134 BOTANJLCAL NEWS. 



loped into leafy awns two inches in length, to prove the correctness of his ori- 

 ginal observation. He further remarked that those adnate true leaves were as 

 different on different species as tlie leaves of other plants, and afforded excel- 

 lent specific characters, much better in fact than many derived from the num- 

 ber of phylloidse in a fascicle, or even from many points in the cones. Speci- 

 mens to illustrate this weie exliibited. 



An interesting paper on " Ci-oss-Fertilization in Compositoe," by Mr. John 

 Duncan, appeal's in the February number of Hardwicke's ' Science Gossip.' 



At a recent meeting of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' Society, the 

 Eev. J. A. Laurence exhibited some fasciated stems of Ilex Aquifolium. 



Tlie execution of the new plates required for the conckiding volume of Dr. 

 Syme's edition of ' English Botany' has been entrusted to Mr. William Sowerby, 

 Secretary to the Eoyal Botanic Society. 



The admirable ' Traite general de Botanique' of MM. Le Maout and Decaisne 

 is, we hear, to be translated into English by Mrs. Hooker, of Kew ; the version 

 will have the benefit of Dr. Hooker's supervision, and must surely prove a very 

 acceptable handbook, 



Messrs. W. and A. K. Johnston have in view the publication of a series of 

 botanical diagrams to facilitate the teaching of botany in schools. 



Dr. Masters delivered, on March 1st and 8th, at the Royal Institution, two 

 lectures on "Plant-life, as contrasted with that of Animals." In the first lec- 

 ture he contrasted tlie "mechanism" of plants and animals respectively, and 

 especially alluded to organisms of the lowest type, which seem to have an equal 

 affinity to either kingdom of nature. He stated that " the main differences be- 

 tween plants and animals consist not so much in their mechanism or in the 

 way it acts, as in the results of its action," plants alone having the power of 

 forming from the inorganic constituents of the atmosphere the various sub- 

 stances composing their tissues. After passing in review the processes of vege- 

 table assimilation, — which he considered a process of digestion, and not of re- 

 spiration, and which is intimately connected with the presence of chlorophyll, 

 analogous in function with the colouring matter of the blood in animals, — of 

 true plant-respiration, and of the circulation of fluids, the leetvirer proceeded 

 to show that there was a mai'ked difference between plants and animals in the 

 much greater adaptabihty of different organs in tlie former to fulfil the same 

 functions, and various morphological facts were supplied to illustrate this po- 

 sition. Another peculiarity of plants was found in the greater importance of 

 bud -structures ; many examples of bud-variation were quoted, the principles 

 of grafting explained, and the influence of the scion on the stock illustrated. 

 This led to the subject of graft-hybridization as a possible cause of the produc- 

 tion of bud-variations, and apparent examples of this were given in Roses, in 

 Cytisus Adami, in Pears grafted on Hawthorn, on which a fruit intermediate 

 in form and flavour is sometimes produced, and in Potatoes. The lecturer 

 concluded by an allusion to the ceaseless change of matter, and the depen- 

 dence of each portion of creation on the others. 



A ' Flora of Perthshire' is now in preparation for publication by Mr. John 

 Sadler, Lecturer on Botany in Royal High School, and Assistant to the Pro- 



