EMBRYOGEMY OF Piniis Pinaster. 59 



Fig. II. Prothallus showing position of primary and secondary embryos and 

 destarched area. Position of embryo of lig. 10 and two secon- 

 dary embryos also indicated diagrammatically on right of 

 figure ( x6). 

 ;, 12. Primary embryo of fig. 11 (x 100). 



13. Outline of embryo v.'hen cotyledon rudiments first appear ( X 23). 

 , 14. Part of fig. 13 showing cell outhnes ( X72). 



., 15. Outline of slightly older embryo. Plerome distinctly differentiated 

 (X12). 



A NEW ALKALOID. — E. Fourneau reports {Comptes Rendus^ 

 cxlviii.) that a new alkaloid, to which the formula C^i Hqg N2 0:5 

 is assigned, has been isolated from the bark of Pseudocinchona 

 africana. It is crystalline., laevorotatory, does not dissolve in 

 ether and produces well-defined salts. Associated with this 

 alkaloid is another, which is soluble in ether : this second alkaloid 

 the author has not succeeded in obtaining in crystalline form. 



IMITATING NATURE.— The effect of learning to understand 

 Nature always appears to be that we at once brush her aside when 

 we have wrested from her the secrets which she has so long pre- 

 served inviolate. No sooner did we learn the nature of the 

 madder colouring matters than we proceeded to prepare them 

 artificially — thus putting an end to the cultivation of a valuable 

 crop. Indigo is meeting with a like fate, a catastrophe which 

 might well have been avoided had scientific assistance been called 

 in at the proper time. Not content with making natural colouring 

 matters, we set to work to outrival the rainbow in our labora- 

 tories, and the feminine world is decked with every variety of 

 colour in consequence, although, unfortunately, our blends toO' 

 often lack the beauty of those of truly natural origin, which rarely, 

 if ever, offend the eye. We congratulate ourselves on our clever- 

 ness in thus imitating Nature, but no idea of thrift possesses us ; 

 moreover, our attempts to imitate if not to undo her work are 

 never direct, but are always made with her aid, with Nature's 

 product — coal ; we are no longer content to ride on horseback, 

 but must rush through space, and, instead of watching the birds 

 fly, seek to emulate them, but always with the aid of fuel won by 

 Nature from the soil and air in days long past. Too much is 

 being done in every direction to waste natural resources, too- 

 little to conserve them, too little to employ man in his proper 

 place — as tiller of the soil. Here lies the chemist's opportunity. 

 At no very distant date, perhaps, when petrol is exhausted, toll 

 will be taken from the sum in the form of starch or sugar, and 

 this will be converted into alcohol. {Sectional Presidential Address 

 by Prof. H. E. Armstrong at the Winnipeg meeting of the British 

 Association.) 



