408 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
Anatomical Peculiarities of Oily Seeds.* * * § — In liis examination of 
oily seeds from the French colonies, M. E. Heckel finds, in Pongramia 
glabra (LeguminosaB), in the cotyledons, plumule, and hypocotyl, secreting 
pockets for the storing up of a fatty oil, readily distinguished by their 
d< ep yellow colour. In the oily endosperm of several species belonging 
to the Myristicaceae and Bixaceae he also records the occurrence of cells 
with reticulated bands, comparable to those existing in anthers and in 
the thallus of Marchantia. The bands form a complete network, more or 
less anastomosing, and completely surrounding the cell. 
Law of Phyliotaxis.j — Herr L. Kny has succeeded, ly removing 
most of the buds from a shoot of the hazel, in changing the biserial into 
a spiral phyllotaxis. A transition from the dorsiventral to the radiar 
structure, with a corresponding change in the phyllotaxis, was also 
observed on uninjured shoots. He concludes that the change in phyllo- 
taxis, in the size and form of the leaf-primordia, and in the size of the 
apex of the shoot, must all be ascribed to the same internal causes. 
Peltate Leaves.* — M. C. de Candolle enumerates 467 species of 
plants (which he believes to be a nearly complete list) in which the 
leaves come under the general denomination of peltate, including the 
funnel-shaped and ascidiform leaves of the Sarraceniacese and Nepen- 
thaceae. Of these only 42 have a true central peltation. These include 
18 with opposite, none with verticillate leaves ; in all the rest the 
arrangement is “ alternate.” Two species of Thalictrum have peltate 
leaflets. The peltate position of the leafstalk is not nearly so common 
as might be supposed from the internal structure of the leaf. 
Tubercles of the TJvulariese.§ — M. C. Queva has studied the de- 
velopment of the tubercles in the Uvularieae (Liliacese with a rhizome 
or tuberous root-stock), especially in the case of Gloriosa. The embryo 
shows no trace of thickening. Neither in the axil of the cotyledon nor 
in that of the first foliage-leaf is there a bud. The first two leaves have 
very long leaf-sheaths. The hypocotyl and the first two stem-internodes 
are very short ; the third is much longer. When five leaves have been 
produced, the base of the third internode swells, and buds are found in 
the axils of the second and third leaves ; but the bud of the third leaf 
does not stand in the axil itself, but at the base of a canal which pene- 
trates the whole of the third internode. The other leaves have no 
axillary buds. At the base of the third internode there then appear two 
swellings, which elongate and sink into the soil ; these bear at their 
apices the leaf-buds of tfhe second and third leaves, and thus the tuber is 
formed. 
Comparative Anatomy of the Gentianaceae.|| — M. E. Perrot enters, 
in great detail, into the distinguishing characteristics of the various 
genera of Gentianaceae, which he divides into two sub-orders, the Gen- 
tianoideae and the Menyanthoideae, consisting respectively of terrestrial 
* Uomptes Rendus, cxxviii. (1899) pp. 945-7. 
t Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Ges., xvi. (1898), Gen.-Vers.-Heft, p. 60. See Bot. Cen- 
tralbl., lxxvii. (1899) p. 342. f Arch. Sci. Phys. et Nat., 1899, pp. 279-80. 
§ Ass. fran<p p. l’avaucement d. sci., Congres, 1897. See Bot. Ceutralbl., lxxvii. 
(18 J9) p. 31. 
