Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 34 (1896).djvu/311

 PROFESSOR BABINGTON ON RUBUS IN 1891. 285 la7idii an alga that resembles our plantlet very much. The onty specimen, however, that I have been able to study is barren, and of more robust growth than the South African species; it also lacks its base and root I cannot make out whether it has any creeping branches or a layer of hair-like cortical cells at its base ; but the anatomical structure is so exactly alike that, were it not for the enormous distance that separates South Africa from California, the habitat of Tanioma Clevelandii Farl., I should feel inclined to sink this species into Sarcomenia miniata. For prudence sake, and for lack of the cystocarps, I abstain from doing this now. I hope to receive more Sarcomenia material, and may perhaps return to the question of its systematic position at some later time. Explanation of Plate 359. Fig. 1. Diagrammatic figure of the upper part of a stem of Sarcomenia miniata : 1. 1. lateral tube; c. c. cortical cells. 2. Cross-section through a vege- tative branch: 1. 1. lateral tube; c. c. cortical cells. 3. Branched stichidia with two rows of tetrasporangia, 4. Diagrammatic figure of a part of a stichidium with one sporangium bearing tetraspores and two empty ones ; the cortical cells, after dividing themselves, push forth to the empty tetrasporangium, and consti- tute an entire layer of new cells : c. c. cortical cells ; e. s. empty sporangia ; s. c. stalk cell. 5. Cross-section of stichidia : c. c. cortical cells ; 1. 1. half of the lateral tube after the first vertical division (the stalk cell is of course invisible in this section) ; s. sporangium. 6. Antheridium. 7. Tangential section of an anthe- ridium, showing the empty mother-cell of the articulated filaments and the stalk cell at the base of each large empty cell ; drawn with camera lucida, Oc. 1, Obj. E, Zeiss. 9. A single articulated filament ; Oc. 1, Obj. F, Zeiss. 10. Ripe cystocarp of medium size. PROFESSOR BABINGTON ON RUBUS IN 1891. [Professor Babington, some years before his death, had nearly completed a work which he hoped to publish as a ''Revision of British Rubi." Ill health unfortunately prevented him from finishing it ; and so much additional light has been thrown on the subject since he was last able to deal with it (/. e. in 1890 or 1891), in consequence of Dr. Focke's visits to this country and the increased activity of British students of the genus, that very much of what he left in MS. is now necessarily out of date. To so great an extent, indeed, is this the case, that I believe no British batologist who read it through could desire the publication of the work as it has been left. I have ventured, however, to recommend the printing of the completed introduction, as well for its own intrinsic value as on account of the position the Professor so long occupied as our greatest authority and most patient teacher and guide in our study of these puzzling plants. No British botanist who realizes even partially the invaluable work done by him throughout the course of his long professorial career can, I think, fail to be both interested and instructed by this fragment of his last work for us. With Mrs. Babington's permission, I have also