Q2 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



with almonds, thus seeming to show that with some seeds nothing 

 is to be gained by forcing them. 



Pkof. Emerson Reynolds, F. R. S., has lately shown that 

 well-marked differences in physiological activity between meta- 

 meric bodies of comparatively simple constitution can be detected 

 with aid of plants. Ammonium sulphocyanate and its metamer, 

 theocarbamide, both compounds rich in nitrogen and easily soluble 

 in water, were selected for experiments during the summer of 1882 

 upon plants of Nicotiana long/flora. From August to the end of 

 November a certain number of plants were watered with rain wa- 

 ter, and a certain number with the compounds in solution. The 

 following table shows the chief results: 



Rain-water. Theocarbamide. Sulphocyanate. 



Total height in inches 31 23 12 



No. of leaves 15 14 13 



Maximum length of lvs 9 5 15.25 8 



Maximum breadth of lvs 4.25 6 2.5 



No. seed pods 9 15 



Ditto well-developed 1 11 



It would thus seem that the particular elements of which a 

 body is composed exert less influence on its physiological activity 

 than the method in which the component atoms are grouped. 



Some New Grasses. — Muhlenbergia setifolia. — Culms 

 erect, l^to 2 ft. high; radical leaves numerous, 4 to 6 inches long, 

 setaceous, involute, recurved at the tips, those of the culm 2 or 3 

 and similar; stipules membranaceous, acute; sheaths 4 to 6 inches 

 long, smooth; panicle 4 to 5 inches long, narrow, erect, branches 

 of panicle erect, filiform, in twos or threes, about 1 inch long, once 

 or twice dividing near the base and each with 2 to 4 flowers mostly 

 on short filiform pedicels; outer glumes minute, less than one line 

 long, oblong, obtuse, scarious, erosely toothed at the apex; flowering 

 glume 2 lines long, with a short thick callus, obscurely 3-nerved, 

 smooth, lanceolate, acuminate, terminated with a slender awn 

 twice or thrice its own length; palet of same texture and nearly 

 equal length, 3-nerved. 



Collected on the Gaudalupe Mountains of Western Texas by 

 Dr. V. Havard, of the U. S. Army. 



Muhlenbergia. glomerata, var. brevifolia. — Culms li to 

 2 ft. high, erect and leafy, leaves (5-8 on each culm) rigid, short 

 and wide (2-4 inches long, 2-3 lines wide), somewhat scabrous; 

 panicle spikelike, interrupted and with longer branches below; 

 glumes and palets about equal in length (lline), glumes acumi- 

 nate, scabrous-puberulent; flowering glume acuminate and tipped 

 with an awn half its length or less,3-nerved, pubescent below; palet 

 acute, about equaling the flowering glume. 



Collected in S. E. California by Mr. S. B. Parish. 



