ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY 3 MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
653 
ferment, but may take place spontaneously through the action of the 
receptacle itself. This is true not only of cotyledons and endosperms, 
but also of bulb-scales, rhizomes, roots, and stems. In the endosperm of 
the maize the disappearance begins in the cells which are adjacent to the 
scutellum. In the rhizome of Budbeclcia digitata the inulin disappears 
first, then the starch. 
Penetration of Diastase into Starch-Grains.* * * § — From experiments 
made chiefly on starch-grains from the rhizome of Canna , Dr. J. Griiss 
contests the statement of Meyer that diastase or any other insoluble 
substance can penetrate into the interior of starch-grains. The destruc- 
tive action appears to be exclusively a superficial one. 
Swelling of Starch.j — According to Herr E. Rodewald, the average 
pressure to which the water is subject that enters into the composition 
of starch-grains, is 2137 atmospheres. 
y. General. 
Ar chi types. J — Prof. J. Sachs proposes to apply the term architype 
to a series of forms ascending from the simplest to the most complicated, 
displaying a common type of structure, and manifestly connected with one 
another phylogenetically. Such a series he finds in the Archegoniatae, 
to which belong the Coleochasteoe, and possibly also the (Edogoniaceae as 
their lowest members, and ending in the Cycadeae and Coniferae as their 
highest forms. With this architype are connected the Monocotyledons 
and Dicotyledons as lateral branches. No genus or family of an archi- 
type is directly connected genetically with any genus or family belonging 
to another architype. Neither the Algae nor the Fungi are architypes 
in this sense. The following groups are probably architypes : — (1) The 
Cyanophyceae (including the Schizomycetes) ; (2) the Phaeophyceae ; 
(3) the Rhodophyceae, including the Florideae, from which are probably 
descended the Ascomycetes; (4) the Conjugatae, including the Diatoms* 
(5) the Siphoneae, from which the Phycomycetes have sprung. The 
genetic position of the Basidiomycetes, Uredineae, Ustilagineae, Chytri- 
diaceae, and Myxomycetes is obscure. 
Fossil Gymnospenns of the Wealden.§— The second part of Mr. 
A. C. Seward’s ‘Fossil Plants of the Wealden’ consists of an enumera- 
tion of the Cycadeae and Coniferae in the British Museum, chiefly from 
the Rufford collection. The author considers that the evidence of 
palaeobotany favours the inclusion of the Wealden rocks in the Jurassic 
series, there being but very little essential difference between the plant- 
life of the two periods. He points out the unsatisfactory nature of many 
of the characters which have hitherto been used in distinguishing the 
genera of Cycadeae, which are very numerous in the Wealden. Two 
new genera are established. With ami a and Becklesia. 
* Beit. z. wiss. Bot. (Fiinfstuck), i. (1896) pp. 295-315 (1 pi.). Cf. this Journal, 
ante, p. 80. 
t ‘ Unters. lib. d. Quellung d. Starke,’ Kiel, 1896, 87 pp. See Bot. Centralbl., 
lxvii. (1896) p. 283. J Flora, lxxxii. (1896) pp. 173-223. 
§ Cat. of the Mesozoic Pis. in the Dptmt. of Geology, Brit. Mus. : — The Wealden 
Flora, pt. ii., London, 1895, 259 pp., 20 pis. and 9 figs. 
