302 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
the formation of auxospores is correct. Neither in the Florideae nor 
in the Ascomycetes is there any true alternation of generations. 
In reference to the alternation of generations in the Archegoniatfe, 
Mr. N. H. Lang * discusses the two opposing theories, the antithetic 
and the homologous. 
Prof. N. Hartog *f considers the question in relation to the behaviour 
of the cells. 
Electric Current in Plants.]; — From a series of experiments made 
by Herr B. Klein, mostly on Dicotyledons, he concludes that, whenever 
the electric current passes from the stem or leaf-stalk into the mesophyll, 
the current increases in strength with a diminution, and decreases with 
an increase of the light ; the reverse being the case when the current 
is in an opposite direction. The blue-violet and red-yellow rays have 
the same effect on the current as white light. 
Epiphytes upon Epiphytes.§ — Herr E. Ule describes the adaptation 
contrivances in various species of Utricularia natives of Brazil, which 
adapt them for their habit of growth, varying from ordinary marsh- 
plants to those which grow only in the water receptacles or among the 
rosettes of leaves of other larger epiphytes, especially species of 
Bromeliaceae. 
Male Flower of Cycadeoidea.|| — Mr. G. R. Wieland describes the 
inflorescence of these fossil plants from the Mesozoic strata of the Rocky 
Mountains. They present a development far in advance of that of any 
existing Cycads, especially in the linear arrangement of the sori. This 
being an archaic character, most strongly marked in the Carboniferous 
ferns, the author considers that we have here a strong corroboration 
of the view that Ferns and Cycads are closely related to one another, 
and that the latter are descended from ancestors belonging to the 
Filicales. 
B. CRYPTOGAMIA. 
Cryptogamia Vascularia. 
Structure of Lycopodium.^f — Herr H. Bruchmann classifies the 
species of Lycopodium under five groups, according to the structure and 
mode of formation of the prothallium, viz.: — (1) Type of L. clavatum 
and annotinum; (2) Type of L. complanatum ; (3) Type of L. Selago ; 
(4) Type of L. Phlegmaria ; (5) Type of L. cernuum and inundatum ; 
the first three of which are discussed in detail. 
In the first type, the colourless saprophytic pro thallium, becoming 
green on exposure to light, has the form of a flat reversed cone with 
a very irregularly indented margin, bearing on its upper surface both 
antherids and archegones. It consists mainly of a parenchyme contain- 
ing but little protoplasm, outside of which are successively an envelope 
of reserve-material tissue, a layer of palisade-cells, and a cortex. The 
cells of the cortex and palisade-layer always contain an endotrophic 
* Tom. cit., pp. 583-92. f Tom. cit., pp. 593-4. 
X Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Ges., xvi. (1898) pp. 335-46. 
§ Tom. cit., pp. 308-14 (1 pi.). 
|| Amer. Journ. Sci. (Silliman), vii. (1899) pp. 219-26 (3 pis. and 2 figs.). 
Ueb. d. Prothallien u. d. Keimpflanzen melir. europ. Lycopodieen, Gotha, 
1898, 119 pp. and 7 pis. See Bot. Ztg., lvii. (1899) 2 te Abth., p. 6. 
