ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
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but little from the aerial ones ; they are apparently fertilised by pollen 
from the aerial male inflorescences, which must be carried by worms or 
grubs or other animals to the humus which abounds in the soil in which 
the female flowers arc imbedded. 
Abnormal Ovules of Begonia.* — M. P. Yuillemin describes a speci- 
men of Begonia erecta, in which the ovules are transformed into organs, 
the upper part of which has the colour and structure of petals, the lower 
part the essential structure of a carpel. He suggests two interpre- 
tations : — (1) that the placenta is an integral portion of the carpellary 
leaf, the leaves which have taken the place of ovules being inserted on 
other leaves ; (2) that the placenta interposed between the carpel and 
the ovule is a special formation of the flower, not possessing the definite 
characters of either axis or appendage. Either theory negatives the idea 
that there is any essential distinction between axial and appendicular 
organs, since one kind may pass into the other by insensible gradations. 
If the first explanation is the true one, the leaf may sometimes have an 
axial, sometimes an appendicular character. 
Dimorphism in the Seeds of Coffea arabica.f — Herr T. F. Hanausek 
calls attention to a variation in the structure of coffee-seeds, the embryo 
being found sometimes to the right, sometimes to the left, of the 
longitudinal furrow in the endosperm. As a rule, all the seeds in the 
same fruit belong to the same variety. It is not uncommon to find in 
the same seed two embryos and two well-developed endosperms. 
Anomalous Production of a Tendril. J — Dr. F. Noll describes a 
specimen of Tropseolum aduncum , in which one of the leaves was replaced 
by a tendril endowed with active circumnutation. In thel allied T. 
tricolorum similar tendrils are formed normally. Dr. Noll regards this 
circumstance as indisputable evidence that the formation of the 
abnormal tendril is not a phenomenon of retrogression; and that the 
tendril is derived by modification from the leaf, not the leaf from the 
tendril. 
Leaf-sheath of Casuarinese.§ — Dr. F. Morini describes what he terms 
the “ connective tissue ” intercalated between the teeth of the leaf-sheath 
of Casuarina. The leaf-sheath itself retains, in its general characters, 
the structure of the costae of the internodes. At the base of the depression 
between each pair of teeth is the connective-tissue, consisting of a 
membrane of a light green colour, traversed transversely by curved 
fibres with their convexity directed downwards. Its function is un- 
questionably that of increasing the stability of the sheath. It is in 
direct connection with the sclerenchyme of the internodes ; on each side 
of it is a band of chlorophyllous tissue provided with stomates ; two of 
these bands advance into each sheath-tooth or rudimentary leaf. 
Leaf-glands of Ipomsea.|| — Miss M. F. Ewart describes the peculiar 
glands found at the apex of the petiole, immediately beneath the lamina, 
* Bull. Soc. Bot. France, xlii. (1895) pp. 143-50. 
f Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Gesell., xiii. (1895) pp. 73-8 (1 pi.). 
% SB. Niederhein. Gesell. Nat. u. Heilkunde, Bonn, Jan. 14, 1895. See Bot. 
Centralbl., lxii. (1895) p. 315. § Malpigliia, ix. (1895) pp. 204-19 (1 pi ). 
H Ann. Bot., ix. (1895) pp. 275-88 (1 pi.). r ' 
