BOTANY. 523 



account of his Observations on the Distribution of the Inten- 

 sity of Grow tli in Plants. He adopts a method of research 

 somewhat similar to that employed by Naegeli, and illus- 

 trates it principally by the phenomena which are observed 

 in Nitella flex His. 



The coloring matters of plants have been studied by Holl- 

 stein,who has published Observations of the Destination of 

 Anthoxanthin Grains in certain Plants ; by Dippel, in the 

 Constituents of Chlorophyll ; and by Nebelung, in Spectro- 

 scopic Observations of the Coloring Matter of some Fresh- 

 water Algaa. 



The Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science contains 

 an article by F. Darwin on the Contractile Filaments of Ama- 

 nita muscaria and Dipsacus sylvestris. The presence of such 

 filaments in plants so different botanically as Amanita and 

 Dipsacus would lead one to suppose that further search 

 would show them to occur in many other plants. Mr. Dar- 

 win thinks that the occurrence of protoplasmic filaments in 

 Amanita does not support the theory previously advanced by 

 him that the filaments in Dipsacus act as absorbing agents. 



Roes, who has been aided by a couple of assistants, pub- 

 lishes his Observations with regard to the Insectivorous Pow- 

 ers of Drosera longifolia. The observations are merely in 

 confirmation of those previously published by Darwin. 



In the Bibliotheqne Wniverselle, of Geneva, De Candolle has 

 an article on the Existence of Physiological Races in Species 

 of Plants. He gives the results of his experiments in sowing- 

 seeds of the same species, which had been collected at Edin- 

 burgh, Moscow, Montpellier, and Palermo, and states that 

 they in the main agree with the results obtained by Naudin 

 and Radlkofer, previously referred to in the Record. 



In the Archives of Physical and Natural Sciences of Ge- 

 neva is a paper, by M.Alphonse de Candolle, entitled Feuil- 

 laison, Defeuillaison, Effeuillaison. By the first-named term 

 the writer denotes vernation proper; by the second, the nat- 

 ural fall of the leaf; by the third, its removal by unnatural 

 causes. He concludes from numerous observations that on 

 comparing different species one cannot discover any direct or 

 regular connection between the period of putting forth the 

 leaves and that of the fall of the leaves. In different individ- 

 uals of the same species it sometimes happens that those, as 



