10 
* * * 
Botanical Notes. 
Volvox globator, — Mr. J, Levick maintains* that while the idea 
that the pretty little microscopic alga, Volvox glohator^ is hollow has 
passed as so self-evident as scarcely to have been challenged, * it is 
easy for microscopical students to demonstrate for themselves the 
certainty that those charming little globes are not hollow, but solid." 
" A little experiment, w^hich it is easy for every one 
to try, shows that Volvox is without any cavity whatever, and that 
the perfectly transparent contents of the globe appear to possess 
little, if any, less firmness than the pellicle or membrane which forms 
its periphery. This may be shown by taking Volvox in good quan- 
tity and straining the water from them ; by this means a little mass 
may be obtained. Let the Volvoces thus collected be taken up rather 
roughly by means of a syringe and placed in water containing car- 
mine or any fine solid matter. It will probablybe found that some 
of the Volvoces have been broken, some perhaps even into fragments 
which still display rolling motion. Now, if a little care is used in ex- 
amining the ruptured specimens, it will be seen that the carmme 
adheres to any surface thus exposed, at once displaying the fact of 
their solid consistency." * * * ." Solid \^ too strong a word, perhaps, 
to apply to matter which cannot be more than gelatinous, and is 
here used only in antagonism to the word hollow; but, if the spheres 
be stripped of their outer green covering, this envelope collapses, 
while the contents retain their spherical form, as is readily seen by 
the displacement of the carmine." 
Mr. Levick also cut sections from the frozen plant and found that 
the internal matter, whatever it was, had sufficient density to sup- 
port particles of carmine, dirt, or any other solid matter which lodged 
upon it. 
A tvingless-fruitedPtelea, — In a recent winter trip into Lower Cali- 
fornia, as far as Todos-Santos Bay, Dr. Parry discovered a new species 
of Ptelea^ which was quite similar in habit and general appearance to 
the common northern P, angnslifolia^ but remarkably distinct m 
possessing wingless fruit, thus making a slight modification of the 
characters of the genus necessary. Dr. Parry has named the plant 
P. aptera. 
Honey of Po/ifus.—Mv. A. Nes- 
bitt doubts ill the Gardeners' Chronicle the oft-repeated assertion that 
honey made from the flowers of Rhododendron Poniicum is poisonous, 
and even that the plant itself is so. He^says that he has observed 
lambs eating a small quantity of the leaves either of T. Ponticum or 
hybrids of that plant and no bad results followed. He suggests that 
it is possible that as the flower of the oleander is more like a rose 
than the rhododendron, it is probable that the former was the plant 
from which the honey was obtained that poisoned Xenophon's soldi- 
ers, the oleander being well known to be poisonous. 
The Rev. C. Wolley Dod contributes to the same journal an in- 
teresting note which throws some light upon this point. He remarks 
■^Rep, and Trans. Birm, Nat. Hist, and Micr. Soc, 1882, after Journal 
Roy. Micro. Soc, Dec, 1SS3. 
