352 AJiNU'AL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



hours, when the seeds are taken out, and sown in the usual manner ; of 

 course, placed in a suitable temperature as the seeds may require. Another 

 way is to take a woollen cloth, and wet it with oxalic acid, on which the 

 seeds are placed and folded up, and put into a suitably heated structure. By 

 this method, seeds have been found to vegetate equally as well as in the 

 bottle. Essential care must be taken to remove the seeds out of the acid as 

 soon as vegetation is observable. M. Otto found, that by this means seeds 

 that were from twenty to forty years old grew ; while the same kinds, sown 

 in the usual manner, did not grow at all. 



ON THE STUDY OF THE FUNGI. 



Mr. C. L. Andrews, in a recent communication with the Boston Soc. Nat. 

 Hist., remarked, that Mycology (the study of fungi), although beset with 

 serious difficulties, and requiring patient and persevering labor, offers an 

 immense and exceedingly interesting field of study. A series of years would 

 be requisite to complete a catalogue of those found within the borders of the 

 United States. Fries, the well known author of a work on Fungi, mentions 

 having found two thousand species comprised within the limits of a square 

 furlong. Their universality is very remarkable, and we find but few 

 substances in nature exempted from their inroads. Every tribe of plants 

 possesses peculiar and characteristic species on the stem or leaf. They are 

 found upon bottles, cloth, thread, opium, roasted meats, dead flies, pigs' 

 bristles, old stockings, and in other equally curious situations. Our furniture, 

 clothing, fuel, books, food, in short almost every object forms a congenial 

 habitat for some species or other of these vegetable growths. 



ON THE PRODUCE AND COMPOSITION OF WHEAT. 



At a recent meeting of the British Association, Dr. Gilbert read a paper 

 containing the results of a large number of experiments made by him and 

 Mr. Lawes, during a period of several years, upon wheat grown in England 

 as well as abroad. Dr. Gilbert subjected the various coarse and fine varieties 

 of flour to analysis, and showed that the nitrogen increased in proportion as 

 the sample was coarser and contained more bran. The flour that contained 

 least nitrogen was that which took up least water in the process of bread 

 making, and an interesting question arose as to the nutritive value of bread 

 containing much or no bran; Dr. Gilbert's opinion being in favor of the 

 latter, as far as working men are concerned, notwithstanding the theoretically 

 higher value of bread containing bran. Another interesting fact stated by 

 Dr. Gilbert was, that the Black Sea wheat in Europe and the Southern States 

 wheat in America were far richer in gluten than those from more northern 

 latitudes, those from Dantzic containing least gluten, whilst they stood highest 

 among bread making grain. The character of the gluten seemed dependent 

 in some degree on its oily constituent, and therefore the quality of the bread 

 depends on the maturation of the seed. Dr. R. D. Thompson remarked, that 

 the value of bread might depend on the state of hydration of the starch and 

 gluten ; but was doubtful as to the value assigned to the nutritious qualities 

 of starch, as the French chemists proved that the starch was often left undi- 



