364 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
the atrophied seminiferous peduncles into an envelope of dissociated 
tubes. 
Navel of the Apophyse of the Fruit-scales of Pinus.* * * § — Dr. L. 
Celakovsky has followed the development of this structure in the sec- 
tions Pinaster and Strobus of Finns ; and finds therein a fresh argument 
against the theory of Sachs and Eichler that the fruit-scale is an excres- 
cence on the inner side of the bract, which latter organ they regard as a 
true carpel. 
Pitchered Insectivorous Plants.f — Dr. J. M. Macfarlane describes in 
detail the adaptations for insect-catching in various species of Nepenthes , 
Sarracenia , Darlingtonia , and Heliamphora. From the structure both of 
the vegetative and of the reproductive organs he considers the Sarra- 
ceniaceae and the Nepenthaceae to be much more nearly allied to one 
another than has hitherto been supposed, and proposes to unite them 
together into a single natural order which he names Ascidiace.®. The 
general morphology and histology of the flowers in the four genera are 
also described, and the arrangements for pollination. In the structure 
of the flowers, Sarracenia and Darlingtonia exhibit a very close resem- 
blance, while Heliamphora differs widely. The pitchers of Nepenthes 
are frequented by running insects, while those of the Sarraceniaceae are 
practically visited only by flying insects. In a rather small pitcher of 
N. Hoolceri as many as seventy-three cockroaches were caught within a 
fortnight. 
Dr. Macfarlane replies to the criticisms on his previous paper by 
Bower,f and to some of the conclusions of Goebel, as to the morphology 
of the pitchers in these plants. 
Vegetative Branching^ — Herr L. Koch has made a large number 
of observations on flowering plants — trees, shrubs, climbing plants, 
aquatic plants, herbaceous perennial, and annual plants — for the purpose 
of determining the following points : — Whether the vegetative shoot is 
to he regarded as a derivative from the growing point ; the relationship 
of the leaf to the shoot ; and whether there are histological differences 
between these two. 
The author confines the term growing-point to that portion of the apex 
of the shoot which still consists of embryonal tissue. Hanstein’s plerome 
is simply the pith in process of formation. The axillary shoot arises 
partly from a superficial comparatively small portion of embryonal, 
partly from a deeper already differentiated tissue. While the growing 
point of the primary axis displays a marked differentiation of the young 
internodes, this is not the case with the axillary bud. Cases occur in 
which the primary growing-point breaks up into two unequal portions. 
In other cases the branching takes place lower down in the primary axis, 
without the growing-point taking any direct share in it. Nearly all 
axillary shoots of trees and shrubs arise from masses of embryonal tissue 
which are only indirectly derived from the growing-point. 
There is a marked difference between plants with decussate and those 
* Oesterr. Bot. Zeitschr., xliii. (1893) pp. 314-6 (6 figs.). 
+ Ann. Bot., vii. (1893) pp. 403-58 (3 pis.). Cf. this Journal, 1889, p. 779. 
+ Cf. this Journal, 1890, p. 480. 
§ Jahrb. f. wiss. Bot. (Pringsheim), xxv. (1893) pp. 380-488 (8 pis.). 
