352 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT. 



tion, as among the composite zoophytes, giving to the individuals of a spe- 

 cies their characteristic expression. 



NEW VARIETY OF WHEAT. 



At one of the meetings of the French Academy, during the past year, M. 

 Guerin-Meneville produced a number of wheat-halms of more than seven 

 feet in height, each of them bearing several splendid ears. This fine spe- 

 cies of wheat derives its origin from five grains that were found in an Egyp- 

 tian tomb, and thus had for thousands of years been preserved from all 

 external influence. Sown out in 1849, they grew up luxuriantly, and yielded 

 twelve-hundred-fold produce, in consequence of which M. Drouillard made 

 various comparative experiments in Southern and Central France, as well as 

 in Brittany. In 1850, these experiments were made on a large scale, and 

 assumed a more important character. Since then they have been regularly 

 continued, and the results have been officially confirmed. One half of a 

 field was sown with the Egyptian, the other half with our common wheat; 

 the former gave sixty-fold, the second a fifteen-fold produce, while com- 

 monly a seven or eight-fold produce is considered a fair one. Sown out by 

 single grains, the Egyptian wheat yielded a five-hundred-and-fifty-six-fold 

 harvest. The experiments are now made in ahvays increasing extension, 

 and not less than 1,000 kilogrammes of " mummy-wheat" have been sown 

 this year in the arrondtssement of Morlaix. 



NORTHWARD AND SOUTHWARD RANGE OF HERBACEOUS PLANTS 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Of the 1745 phcenogamous herbaceous plants of the Flora of the Northern 

 United States, diminished to about 1690 by the exclusion of the alpine and 

 subalpine species, here left out of view 



843 species, or 50 per cent., range southward to the borders of the Gulf of 

 Mexico. 



538, or not quite 32 per cent., extend northward into the Saskatchawau 

 basin, or to Labrador. 



107 of these reach or cross the Arctic circle. 



24 species, or less than U per cent., range from the Gulf of Mexico to the 

 Arctic circle. 



180, or lOi per cent., range from the Gulf of Mexico to the Saskatchawan, 

 or Labrador. 



248 species, or over 14 2 l per cent., range from the Gulf of Mexico to the 

 Great Lakes, or the St. Lawrence. Prof. Asa Gray. 



THE WILD INDIGO PLANT OF THE SOUTHERN STATES. 



Mr. Niesler states that the common wild indigo plant of the Southern 

 United States (Indigo fera CaroUniana) is commonly used by the country 

 people in Georgia, in place of I. tinctoria, and it yields an indigo which, to 

 all appearance, is equal to the commercial article. " Just when it is begin- 

 ning to bloom, the old wives collect from the woods as much of the plant as 

 they can procure ; they steep it in water some twenty-four hours, until it 

 assumes a greenish tinge, when the liquid is drawn off and churned until it 

 assumes its proper blue color; it is then curdled by the addition of a small 

 quantity of lye from wood ashes, and allowed to settle; the sediment is then 



