1897] NOTES AND COMMENTS 87 



latter are obligative parasites, and no culture medium has been 

 substituted at any stage for the living host plants. 



There are a number of parasites among the ' Fungi imperfeeti ' 

 which may prove to be heteroecious forms of parasitic ascomycetes, 

 and it would be well worth while to carry out further experiments 

 on the subject. 



A Bacterium Living in Alcohol 



During the last year much of the rum manufactured in Demerara 

 has been found to be 'faulty,' and, the cause having been sought for 

 in vain, great loss has resulted to the colony. Mr and Mrs Victor 

 H. Veley, of Oxford, have recently discovered a micro-organism in 

 some samples of faulty rum sent them for examination. The 

 bacterium belongs to the group Coccaceac, adopting Zopf's classifica- 

 tion, and is probably a new species. Mr and Mrs Veley have 

 already obtained several stages in the life-history, by cultivation, 

 and hope shortly to publish an account of its development and the 

 chemical changes which it produces in the liquid. The fact of any 

 micro-organisms existing and multiplying in spirit correctly assessed 

 at 42° over proof, or about 74*6 °/ o by weight, is of great interest 

 both from a scientific and technical point of view, and the investi- 

 gation is likely to prove of considerable importance. 



John Jeffrey 



In the Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington (vol. xi., 

 pp. 57-60), Mr F. V. Coville gives a sketch of the route taken by 

 John Jeffrey, " one of the most obscure " of the botanical explorers 

 who have done important work in North America. Botanists know 

 him only as the subject of the dedication of a Californian pine (Pinus 

 jejfreyi), described by Andrew Murray from material sent home by 

 Jeffrey. The brief account of his work as a traveller and collector 

 has been drawn up by Mr Coville by the aid of documents both 

 manuscript and printed, which have hitherto been almost unknown, 

 or at any rate unexamined. We know that Jeffrey was a Scotsman, and 

 that in 1850 he was sent to North America under the auspices of an 

 organisation formed in Edinburgh, with Prof. J. H. Balfour as chair- 

 man, and known as the " Oregon Botanical Association." He was 

 to go to Western North America, and collect the seeds of trees, 

 shrubs, and other plants suitable for horticultural purposes, in the 

 region traversed by David Douglas, " to complete his researches, and 

 to extend them into those parts of the country not fully explored by 

 him." Starting from York Factory on Hudson Bay in August 1850, 



