ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
563 
flowering plants, afford a protection against too strong insolation, as well 
as a nidus for the breeding of the animals on which the trout feed. 
A new genus is described, j Ricliteriella, belonging to the Ulotrichaceie, 
nearly allied to Nordstedtia , but distinguished by the absence of the 
stellate chromatophores, and by its strongly developed gelatinous 
envelope. 
Resistance of Seeds to Immersion in Water.* — M. H. Coupin 
finds, as the result of a series of experiments, that different seeds dis- 
play very different powers of resistance to the disintegrating effects of 
long immersion in water. Some seeds display greater resisting powers 
to water which is from time to time renewed than to unchanged water ; 
with others the reverse is the case; while others again are equally 
affected by water in both conditions. One important agent in the dis- 
integration of the seeds is Bacillus amylobacter, which sets up butyric 
fermentation. 
Heat of Germinating Seeds.f — Mr. Gr. MacloSkie gives experi- 
mental reasons for believing that the rise of temperature of germinating 
seeds is not due entirely to the oxidation of carbon, but partly also to 
the heat set free by imbibition, the law which Sachs illustrates in pheno- 
mena attending the ascent of water in trees. 
Action of Anaesthetics on Vegetable and Animal Protoplasm. :f — • 
Prof. J. B. Farmer and Dr. A. D. Waller have experimented on the 
effects of various anaesthetics on Elodea and Ohara , and find it to be 
the same as on animals. The action of carbon dioxide was to produce 
an initial slight acceleration, followed speedily by a comqdete cessation 
of the movement of the protoplasm, as indicated by that of the chloro- 
phyll-bodies. Ether vapour in air passed over the plant for two minutes 
caused a speedy arrest of all movement, and the quiescent condition 
lasted for some minutes longer. The action of chlorophyll was far more 
deadly than that of ether. 
B. CRYPTOGAMXA. 
Biology of Spores.§ — From an examination of the structure of the 
spores in Lycopodiacese, Opliioglossacese, Gasteromycetes, Myxomycetes, 
and Tuber , Herr G. Liistner classifies these structures under two heads, 
dependent on the nature of the outer coat, reticulate or pitted, though 
they are connected by intermediate forms. The former — e. g. spores of 
Lycopodium clavatum and annotinum — are incapable of being wetted, 
not on account of being oily, but because of the air-chambers formed 
by the ridges on the outer surface. They can penetrate deep into the 
soil without being injured, and belong especially to such species as 
germinate underground or carry on in their early stages a saprophytic 
existence. The second class — e. g. spores of Lycopodium Phlegmaria — 
belong to species for whose germination water is necessary. The chloro- 
phyll which they contain shows that they germinate rapidly and in 
the light. 
* Comptes Rendus, exxvi. (1898) pp. 1365-8. 
f Bull. Torrey Bot. Club, xxv. (1898) pp. 272-4. 
J Proc. Roy. Soc., lxiii, (1898) pp. 213-6 (2 figs.). 
§ Jenenscr Inauguraldiss. Wiesbaden, 1898. See Bot. Ztg., lvi. (1898) 2 ta Abt., 
p. 198. 
1898 2 Q 
