ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
655 
Wool-climbers.* * * § — Herr E. Hutb enumerates a large number of plants, 
belonging to many natural orders, in which a facility for dissemination 
is afforded by the seeds or fruits being provided with stiff hairs or 
bristles, by which they become attached to the fur or wool of mammals, 
or to the plumage of birds. 
Prickles of Rosa sericea.f— M. P. Duchartre describes a remarkable 
form of prickle in this rare rose from India. In addition to the ordinary 
prickles, which resemble those of other species, and originate in quite 
the same way, there are found beneath each leaf a pair which broaden 
out into a remarkable laminated structure, not resembling anything 
known elsewhere in the vegetable kingdom. The author does not regard 
them as of a stipular character. 
Glandular Hairs of Brasenia.j — The thick coating of jelly which 
covers the surface, especially of the younger leaves, in Brasenia peltata 
(Nymphaeaceae), has been examined by Miss Ida A. Keller, and found to 
proceed from glandular hairs of the nature of colleters. They are either 
branched or unbranched, and proceed from the under surface only of the 
leaf. 
Root-tubercles of Elseagnus angustifolius.§— Herren F. Nobbe, 
E. Schmid, L. Hiltner, and E. Hotter have obtained root-tubercles on 
cultivated plants of Elseagnus by inoculation, and state that they are 
not produced by Bacterium radicicola , but by a totally different organism, 
of which pure cultivations were obtained, and of which a more complete 
description is promised later on. 
£. Physiology. 
Cl) Reproduction and Embryology. 
Process of Impregnation. || — An investigation of the processes in 
Taxus baccata leads Prof'. E. Strasburger to the same conclusions as 
BelajieffH with regard to the mode of impregnation in the Coniferae, but 
the number and period of the cell-divisions seem to vary even with nearly 
allied species. The large cells, which are first divided off from the pollen- 
cell, appear often to be subsequently resorbed. In the case of Welwitschia 
he confirms the statements of Juranyi ** on Ephedra. He asserts that in 
Gymnosperms the cell which is last of all divided off from the large cell 
of the pollen-grain is the true generative cell. In Biota and Juniper us, 
as well as in Taxus , the passage of this cell into the pollen-tube, and its 
final bipartition, were clearly followed out. In the Abietinese this division 
takes place within the pollen-grain. In Larix and Binus the number of 
chromosomes amounts to twelve. 
The author believes that the erythrophilous or cyanophilous character 
of the different nuclei depends on the conditions of nutrition. When 
* Abhandl. a. d. Gesammtgebiete d. Naturwissenschaften, iv. (1892) 24 pp. and 
63 figs. See Bot. Centralbl., 1893, Beih. p. 100. Cf. this Journal, 1888, p. 253. 
f Rev. Gen. de Bot. (Bonnier), v. (1893) pp. 5-11 (3 figs.). 
I Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1893, pp. 188-93 (1 pi.). 
§ Mittheil. Pflanzenphys. Versuchsst. Tharand. Die Landvv. Versuchsstation, xli, 
(1892) p. 138. See Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., xiii. (1893) pp. 195-6. 
|| Histologische Beitrage, iv. (1892) pp 1-158. See Bot. Centralbl., liv. (1893) 
p. 78. ^ Cf. this Journal, 1892, p. 231. ** Tom. cit., 1885, p. 484. 
