Notes. 
3i 1 
de la Belgique, t. xxvii, 1895) claims to have seen true vessels in two species of Drimys , 
viz. D. Miilleri and D. vascularis , but it may be questioned whether these forms 
ought to be included under the genus. 
An examination of the anatomical structure of Drimys Winteri and Drimys 
odorata has established the following points- 
1. Vessels (tracheae) are absent. 
2. Bordered pits with X-like apertures similar to those in Cycas and some 
Conifers are present. 
3. No longitudinal parenchymatous strands occur in the wood. 
4. The sieve-tubes have bevelled ends, bearing several plates like those found 
among Pteridophyta, and appear to be accompanied by companion cells. 
5. A broad transitional region exists in the wood of young twigs, from the 
spirally thickened protoxylem elements to the tracheides with bordered pits of 
the mature wood. 
6. Resin, or a secretion of a resinous nature, occurs in large quantities in 
the parenchyma, and drains into resin ‘ ducts ’ which are of the nature of simple 
intercellular spaces. 
7. The medullary ray cells are pitted and elongated in a vertical direction, and 
in a tangential section the rays are multiseriate in the middle, becoming uniseriate 
above and below. 
These anatomical points, among others, recall pteridospermic and gymnospermic 
peculiarities of structure. Thus the bevelled-ended sieve-tubes with lateral plates and 
the absence of vessels are characteristic of Ferns and their allies. The bordered pits 
agree in structure with those of most Conifers and Cycads, although it should be 
remembered that Marsilia also possesses tracheides with similar bordered pits. The 
absence of longitudinal strands of parenchyma in the mature wood may be a primitive 
or a reduced character, but this point can be decided only by comparison with other 
genera. 
This preliminary note is intended only to indicate the general lines on which the 
present investigation is being carried out, with the hope that Systematists interested in 
this branch of phylogeny may be induced to aid me either by sending material or by 
.gift of ‘ separata ' of their writings on the subject. 
MARGERY KNIGHT. 
Hartley Botanical Laboratory, 
University of Liverpool. 
CORRECTION. 
A. S. Marsh : The Anatomy of some Xerophilous Species of Cheilanthes and Pellaea, 
vol. xxviii, 1914, p. 627. 
lines 5 and 7, for Santa Catalina, California, read Santa Catalina Mountains, 
Arizona. 
line 6 , for California, read Colorado. 
