of these 
plants when the soil is watered with a solution of the salt, and that it is 
absorbed as such by the plant. 
B. CRYPTOGAMIA. 
Cryptogamia Vascularia. 
Histology of the Sexual Cells of Cryptogams.§— Herr P. Schottliinder 
has repeated Auerbach’s experiments || on the different behaviour of the 
nuclei of the male and female reproductive cells of animals to stain- 
ing reagents, in the case of those of Gymnogramme chrysopJiylla (Filices), 
and finds similar results; the male sexual element is chiefly cyano- 
philous, the female chiefly erythrophilous. Under double staining the 
body of the antherozoid takes up a deep blue, while the cilia, the 
posterior undulating membrane, and the posterior vesicle, are coloured 
red. In the archegone the greater part of the nucleus of the oosphere 
* Comptes Rendus, cxiv. (1892) pp. 434-7. f Malpigliia, v. (1892) p. 428. 
% Comptes Rendus, cxiv. (1892) pp. 143-5. Cf. this Journal, 1891, p. 625. 
§ Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Gesell., x. (1892) pp. 27-9. 
(j Cf. this Journal, 1891, p. 714. 
