BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



229 



Prof. C. E. Bessey, in the May Naturalist, very sensibly calls the attention 

 of the Department of Agriculture to the subject of the parasitic fungi. Much 

 money has been wisely expended by the government in the investigation of 

 noxious insects, while no such provision has been made for the study of parasitic 

 fungi, from the ravages of which there is an annual loss to our crops of mil- 

 lion's 'of dollars. The rust, the smuts, and their allies ought to be thoroughly 

 studied, and the government could do no wiser thing than to supply the De- 

 partment of Agriculture with the means for carrying on such investigations. 



It seems as if we we will have to give up the old idea that the growing 

 point of phanerogams is a group of cells, as opposed to cryptogams with apical 

 cell, for Dingier announces the discovery of an apical cell in the stems of seed- 

 ling gymnosperms. And so phanerogams and cryptogams are gradually blend- 

 ing together, and paleontology and the microscope have caused to vanish our 

 once "hard and fast line." 



The Journal of Botany for April contains a list of the new genera and 

 species of phanerogams published in periodicals in Britain in 1882. The list 

 is a formidable one, containing 16 new genera and 357 species, mostly from 

 Asia, South America and Madagascar. This surely indicates wonderful ac- 

 tivity, both in the field and in the herbarium. 



The starch grains of seeds, especially of the bean and pea in which 

 they are quite large, are almost always cracked by the loss of water in drying, 

 the cracks radiating from the nucleus, because the interior layers contain pro- 

 portionally more water. That the above statements are true may be easily demon- 

 strated experimentally in the following way: Dry some fresh potato starch (which 

 previous examination has shown to be sound) over a water-bath at a temperature 

 of about 60° C. On re-examining the grains they will be found cracked ra- 

 dially. By treatment with absolute alcohol the process of cracking may be 

 watched. Scrape the surface of a fresh-cut potato and dry the scrapings on 

 blotting paper. Transfer to a slide and cover with 100 p.c. alcohol. In a few 

 minutes the Assuring will begin, the first one always transverse to the long axis 

 of the grain, or at right angles to the line of greatest contraction. 



The Royal Gardens, at Kew, England, through the wise management of 

 their officers and the liberal financial support which they receive, have become 

 the center for the botanical and horticultural interests of the British Empire. 

 The Report for 1881 shows something of the large amount of very varied and 

 useful work which was carried on in and through them during that year. The 

 Report contains reports from the Colonies and accounts of the progress of ex- 

 periments in the culture of important economical plants, such as India rubber, 

 Cinchona and Coffee. 



What have been called, by a stretching of the term, non-calcareous 

 cystoliths, have been detected by H. Molisch in the pith of Goldfussia isophylla, 

 G. glomerata and Ruellia ochroleuca. They occupy the interior of polyhedral or 

 cylindrical sclerenchymatous cells which are scattered among the parenchyma. 

 These " cystoliths " resemble the normal ones in the same plant in form, but 



