342 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



panying the oospores oi Peronospora. Gardener'^ s Chron- 

 icle,\s76. 



DIATOMS IN THE CUTICLE OF WHEAT STRAW. 



Articles detailing observations of Professor P. B. Wilson, 

 of Baltimore, have appeared in several scientific journals (as 

 the American Journal of Science for May, 1876), in which it 

 is stated that diatomacese, in their entire state, are absorbed 

 by the roots of plants, and make part of the silicious cuticle 

 of wheat straw ! 



This assertion has, however, been promptly met by several 

 eminent microscopists, who show that the diatoms in the 

 Richmond earth used in Professor Wilson's experiment are 

 all marine, while those figured and described by him as found 

 in wheat straw are of fresh-water forms, and probably ad- 

 hered to the straw when this was pressed to the earth of the 

 field. 



CLEANING FOKAMINIFEEA. 



Mr. C. J. Muller recommends, for the purpose of cleaning 

 foraminifera of the chalk, a mixture with four or five times 

 its bulk of well-washed silver sand ; with this, in a proper 

 vessel and suflSciency of water, the chalk-powder is to be 

 shaken, say for ten minutes, and after a few minutes' rest the 

 turbid water poured off. The operation can be repeated 

 until the water is clear. The sand acts as a gentle rasp, 

 removing most of the hard granular particles ; and the fo- 

 raminifera are finally separated by gravity from the sand. 

 Monthly Microscopical Journal^ May^ 1876. 



BATHYBIUS. 



Professor Wyville Thompson, in a letter to Mr. Huxley, 

 says that the best efforts of the staff of the Challenger have 

 failed to discover Bathybius in a fresh condition ; and Pro- 

 fessor Huxley states that it is seriously suspected that the 

 thing to which he gave this name is little more than sulphate 

 of lime precipitated in a flocculent state from the sea-water 

 by the strong alcohol. It is much more likely that what 

 Professor Huxley observed was tlie gelatinous secretion of 

 Diatomacece^vf hich is produced in immense abundance in the 

 ocean depths, and which behaves, under chemical reagents, 



