89 
water, as may be seen by withdrawing them.. The reflection, then, 
is from the surface of water next the leaf. The brilliancy of dew- 
drops is owing to a like cause. The experiment is a pleasing one. 
our explanation is defective, we should be glad to have the de- 
ficiencies supplied. 
69, Hypericum Canadense, L., var. major, Gray.—On wet hill-sides in 
the Town of Windham, Green Co., N. Y., grows a very marked form 
of this plant, the leaves being frequently 44 lines in width. The 
typical form does not occur in that vicinity, though found near the 
ountain House. Carum Carui, L., grows spontaneously along the 
roadside in East Windham. | 
10. Publications received —1. Grevillea, No. 1, with a colored plate, 
gives much space to American Cryptogams ; to the publication here 
of most of them we have already referred. A new contribution is 
Pezixe Americane, by M. ©. Cooke and C. H. Peck. 
2. Archives of Science, No. 5, McIndoe’s Falls, Vt., contains the com- 
mencement of a catalogue of Vermont plants, Ranunculacee to Fuma- 
“acee. The most curious item, however, belongs to New Hampshire: 
Clematis Viorna, “found abundantly just across the Connecticut river 
om Brattleboro’, on Wantasetiquet Mountain, on a sheltered 
Southern slope, by C. CO. Frost.” Another article, Botanical Notes, by 
Prof. Ed. T. Nelson, of the Ohio Wesleyan University, on Mistletoe 
and Trillium, is of interest to botanists. 
3. Circular of a New Botanical Check List. ‘Tt will include the 
henogamous and Acrogenous plants of that portion of North 
America... embraced in Gray’s Manual and Canada.” Address, 
A.H. Curtiss, Liberty, Bedford Co., Va. 
4. The Article “On the Cause of the Deterioration in some of our 
Native Grape- Vines,” by C. V. Riley, in the September No. of the 
American Naturalist, contains Dr. Engelmann’s elaboration of the 
“ Grape- Vines of the Old United States.” In the August No. is a 
notice of a wild double-flowered state of Saxifraga Virginiensis, Mchx. 
ae oat a specimen gathered in Greenburgh, Westchester Co., N.Y., 
m 1858. 
5. Nature, July 11, 1872 (No. 141, Vol. 6), contains the memorial 
of Lyell, Darwin, Bentham, and other eminent scientific men, to 
Mr. Gladstone, in reference to the disgraceful interference of a Mr. 
Ayrton with Dr. Joseph Hooker. This Ayrton happens to hold the 
office of First Commissioner of the Board of Works, and treats his 
official subordinate Dr. Hooker in a way that threatens to drive him 
from his‘most useful position. Mr. Ayrton, in his self-conceit, seems ~ 
not to be aware that England would be in a sad state of decay if she 
had not many men better qualified for his office than he is, 
but if Dr. Hooker should be displaced, there could not be 
found another to fill the vacancy. “ Nature” is constantly press- 
ing the union of State and Science, but such experiences as that of 
Dr. Hooker in England and Mr. Parry in this country are not en- 
. 
couraging. 
