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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



"How to Use our Eyes and How to 

 Preserve them "—by John Browning, F.R.A.S. 

 .(London : Chatto & Windus.) This is a shilling 

 brochure, written by perhaps the best scientific 

 optician of the day, and illustrated by thirty-seven 

 woodcuts. We sincerely commend its perusal to 

 those of our readers who are in search of spectacles, 

 and strongly advise them to study it before buying a 

 pair, inasmuch as the preservation of good eyesight 

 may depend upon it. 



Principal Dawson and Evolution.— This 

 well-known geologist has long been a bitter 

 opponent of Evolution. His latest declaration is that 

 "this evolutionist doctrine is one of the strangest 

 phenomena of humanity!" Dr. Dawson reminds 

 us of the Irish juryman who declared of his fellows 

 that " eleven more obstinate men he never met in all 

 his life ! " 



Essex and Chelmsford Museum.— The Council 

 of this institution are doing their best to make it 

 attractive by a series of public lectures. Among 

 those for the present session are one by Dr. J. E. 

 Taylor, F.L.S., editor of Science Gossip, on " Coral 

 Animals and the work they do," and by the Rev. 

 S. T. Gibson, B.D., on "The further development 

 of Solar Science." 



The Hertfordshire Natural History 

 Society.— The Transactions of this Society for 

 August and October, contain the following papers :— 

 Partv. vol. ii. — " Report of the Council of field meet- 

 ings," &c. Part vi. vol. ii.— " Windsor Forest and 

 its Famous Trees," by the Rev. Canon Gee, D.D. 

 "Meteorological Observations taken at Wansford 

 House, Watford, during 18S2," by John Hopkinson 

 F.L.S. &c. (hon. sec); "Notes on Birds observed 

 in Hertfordshire during 1882," by John E.'jLittleboy ; 

 "Notes on the Re-introduction of the Beaver into 

 Britain," by A. Hawks ; " Some Experiments on the 

 Physics and Chemistry of the sap of Plants," by 

 Professor Attfield, Ph.D., &c. 



The Lambeth Field Club.— The Twelfth 



Annual Soiree and Exhibition of the Lambeth Field 



Club and Scientific Society will take place on Monday, 



7th January, 1S84, at St. Philip's School-rooms, 



Kennington Road, S.E. 



Hemel Hempstead Natural History 

 Society.— The following lectures, arranged for by 

 the Council of the Society, have recently been 

 delivered to large audiences in (he Town Hall. 

 "On British Birds," by J. E. Harting, F.L.S. &c, 

 editor of the "Zoologist," and on "The Origin of 

 Landscape Scenery " (illustrated by the oxy-hydrogen 

 lantern), by Dr. J. E. Taylor, Editor of SciENCE- 

 Gossip. 



BOTANY. 



Protoplasmic Continuity in the Floride^e. 

 —In a paper on this subject read before the Bio- 

 logical Section of the British Association at its 

 Southport meeting, Mr. Thomas Hick, B.A., B.Sc, 

 brought forward a number of facts respecting the 

 protoplasmic structures of the Floridere, which are 

 likely to have an important bearing upon some recent 

 biological speculations. As every botanist knows, 

 the tissues of plants are built up entirely of cells and 

 cell modifications, and the life of the plant is, so to 

 speak, the sum total of the life of the protoplasmic 

 substances contained within the cells. Hitherto it 

 has been the prevalent opinion that the living matter 

 of each cell was more or less independent of that of 

 other cells, each separate portion exhibiting its 

 special vitality, and taking its own course of develop- 

 ment, except so far as the influence of the environment 

 prevented it doing so. From the paper referred to, 

 it would seem that in the Floridece this view can be 

 no longer maintained, inasmuch as the protoplasmic 

 structures of these plants are all inter-connected. A 

 large number of specific forms belonging to the more 

 important genera have been examined by the author, 

 who has found, in every case, protoplasmic threads 

 connecting the contents of contiguous cells. This he 

 found to obtain, not merely in certain parts of the 

 plants, but throughout the whole frond from the 

 point of attachment to the tips of the ultimate 

 branches. The protoplasmic structures are therefore 

 continuous, and instead of the cells being independent 

 of one another, they are united by living bonds in 

 the closest possible manner. The protoplasmic 

 connecting threads retain the power of growth and 

 of giving rise to differentiated structures, just like 



ordinaryVotoplasm, so that in the older P artS ° f the 

 fronds they are stouter and less homogeneous than in 

 the younger. It would seem, therefore, that in the 

 Florides, each plant constitutes a single organism, 

 whose several parts are organically united together, 

 and are consequently capable of acting and re-acting 

 upon one another. This is found to be the case both 

 with the simple filamentous species and those which 

 become more or less densely corticated. Should 

 similar connections be demonstrated to exist generally 

 in the higher plants— as has already been done in 

 certain special tissues of some of them— we shall be 

 in a position to give a rational and sufficient explana- 

 tion of several difficulties which have hitherto sorely 

 puzzled the vegetable physiologist. At any rate, 

 there will be no difficulty in explaining the trans- 

 ference of certain crude and elaborated food materials, 

 and the remarkable transmission of motor and other 

 impulses which have long been known to occur in 

 certain plants. 



Fasciated Stems.— These are explained by Dr. 

 Maxwell Masters to be called after fascia, a ribbon, 



