i8 9 3- NOTES AND COMMENTS. 419 



crop from the same field. As was to be expected, the old grains 

 contained much less water than the new, the proportion being 9 and 

 14 per cent, respectively, while the insoluble food-material stored in 

 the seed, such as proteids and starch, were found to have changed 

 considerably in the direction of compounds soluble in water. Thus 

 whereas in the new wheat scarcely one-seventh of the proteid matter 

 was thus soluble, in the old nearly half dissolved, and while no su^ar 

 was found in the new, and only just over 1 per cent, of dextrins, the 

 old contained 6-2 per cent, sugars and 6 per cent, dextrins ; with, of 

 course, less starch. These changes are probably the result of the 

 action of ferments which were originally present, but have since 

 perished, as the power of converting starch or proteid was found to be 

 nil. This being the case, it is not surprising to find the author 

 describing the old sample as " apparently dead," having shown no 

 signs of germination under favourable conditions maintained for two 

 months. In the absence of ferments to break up the insoluble albumen, 

 starch, &c, the supply of food and energy required for germination 

 would be unattainable. 





Nature lovers in our own country are often pained by the 

 vandalism of so-called naturalists, who, possessed with the rage for 

 collecting, threaten the existence of our rarer plants and animals. 

 Now, according to the Orchid Review (November), the Rajah of 

 Sarawak is closing his dominion to collectors, owing to the depre- 

 dations committed by orchid hunters and the like. It is scarcely to 

 be wondered that a man objects to have the rare and beautiful objects 

 of the fauna and flora of his country carted off wholesale to gratify 

 the passing whim of a moneyed class in another hemisphere. 



Mr. G. F. Scott Elliot is again in Africa on a botanical and 

 generally scientific expedition. This time his destination is Uganda, 

 which he hopes to reach via Mombasa and the Victoria Nyanza. 

 Mr. Elliot, who is known to readers of Natural Science as well as 

 to botanists in particular, has already touched the great continent at 

 several points. A few years ago he made a trip through the Trans- 

 vaal and Natal, and shoitly after spent some time in Madagascar. 

 His next visit was to the North, where he was anxious to work at 

 the Morocco Flora, but, owing to political disturbances, was unable 

 to get into the State, and so went on to Egypt, and collected up 

 the Nile, as far as the Wady Haifa. Finally, about two years ago, 

 he visited Sierra Leone as botanist to the Boundary Commission. 

 The scientific results of these expeditions have been published in the 

 Linnean Society's Journal and the Annals and Journal of Botany. Uganda 

 is a promising field, and we wish Mr. Elliot a successful trip and a 



safe return with a rich harvest of results. 



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