REVIEWS. 
129 
complete our knowledge of the up-country flora ; more especially we 
need detailed study of the life-histories of the individual plants, and a 
mapping of the vegetation into zones and societies. 
J. C. W. 
The Growth in Thickness of Palms. 
(M. Barsickow : Ueber das Sekundäre Dickenwachstum 
der Palmen in den Tropen. Verh. Phys. Med. Ges., 
Würzburg, XXXIV., 1901.) 
A continuation of the work of Eichler and of Kraus, giving detailed 
accounts, with measurements, of the growth in thickness of four 
Javanese palms. The growth is shown to be due to increase in size 
of the parenchyma cells of the wood of the vascular bundles. 
J. 0. W. 
Seed-dispersal in Thuarea sarmentosa. 
(Die Schwimmvorrichtung der Früchte von Thuarea 
sarmentosa. M. Nieuwenhuis-Uexküll ; Ann. Jard. 
Bot. Buitenzorg, Ser. 2, vol. III., p. 114, 1902.) 
Thuarea sarmentosa , a common creeping grass of tropical sandy 
beaches in the Old World, is carried from place to place by ocean 
currents (cf. vol. I., pp. 108, 146.) The flowering shoots stand 
erect, but afterwards curve over and push the fruits under the sand 
to ripen. The basal part of the spikelet is lobed, and enlarges to form 
an air-holding chamber round the fruit, so that it floats away when 
washed out of the sand. 
- J. C. W. 
Formation of Shoots in Torenia asiatica. 
(Ueber regenerative Sprossbildung auf den Blättern von Torenia 
asiatica, L.; H. Winkler, in Ber. d. Bot. Ges. XXI., 1903, p. 96.) 
This favourite border plant, the kotala-wel of the Sinhalese, is 
frequent in wet places in Ceylon. If single leaves are planted, they 
rapidly form roots, and soon shoots develop all over them, a few 
ultimately growing into new plants. 
Notes on Derris uliginosa. 
(The Anatomy of the Stem, by P. E. F. Perrédès ; The Chemistry 
of the Stem, by F. B. Power. Publications 33, 34 of the Wellcome 
Chemical Research Laboratories, London, 1902.) 
Derris uliginosa, Benth., the kala-wel of the Sinhalese, is a woody 
climber belonging to the Leguminosæ, and common near the coast of 
Ceylon, especially in the dry region. It also occurs from Africa to 
Polynesia. The roots, according to Trimen, are employed in Ceylon 
8(1)4 (17) 
