Notes. 
91 
restricted to the periplasm. A fertilizing tube is now put out from 
the antheridium, into which passes a single nucleus derived from the 
division into two of one of the original antheridial nuclei, together 
with a small quantity of very deeply stained, finely granular proto- 
plasm. The fertilizing tube penetrates deeply into the oosphere until 
it comes quite close to the female nucleus. The male nucleus is then 
expelled, and the fertilizing tube is gradually withdrawn from the 
oosphere, on which it then comes to lie obliquely. A delicate cell- 
membrane is produced around the oosphere, separating it from the 
periplasm. The male and female nuclei then fuse together in the 
centre of the deeply-stained protoplasm to produce the nucleus of the 
oospore. This nucleus then undergoes division into two, four, eight, 
sixteen, and thirty-two, and at the same time the thick endospore is 
produced on the inside of the primary membrane of the oosphere from 
the protoplasm of the oospore, the exosporial layers being formed at 
the same time from the periplasm and the degenerating periplasmic 
nuclei. 
HAROLD WAGER. 
Chapel Allerton, Leeds. 
PRELIMINARY NOTE ON THE RELATION BETWEEN 
CALCIUM AND THE CONDUCTION OF CARBOHYDRATES 
IN PLANTS. — In 1875 Boehm (1) came to the conclusion that one 
of the functions of calcium is to aid in the conduction of carbo- 
hydrates in plants. 
In his two papers A. F. W. Schimper (2) (3) added considerably to 
our knowledge of the role of calcium. In his first paper he subscribed 
to Boehm’s views to a certain extent. In his second paper he demon- 
strated that in plants which normally contain crystals of calcic oxalate, 
oxalic acid is a bye-product of the synthesis of proteids, and that in 
the absence of calcium there is an abnormal accumulation of acid 
potassic oxalate in leaves and buds. He showed farther that this 
soluble oxalate acts as a poison. He therefore concluded that the 
use of calcium is to neutralize this poisonous salt. Schimper also 
proved that sugar can travel in leaves containing no appreciable 
amount of calcium ; that carbohydrates sometimes travel from the 
seeds up the stem of the seedling without any corresponding emigra- 
tion of calcium. Finally, he pointed out that in plants cultivated 
without calcium, though the terminal bud might be dying, yet at the 
