NEW PUBLICATIONS. 153 



2. P. nivalis, Jacq., includes P. mlviafolia, De Caud. S. Europe. 



3. P. eldEagnifoVm (nee elaagiiifoUa, De Caud.), Pall. = P. auijgdtdi- 

 furmis, Vill. Caucasus, Armenia. 



4. P. saUcifoliu, L. f. East. 



5. P. Persica, Pers. Syria, Arabia, Persia. 



6. P. Auricularia, Knoop. = P. Pollveria, L. Hybrid between P. 

 communis and Sorbiis Ai-ia. 



P. Acliras is considered to be the stock of most of our Pears, though 

 P. dceagnifolia and Persica by cultivation and accidental crossing have 

 also given rise to varieties. M. Decaisne, however, believes that all have 

 sprung from one stock. Of Apples, P. pumila, Mill., the celebnted Pa- 

 radise stock, is stated to be wild in S.E. Russia, Caucasus, and fartary, 

 P. dasyphylla, Borkh. = j3. tomentosa, Koch, only in the East, and 

 P. sylvestris, Mill. = Malus acerba, Merat., in S. Siberia and N. China, 

 but not in Europe. 



Besides Prnnits avium, cultivated Cherries are represented by P. Ce- 

 rasiis, L., probably spontaneous in Asia Minor (the city of Cerasus liaving 

 taken its name from the Cherry, and not the Cherry from it), and P. acida, 

 Dumort., the native country of which is not known. 



The Almond and Peach are separated under tlie Linnsean species of 

 Amygdalns coinmunis and A. Persica, although there is ground for be- 

 lieving, with Mr. Darwin, that the Peach is derived from the Almond.* 

 The original country of either is unknown, though Mid- Asia is suggested 

 for the Almond, and Persia for the Peach. De Candolle, however, be- 

 lieves, on etymological grounds, that it came originally from China. 



W. T. T. D. 



Reports of Experiments on the Injluence of various Manures made in the 

 Horticultural Society's Gardens, Chiswick, in 1869. By Dr. M. T. 

 Masters, F.R.S., and Dr. J. H. Gilbert, F.Tl.S. London. 1870. 

 (From the Proceedings of the Royal Horticultural Society.) 



For these important experiments twelve species of plants were selected 

 as typical of meadow herbage, and upon these the action of particular 

 manures was tried. The plants included six Grasses, three Clovers, 

 and three pasture weeds. Some defects of the experiments, unavoid- 

 able in a first series, are easily seen. The boxes, apparently of four 

 superficial feet and eighteen inches deep, though seventy-two in number, 

 did not include a single (hiplicate of any one of the experiments, and the 

 results consec[uently lacked a most important element of control. The 

 value of thousands of farm experiments of a similar kind, but on a larger 

 scale, is sadly lessened, owing to the same radical defect ; and on the 

 farm the variations in the plots as to soil, etc., are, of course, much more 

 serious sources of error than any likely to exist in the Chiswick trials. 

 Still we hope, in spite of the increase of troulde involved by doubling 

 the number of boxes, that a duplicate of each experiment will be arran<i.e(l. 

 If it had not been desirable to make the Chiswick series a continuation 

 and aid to the Rothamsted series, we should have counselled simpler 

 manures and a smaller number of distinct plots, omitting, say 3 and 5, 

 out of the subjoined series : — - 



* 'Animals and Plants under Domestication,' i.337. 



