INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1876. clxxvii 



Professor Duchartre, entitled " Observations sur les Bulbes des Lis," 

 and a " Memoire sur I'Anatomie de I'ficorce," by Julien Vesque, in 

 which the structure of the bark is considered at considerable lenerth, 

 without, however, adding much to our knowledge in the way of 

 newly discovered facts. In the Botanische Zeitung Bolle has given 

 an account of the " Terminal Growth of the Angiospermous Root- 

 cap," and Dr. Reuther an account of the " DeveloiDment of the 

 Flower." In the same journal Graf Solms - Laubach describes the 

 development of the flowers of Bi'ugmansia Zippelii, Bl., and Aristo- 

 lochia Clematitis, L. In Pringsheim's Jahrbilcher Reinke treats of 

 the organs of " Secretion of Leaves," es23ecially those found on the 



teeth. 



INSECTIVOROUS PLANTS. 



Since the appearance of Darwin's book on this subject, several 

 observers, among whom is Professor Rees, have published results 

 confirming Darwin's experiments with regard to Drosera^ and Mr. 

 Francis Darwin has published {Quarterly Journal of Microscojncal 

 Scie?ice, July, 1876) some details of the process to which his father 

 ajDplied the name of aggregation, in Drosera rotundifolia. With 

 reference to the digestive powers of Bioncea, Dr. Fraustadt has 

 made a careful study of the anatomy of its vegetative organs. The 

 attention of botanists has more esjDecially been turned of late to the 

 digestive power of the Sarracenice, or pitcher-plants, concerning 

 which an article appeared in Hai'per^s Magazine from the pen of Mrs. 

 Mary Treat. Mr. Burgess reported at a meeting of the Natural 

 History Society in Boston that he had found that the lip of the leaf 

 of Sarracenia purpurea secreted sugar. M. Casimir de CandoUe, in 

 a paper in the Geneva Archives des Sciences Physiques et Naturelles, 

 doubts whether the animal matter caught by the leaves of Bioima 

 is utilized by them. 



VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. 

 Mr. Francis Darwin read before the Linnoean Society of London a 

 pajDcr on the " Hygroscopic Mechanism by which certain Seeds are 

 enabled to bury themselves in the ground." The hygroscopic twist- 

 ing of the awn on certain seeds he considers owing to the power of 

 torsion in the individual cells. Professor Asa Gray, in the Natural- 

 ist^ gives an account of some peculiar qualities of certain Borragina- 

 ceous seeds. The "Influence of Light on the Color of Flowers" 

 has been the subject of some experiments by Askenasy, who comes 

 to the conclusion that in the majority of cases of plants grown in 

 the dark the flowers are of the normal color. In the Botanisclie 

 Zeitung Reinke has a long article on the growth of plants. In a 

 later number of that journal Sachs comj)laius that Reinke's method 

 is borrowed directly from that pursued at Wlirzburg. 



8* 



