362 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



THE TEUE JUTE PLANT. 



There appears to be considerable confusion as to the plant 

 from which the substance so extensively used in the arts 

 under the name of jute is really derived. On investigation, 

 however, it appears that the crude jute comes from two spe- 

 cies of Corchorus^ namely, G. capularis and C. olitorhis, grown 

 principally in Bengal. Plants popularly known as jute, how- 

 ever, growing in the Madras Presidency, are the Hihisciis 

 can7iabinus and Crotalaria jimca; and their fibre is not the 

 true jute, though hitherto considered such. 12 A^ February 

 18,1876,314. 



DEVELOPMENT OF EUNGI. 



The following is condensed from an exceedingly interest- 

 ing and well -illustrated paper, by Worthington G. Smith, 

 F.L.S.,on reproduction in the mushroom tribe. The author 

 finds when a single specimen of Cojjrinus radiatus has been 

 placed on a slide with a drop of water, under a covering glass, 

 and this again under a propagating glass, that as the mill- 

 ions of fungous cells quickly disappear, so millions of infu- 

 soria just as quickly come into being; and he says, "It 

 seems almost reasonable to believe that the funi^ous cells 

 themselves become suddenly transformed, and reappear as 

 simple infusoria." A dozen semi-decayed specimens of C. ra- 

 diatus, swarming with minute infusoria, were boiled in a test- 

 tube for five minutes, and then hermetically sealed at the 

 highest point of ebullition. At the end of a month the tube 

 was opened, and a drop of its liquid contents at once placed 

 under the cover-glass of the microscope for examination. 

 Spores, cells, monads, bacteria, and vibriones were all there, 

 but the latter motionless and apparently dead. In fifteen 

 minutes, however, they show^ed signs of life, and began to 

 slightly move about ; in thirty minutes the movements were 

 decided in nearly every specimen seen, while in sixty minutes 

 the infusoria darted about with almost the same energy 

 as they did before they were boiled. As there are about 

 22,500,000 cells in one of these minute plants, requiring four- 

 teen days for their production, it follows that the cells go on 

 multiplying all the fortnight at the rate of 1114 to the min- 

 ute. In about five hours 3,000,000 spores are produced. 



