H. BOTANY. 357 



diminutions in the quantity of pollen when these occurred 

 in the ascending scale, between May 28 and June 28 were 

 invariably due to a fall of rain, or to this and a fall in tem- 

 perature. Mr. Blackly also examined the amount of pollen 

 to be found in the higher strata of the atmosphere. This was 

 done by means of a kite, which, by being attached to other 

 kites, sometimes attained an elevation of 1 000 feet. The pollen 

 was found to be much more largely present at the upper 

 levels than at the " breathing level." Taking the average 

 of the quantities where pollen was present at both levels, 

 he found that, while the average of the ordinary level was 

 only 24 for each experiment, that for the higher levels was 

 472.33, or more than 19 times as much. After making due 

 allowance for the difference in the velocity of the air at vari- 

 ous altitudes, there still remains a great preponderance unac- 

 counted for in the amount of pollen in the upper strata. 



Mr. Blackly remarks that his experiments also afforded 

 abundant proof of the presence of fungoid spores in the air 

 in large quantities. In one experiment, which lasted four 

 hours, and in which the number of pollen grains collected at 

 an altitude of 1000 feet was 1200, the spores of a cryptogam 

 (probably Ustllago segetum) were so numerous that he could 

 not count them. At a rough estimate, they could not be less 

 than thirty to forty thousand to the square inch. A fact like 

 this makes the ubiquity of fungoid organisms a thing easy 

 to comprehend. 



That these organized contents of air travel to a consider- 

 able distance was proved by a series of experiments made in 

 the outskirts of Manchester, but within the boundary of one 

 of the most densely populated parts, and in no direction with- 

 in less than one third of a mile of grass land. The quantity 

 of pollen was only about one tenth of that collected in the 

 country. 13 A, October 1, 1873, 375. 



FUNGUS INSIDE OF FRESH EGGS. 



Professor Panceri has ascertained the existence, in an un- 

 broken egg-shell, of a large amount of cryptogamic vegeta- 

 tion, and he has satisfied himself that the unbroken shell of 

 any egg is permeable to liquids, and that these may introduce 

 germs into the interior. He has, in fact, succeeded in inocu- 

 lating other eggs with a fundus which he had obtained from 



