66 
A. B. Rendle . 
At the close of his collegiate career Mr. Jennings obtained an 
appointment in the Geological Department of the College and soon 
afterwards became also teacher of Biology to the Evening Classes 
at the Birkbeck Institution. Mr. Jennings proved a very able 
teacher, and into the Evening Classes he threw more energy than 
his health would permit. Nevertheless, he and his colleague in 
Botany, Mr. David Houston, F.L.S , attracted a large and 
enthusiastic body of students and they laid the foundation of the 
present school of Biology at this Institution. 
Later Mr. Jenning’s health broke down and he was obliged to 
take a voyage to New Zealand. On his return he held a post for a 
short time in the Royal College of Science, Dublin. 
Mr. Jennings was an omnivorous and untiring Collector in 
Zoology, Botany and Geology, and was the author of several original 
papers in each of these three branches of Natural Science. The 
illustrations to his papers and his drawings in the Whitechapel 
Museum show that he possessed considerable artistic ability. 
In disposition Mr. Jennings was modest and retiring and very 
kindly and generous. No student ever came to him for help and 
was refused. 
Had Mr. Jennings’ very brilliant brain been supported by 
proportionate bodily health, he would have achieved much, possibly 
as much as he was always hoping to be able to accomplish. 
For the last ten years his existence had been but a fight for 
life, and his best friends can only be thankful that this fight is now 
ended. K. M. H. 
THE ORIGIN OF THE PERIANTH IN SEED-PLANTS. 
I N the February number of the New Phytologist, Mr. Worsdell 
gives a brief resume of various facts and theories bearing on 
the origin of the perianth in Angiosperms with special reference to 
Celakovsky’s views as illustrated by the Natural Order 
Ranunculaceae. 
At the outset the writer expresses the opinion “ that fertile 
foliar organs (or sporophylls) preceded in time all other kinds of 
leaves, and that the latter have been gradually differentiated from 
the former by a process of sterilisation of their tissues.” This 
however need not imply the derivation of the perianth from 
sporophylls in the highest group of plants. The differentiation of 
foliage leaf and sporophyll was an established fact before the 
