Royal Society. 477 



T. Vogel. — Descriptions of new and little-known Cacti. By F. A. 

 W.Miquel. — Some remarks on Cassia obovata andC. obtusata, Hayne. 

 By Prof. Wenderoth. — On the rise of sap in plants. By Fr. Kiitzing. 

 — Contributions to Meyer's Chloris Hanoverana. By Thilo Irmisch. 

 — Query concerning Epilobium denticulatum. By Prof. Wenderoth. 

 — On the Hedysarea of Brazil. By Dr. I. R. Th. Vogel. — An in- 

 vitation to botanists to support the expedition of Schimper into 

 Abyssinia. By Prof. Hochstetter and Dr. Steudel. 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



ROYAL SOCIETY. 



May 31. — A paper was read, entitled, "An Experimental Inquiry 

 into the influence of Nitrogen on the Growth of Plants." By Robert 

 Rigg, Esq. Communicated by the Rev. J. B. Reade, M.A., F.R.S., 

 &c. 



The author, after briefly alluding to a former paper laid before the 

 Royal Society, describing the chemical changes which occur during 

 the germination of seeds, and some of the decompositions of vege- 

 table matter, proceeds, in the present paper, to trace a connexion 

 between the phenomena exhibited during the growth of plants, and 

 the direct agency of nitrogen. The experiments by which the au- 

 thor supports his views are arranged in separate tables, so drawn out 

 as to indicate not only the quantities of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, 

 nitrogen, and residual matter, in about 120 different vegetable 

 substances, but also the quantity of nitrogen in each compound, 

 when compared with 1000 parts by weight of carbon in the same 

 substance. The most important of these tables are those which ex- 

 hibit the chemical constitution of the germs, cotyledons and rootlets 

 of seeds; the elements of the roots and trunks of trees, and the cha- 

 racters of the various parts of plants, especially of the leaves, at dif- 

 ferent periods of their growth. From this extensive series, which is 

 stated to form but a small portion of the experiments made by the 

 author in this department of chemical research, it appears that ni- 

 trogen and residual matter are invariably the most abundant in those 

 parts of plants which perforin the most important offices in vege- 

 table physiology ; and hence the author is disposed to infer, that 

 nitrogen (being the element which more than any other is perma- 

 nent in its character) when coupled with residual matter, is the 

 moving agent, acting under the living principle of the plant, and 

 moulding into shape the other elements. The method of ultimate 

 analysis adopted by the author, enables him, as he conceives, to de- 



