362 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



India. On the other hand, the C officinalis is less valuable 

 than the Indian product. Am. Jour. Pharmacy^ December^ 



18'72, 548. 



EXHALATION OF MOISTUEE BY PLANTS. 



Dr. Deitrich, the superintendent of the experimental sta- 

 tion near Cassel, communicates the following results of ex- 

 periments to determine the amount of moisture exhaled by- 

 plants : First, for the same species of plant, the amount of 

 vegetable matter produced is in direct proportion to the 

 amount of water given off; second, the amount of nutritive 

 matter taken up is also related to the amount of water ex- 

 haled; third, the amount of moisture exlialed varies with 

 different species of plants. According to the amounts ex- 

 haled, the experiment establishes the following order : buck- 

 wheat, clover; then lupines, beans, and oats, equal; summer 

 rye and wheat, equal ; and, last, barley. 28 (7, January^ 

 1873, 39. 



FERTILIZATION OF YUCCA. 



According to Professor C. Riley, a species of yucca depends 

 for its fertilization entirely upon the action of a small moth 

 of very peculiar construction, called by him Pronuba yucca- 

 sella^ this adding another to the many cases of mutual de- 

 pendence between the plant and the animal. The larvae of 

 the moth, in their turn, live upon the plant by devouring its 

 seeds. There is a curious adaptation of means to an end in 

 the modification of the parts of the female moth, especially 

 of the maxillary palpi, which are formed into prehensile ten- 

 tacles, by which she collects the pollen to insert it into the 

 stigmatic tube. 5 -D, December, 1872, 766. 



EDIBILITY OF THE EOOTS OF THE WILD RICE. 



Professor Gray, in the American Journal of Science, calls 

 attention to an article by Dr. Hance upon a Chinese culinary 

 vegetable named Kan-sun, the shoots of which constitute 

 one of the finest vegetables known, being, when boiled, much 

 like green corn, but of a peculiar, rich delicacy. These shoots 

 come from a plant very closely allied to, or perhaps even 

 identical with, our American wild rice {Ilydropyrum latifo- 

 Imn^Zyzania aquatica), and it is suggested that the wild 



