A Neglected Branch of Botany. 
83 
examined nuclear division occurs either before cleavage, as in 
Trichia or while cleavage is progressing, as in Fuligo. 
Jahn states also that Miss Helene Kranzlin has observed that 
a fusion of nuclei in pairs occurs in the young sporangia of Trichia 
and Arcyria. Jahn himself finds a similiar fusion in endosporous 
Myxomycetes, followed by a synaptic stage. This is succeeded by 
a mitosis and then spore-formation intervenes, each spore 
containing a single nucleus which has entered upon the resting 
condition. A nuclear division occurs in each spore upon germi¬ 
nation and Jahn looks upon this as the second division of the meiotic 
phase begun immediately before spore-formation. 
If this interpretation of the nuclear phenomena in the endo¬ 
sporous Myxomycetes is true we have the extraordinary occurrence 
of a prolonged resting period between the heterotype and homotype 
divisions. 
Reduction divisions are now known to occur in many Algae 
and Fungi as well as in some Protozoa, so that the meiotic phase 
seems to be of widespread occurrence in the lower as well as in 
the higher organisms. 
F. T. B. 
A CONTRIBUTION TO A NEGLECTED BRANCH 
OF BOTANY. 
ISITORS to the Palaeobotanical Museum in the Jardin des 
Plantes, Paris, or to the Geological Museum in the 
Sorbonne may have noticed the specimens of flowers with perianth, 
stamens, and carpels from the Lower Eocene freshwater deposits 
of Sezanne. These relics of a Tertiary Flora, which are among 
the most striking examples of incrustations, have as yet been only 
partially investigated. The late Professor of Geology at the 
Sorbonne, Prof. Munier-Chalmas, a man of exceptional ability, 
devoted a considerable time to the Sezanne material, but like 
other men of genius he could rarely be induced to communicate 
his results to the scientific world. The travertine of Sezanne, 
formed by the deposition of calcareous material on the banks of a 
Tertiary river which flowed between Chalk cliffs, contains numerous 
fragments of plants which may be reconstructed as casts by 
introducing wax or plaster into the cavities originally occupied by 
the flowers and other fragments and removing the surrounding 
matrix by hydrochloric acid. The late Marquis of Saporta 1 and, 
more recently, M. Langeron 2 have made us familiar with many of 
these travertine plants, but the more complete specimens prepared 
by Munier-Chalmas are still undescribed; it is, therefore with 
considerable satisfaction that we welcome the publication of a 
paper by M. Viguier in the current number of the “ Revue Generale 
1 Saporta, M6m. soc. geol. France [2] VIII. mem. 3., 1868. 
2 Langeron, Bull. soc. d’hist. nat. d’Autun, 1899, 1900. 
3 Viguier, Rev. g£n. Bot. XX., 1908, p. 6. 
