188 Gelehrte Gesellschaften. 



are the Douglass and Menzies spruces, the ^withe fir" (Abies grandis 

 Lindl.) and the western white cedar (Thuya gigantea Nutt.). These form 

 the basis of the lumber industry of the Puget Sound region and supply all 

 the great saw-mills, some of which cut 250,000 feet per day. The timber 

 furnished by these trees is good, but the lumber is inferior. 



With the array of magnificent conifers which flourish in the moist and 

 eq nable climate of the North Pacific coast, the poverty of the angiospermous 

 flora is in striking contrast. Two maples , two poplars , — one on the high 

 and other on low grounds — one ash and one alder have been enumerated. 

 To these should be added two arborescent willows (Salix lasiandra Benth. 

 and S. longifolia Muhl.) one oak of little value and two other hard-wood 

 trees, and the list is complete. On the last mentioned trees I have made 

 the following notes : 



In the open grounds of the Willamette Valley , Puget Sound and Van- 

 couvei''s Island, Garry's oak (Quercus Garryana Dougl.) is not uncommon. 

 It is usually of moderate size and of a peculiar stragling and misshapen 

 growth ; occasionally trees of three or four feet in diameter are met with, 

 but the shape is so irregulär and the wood so brittle that it has little value 

 as a timber-tree. In the forests of both Oregon and Washington Territory 

 two trees are sometimes seen that are sure to attract the attention of the 

 eastern botanist. One of these which grows on the higher grounds, is the 

 Oregon chinquapin (Castanopsis chrysophylla A. DC.) generally a shrub, but 

 sometimes reaching an altitude of fifty or sixty feet, and conspicuous from 

 the golden pubescence of the under side of the leaf. The other tree to 

 which I refer is the madroiia (Arbutus Menziesii Pursh). This is a small 

 tree , but one much admired ; the foliage is persistent and rieh , the leaves 

 oblong or lanceolate with serrated edges, and the fruit, which grows in 

 Clusters , is red , and somewhat resembles that of the mountain ash , but is 

 less abundant and grows in more open panicles. 



Societe botaniqne de France. 



Seance du 28 mars 1884. 



Liguier legt eine Abhandlung vor: 

 Recherches sur les massifs libero-1 igneux de la tige des 



Calycanthees. 



On sait que la tige des Calycanthees präsente, a l'exterieur d'une cou- 

 ronne lib^ro-ligneuse , quatre massifs libero-ligneux dans chacun desquels la 

 disposition des elements est inverse de celle qui existe dans la couronne, 

 c'est-a-dire que les trachees y sont exterieures. Nous appellerons ces massifs, 

 massifs angulaires, parce que, sur la section transversale quadrangulaire d'une 

 jeune tige, ils occupent chacun des angles de cette section.*) 



Cette anomalie , signalee et discutee par Mirbel, Gaudichaud, 

 Lindley et Treviranus, fut etudiee plus completement, en 1860, par M. 

 W r n i n dans une note publice dans le Botanische Zeitung. 



Gaudichaud a constate que , chez toutes les Calycanthees , chaque 

 petiole re^oit 3 faisceaux , 1 gros median , qui sort de la couronne centrale, 

 et 2 petits lateraux , qui lui viennent des massifs angulaires voisins. M. 

 Woronin a de'crit en outre, ä la hauteur du noeud: 1^ uue commissure 

 transversale reunissant les deux faisceaux corticaux situes du meme cote du 

 plan de symetrie des feuilles ; 2'^ une anastomose qui se rend des massifs 

 angulaires au faisceau median de la feuille voisine ; B^ une anastomose entre 

 chaque raassif angulaire et la couronne libero-ligneuse centrale ; 4o dans le 

 petiole , une anastomose qui se rend du faisceau median a chacun des deux 

 faisceaux lateraux. 



*) On sait que chez toutes les Calycanthees les feuilles sont dispos^es 

 deux par deux en verticilles alternes, vis-a-vis le milieu des faces de la tige. 



