Review. 
27 
individuals of a pair which fuse in the basidium. The exact point 
in the life-history at which the nuclei first become associated in pairs 
has not yet been ascertained for this group, but it is clearly there that 
one must look for evidence of a sexual process, and not to the 
reduction-process in the basidium. It is possible that the paired 
nuclei in this group may have their origin apogamously, by the 
association of the nuclei of two vegetative cells (cf. apogamy in 
ferns) or even by the association of two daughter-nuclei in one cell. 
The forms among the Uredineae in which the aecidium is absent 
and the nuclear association takes place in connection with the 
uredospores or teleutospores are probably also to be looked upon as 
cases of apogamy, but they require further investigation. The 
curious shortening of the life-history observed in Endophyllutn, in 
which the aecidiospore with paired nuclei germinates as a teleuto- 
spore and the nuclei separate later to form uninucleate sporidia, may 
clearly he compared with cases of apospory among the higher plants. 
REVIEW: 
A MONOGRAPH OF THE TAXACEAE. 
By R. PlLGER 
(Das Pflanzenreich, 18 Heft. Regni vegetabilis conpectus ; 
Edited by A. Engler). 
P 1H E group of Gymnosperms (we will not term them Coniferae) 
known as Taxaceae has always seemed to us to be one upon 
whose affinities, morphology and structure the fullest light has 
never yet been thrown, and concerning which a great deal of 
ignorance still prevails. For this latter there is no longer any 
excuse. Before us lies a work containing every possible species of 
information about each of the members composing this very peculiar 
group. It is fashioned on the lines of “Die natiirlichen Pflanzen- 
familien,” and is one of the sections of the great work “Das 
Pflanzenreich” edited by Engler. 
