324 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
of two American Composite, Erechthites hieracifolia and Bidens cernua. 
In the latter species they are entirely confined to the hypocotyl. 
Idioblasts of Camellia.* * * § — Sig. F. Cavara describes three kinds of 
idioblast in the Camellieae: — (1) Very large cells, in all the vegetative 
organs, but rarely seen in the sexual organs ; (2) cells with limited 
growth, in the primary liber of the stem and branches ; (3) sclerenchy- 
matous cells, forming the protecting layer of the testa. 
Healing of Wounds. f — Mr. S. G. Shattock points out that the mode 
of healing of incisions in plants corresponds, in general terms, with 
that by primary and secondary adhesions in animal textures. But the 
analogy with secondary adhesion is not exact, since the two surfaces 
which coalesce in plants are first healed by cork-tissue, while in animals 
they remain granulating till brought together. 
Life-History of Symplocarpus fcetidus.J — Mr. W. W. Eowlee and 
Miss M. A. Nichols describe several points in the structure of this 
plant, the skunk-cabbage, belonging to the Araceee. The embryo 
displays peculiarities in the absence of a radicle, in the marked develop- 
ment of vascular tissue in the axis, and in the conversion of the seutellum 
into a fleshy bulb filling the entire seed. The tissues of the plant con- 
tain an enormous number of raphid-sacs. The rootstock contains a 
layer of meristematic tissue separating the cortex from a central cylinder 
in which the vascular tissue is disposed, and this meristematic layer 
gives rise centrifugally to completely closed bundles and interfascicular 
tissue, centripetally to cortex. 
(4) Structure of Organs. 
Geophilous Plants. § — Prof. F. W. C. Areschoug applies the term 
geophilous plants, or geophytes , to those species which produce sub- 
terranean buds, and whose shoots are therefore, to a greater or less 
extent, developed beneath the surface of the soil. In addition to those 
plants which possess rhizomes or bulbs, it includes also the following 
four classes : — Plants (especially alpine) which preserve a perennial life 
by means of green underground stems ; by gemmae ; by a perennial base 
to the stem ; and by rosettes. A number of cases are described in detail 
in which the stem and leaves attain a very considerable degree of deve- 
lopment before they emerge above the surface of the soil, as in Anemone 
nemorosa , Orobus vernus , Corydalis nobilis, and others. 
Influence of the Mediterranean Climate on Plants. ||— Mr. W. 
Russell has studied the difference of structure between individuals of 
the same species growing in the neighbourhood of Paris and in the 
Mediterranean region, in a number of cases, and finds that the latter 
display the following characteristics : — The epidermal cells are larger 
and thicker walled ; the stomatic apparatus is more developed, especially 
on the upper surface of the leaf ; the cortex of the aerial branches is 
* Atti R. 1st. Bot. Univ. Pavia, iv. p. 27 (2 pis.). See Bot. Centralbl., 1895, 
Beih., p. 422. f Proc. Roy. Soc., lix. (1896) pp. 182-3. 
X Proc. Amer. Micr. Soc., xvii. (1896) pp. 157-60 (2 pis.). 
§ Acta Univ. Lund., xxi. (1895) 60 pp. and 28 figs. (German). 
|| Ann. Sci. Nat. (Bot.), i. (1895) pp. 323-54 (2 pis.). Cf. this Journal, 1890, 
p. 363. 
