BOTANY. 563 



and unfennentable saccharine substances, F. Laxdoli'u {Covipt. llend., 123 {1S96), 

 Xo. ..'C, pp. 1301, 1302). 



Analyses of ores and minerals, ^I. B. Haudix (South Carolina Sia. Ilpt. 1895, p. 

 62). — Kxaminatioiis of 3!) sainples of gold, iron, and other ores are briefly reported. 



Report of chemical division, 11. J. Wheeler {Tlhodc I.slainl Sta. Bpt. 1S95, pp. 

 287-293). — This ineludes statements regarding the fertilizer insjiection in the State, 

 tests of methods of determining potash, field and pot experiments, correspondence, 

 etc.; and tabulated analyses of 25 samples of fertilizing materials, including fine- 

 ground kieserite, Epsom salts, dissolved phosphate rock, slag meal, lloats, dissolved 

 bone black, tankage, leather, dried blood, sulphate of ammonia, nitrate of soda, 

 double superphosphate, fine-ground bone, wood ashes, limekiln ashes, muriate of 

 potash, carbonate of potash, air-slacked lime, land plaster, muck, and clay. 



BOTANY. 



Fertile crosses of teosinte and maize, J. W. IIaeshbeegee, 



[Garden and Forest, !) [ISOd), Xo. 462, j)p. 532,533). — An account is 

 given of the probable origin of Zea. canina described by Watson.^ This 

 plant, which is known in Mexico as 2Iaiz do Coyote, Teodnthc, Asese, or 

 Cafe de Tabasco, is said to be tlie result of crossing Euchlicna mexicana 

 and the common maize. The author quotes correspondence from prom- 

 inent Mexican scientists who have investigated the subject, in which 

 it is stated that the Zea canina may be produced by planting teosinte 

 and maize at distances of about 80 cm. and removing the staminate 

 flowers from the teosinte, allowing the pistillate ones to be fertilized by 

 th6 pollen of the maize. A detailed account of the effect of this process 

 is given as follows : 



"When teosinte is crossed with maize by the use of maize pollen the hybrid progeny 

 of the first generation shows a shortened branch in the axil of a leaf with 3 or 4 ears 

 clustered together and surrounded by leaves which are commonly called husks. 

 These ears resemble very much those of teosinte, in that they are 2-ranked, with the 

 kernels in the hardened depression of an enlarged zigzag rhachis, which shows the 

 beginning of a cob-like axis, on which, in this case, the grains are disposed in a 

 distichous manner. The kernels are larger, sharp-pointed, and protrude between 

 the chatly scales (glumes) from the cup-shaped depression of the axis, which is, in 

 this case, shallower than in teosinte. The outer glume, which is hard in teosinte, 

 becomes larger and softer in the hyln-id progeny. The axis is still firm, glossy, and 

 chitinous. The second year maize pollen is again used to cross with the hybrid 

 plants of the first generation. The result of this cross is a ibrm of ear in which the 

 kernels are larger, fuller, and more rounded, while the corneous basin-shaped depres- 

 sion has become smaller and more shallow. The kernels in this generation are 

 usually arranged in a distichous manner. The third year pollen of Indian corn is 

 again used, and the resulting ears are found to differ in the increase of the number 

 of rows of grains, 4 or more being present; tlie pithj' axis, or cob, now becomes 

 demarcated, and is seen when the ear is broken transversely. The plants of this 

 year and of the fourth are evidently those described by Professor Watson under the 

 name of Zia canina." 



This hybrid was considered by the author, in his botanical and 

 economic study of maize published in 189-4, as probably the primitive 



form of our cultivated maize. 



. ^ 



' Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts and Sciences, 26, p. 158. 



