The London Botanical Society. 
i 20 
and after the hypothetical fusion, double that number, or about eighty. 
The great interest and importance of these results, which go to establish 
that in the case investigated, so-called “apogamy ” is associated with a 
nuclear fusion having the cytological features of a sexual union, 
need no pointing out. Professor Farmer hopes to clear up the 
cytological processes connected with apospory in a similar manner. 
Mr. VV. 0. Worsdell gave an account of his observations on the 
vascular system in Compositae and Umbelliferae, in which he believes 
he has obtained evidence that the characteristic bundle ring of the 
stem of Dicotyledons is derived phylogenetically from the scattered 
arrangement found in most Monocotyledons. Mr. Worsdell con¬ 
siders that the peduncle is more likely than the seedling to present 
ancestial features in the arrangement of the vascular system. This 
opinion drew a protest from Miss Ethel Sargant, who pointed out that 
there was still a very wide divergence in the ‘‘canons of criticism” 
employed by different investigators of the morphology of the vascular 
system. It is certainly true that the whole subject is still in its 
infancy, and that a great deal more work has yet to be done before 
general agreement can be reached as to what is of value in 
attempting to trace the evolutionary histories of form in the structure 
of Angiosperms. The a priori method is at present quite illegitimate 
—we know far too little of the facts. In the case of Ferns the 
problems are decidedly simpler, and we are now within reach of a 
fairly clear and comprehensive general theory. 
AIadley, Printer, Whitfield Street, W. 
