638 , SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
that it is difficult to understand how several pollen-tubes could pass 
through it at the same time. 
The author considers, therefore, that in both male and female organs 
there are several sexual elements ; but that, in the majority of cases, 
these have, in the female organ, been reduced to one, the oosphere. In 
this view the synergidae are female sexual cells in course of abortion 
and suppression ; and polyembryony was originally the normal condition 
of things in flowering plants, the gradual substitution of a single fertile 
embryo indicating an advance in organization. 
Embryo-sac of Phanerogams.* * * § — According to Prof. C. M‘Millan the 
staining reactions of the two nuclei which fuse together in the embryo- 
sac of Angiosperms differ from one another; those of the micropylar 
nucleus indicating a male, those of the antipodal nucleus a female charac- 
ter. He regards this fusion, therefore, as a sexual act, resulting in the 
segmentation of the endosperm-tissue. The embryo-sac, wherever met 
with, is, in his view, a megaspore. 
Heredity and Reversion in Iris.f — Prof. E. Heinricher describes 
the result of a series of culture experiments, extending over eleven years, 
on the heredity of an anomalous structure in the flowers of Iris jpallida. 
The original anomaly consisted in the presence of an inner staminal 
whorl, which took the form either of abortive or well-developed 
stamens, or of staminodes, or of more or less fully developed carpids. 
With regard to the morphology of these supplemental organs, his 
observations lead him to the conclusion that they do not form a special 
whorl, but are derived from the fission of the staminal whorl, even 
where the supplementary organs take the form of carpids with fully 
developed seeds and petaloid styles. The reversion thus exhibited 
is transmitted by inheritance through the seeds. 
Self-pollination in the Apocynacese.j; — Mr. T. Meehan describes 
the structure of the showy flowers of Amsonia Tabernsemontana (Apocy- 
naceae), which are abundantly fertile, but in which the arrangement of 
the parts is such that no insect, not even a Thrips , can gain entrance to 
the nectary. The mouth of the tube is so densely matted with hair that 
if a pollen-clothed tongue were thrust through the mass, it would be 
thoroughly cleaned. Nor is there any room for an insect’s tongue to 
pass the capitate stigma. To effect pollination the anthers curve over 
and rest on the stigma. 
(2) Nutrition and Growth (including' Germination, and Movements 
of Fluids). 
Germination of Freesia refracta.§ — M. P. Duchartre describes the 
germination of the seeds of this species of Iridefe from the Cape ; 
the radicle takes no part in the development but soon perishes, 
its function being fulfilled by adventitious roots. Some of these have 
a normal structure, while others are napiform, and serve as temporary 
* Bot. Gazette, xvii. (1892) pp. 160-1. 
t Jahrb. f. Wiss. Bot. (Pringsheim) xxiv. (1892) pp. 52-144 (2 pis. and 28 figs.). 
j Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1892, pp. 162-3. 
§ Journ. Soc. d Hort. France, 1891, pp. 152-60, 215-30. See Bonnier’s Rev. 
Gen. de Bot , iv. (1892) p. 239. 
