ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
651 
y. General. 
Application of Anatomy to Classification.*— M. F. Crepin contends, 
especially as a result of his long study of the genus Rosa, that system- 
atists of the new school have neglected the phenomena of morphology, as 
an aid to those ofj histology, in determining the affinities of species. 
The systematist who bases; his conclusions on anatomy ought to bo 
associated with a morphologist, and all anatomical research should be 
preceded by a profound study of species from a morphological point of 
view. 
Organic Gradation in the Organs of Nutrition land Reproduc- 
tion.! — M. A. Chatin reviews the results at which he has arrived as to 
the relative degree of organisation of the various groups of plants de- 
rived from a study of the number and arrangement of the vascular 
bundles in the petiole. He regards also hermaphroditism, and conse- 
quently autofecundation, as a higher type of structure than the separation 
of the sexual organs and consequent cross-fertilisation. A multiplication 
of parts (corolline, staminal, or carpellary), such as occurs in the Ranun- 
culacem and Magnoliacete, and which is unknown in the highest type, 
the Corolliflorse, is evidence of retrogression towards the spiral foliar 
type. He further denies the insectivorous habit of Drosera and other 
“ carnivorous ” plants. 
Artificial Production of Alpine characters in Plants.! — From a 
series of experiments made at Fontainebleau (on Trifolium repens , Teu- 
crium Scorodonia, Senecio Jacobsea, Vicia saliva , Avena saliva, Hordeum 
vulgare), M. G. Bonnier comes to the conclusion that it is possible to 
produce artificially the special characters of Alpine plants grown in the 
open air by subjecting them to alternations of temperature comparable 
to those to which they are subject at high altitudes. Comparing plants 
of the same species, springing from the same stock, the first set kept 
continually at low temperatures (4°-9° C.), the second set subject to the 
normal variations of temperature in the environs of Paris, and the third 
set to very low night-temperatures, and to insolation during the daytime, 
the latter were found to exhibit a decrease in stature compared to the 
two former, the internodes becoming proportionally short, the leaves 
smaller, thicker, and of firmer consistency, with a more rapid production 
of flowers. 
Fructification of Macrostachys.§ — M. B. Renault has examined the 
structure of this organism, from the terrain houiller of Commentry ; and 
states that it presents an example of one of the most ancient forms of 
vegetation possessing secondary xylem which originates from a permanent 
secondary layer. The reproduction takes place by means of megaspores 
and microspores, as in many living Vascular Cryptogams. 
Ligule ofLepidostrobus.|| — Mr. A. J. Maslen describes the presence, 
in the fossil Lepidostrobus , the strobile of Lepidodendron, of a ligule, 
occupying a precisely similar place to that of Selaginella , the sporange 
intervening between it and the axis. 
* Bull. Soc. Roy. Bot. Belgique, xxxvii. (1898) pt. i. pp 7-15. 
t Bull. Soc. Bot. de France, xlv. (1898) pp. 98-108. Cf. supra , p. 613. 
I Comptes Rendus, cxxvii. (1898) pp. 307-12 (3 figs.). § Tom. cit., pp. 284-6. 
1| Ann. of Bot., xii. (1898) pp. 256-9 (1 fig.). 
