190 BOTANICAL NEWS. 



PandnuKs to drip or oliill, as all the other plants in tlu- ?nine lioiise were 

 remarkably healthy. He feared that considerable exehanues having been 

 made with Continental Eotnnic Gardens, the therms of the disease had been 

 imported fiom thence. Dr. Moore al>o called attention to the tiowering 

 at Glasnevin, he believed, for the first time, in Ireland, of SeU'itipedliim 

 {GypripHJit,m, Lindl.) caudatum, Eeiclib. The lateral petals g'rew after 

 the flower expanded in a few days to the length of nearly two feet. The 

 gardens possessed a plant of Uropedmm L'uidcuii, Lindl., in which the 

 labellum also was represented by a long slender tail, i)iit there was not at 

 present any likelihood of its flowering.* Professor Thiselton Dyer made 

 some renuirks on the incorrect statements current in text-books with 

 reference to the germination of seeds. He pointed out that the en- 

 dorhizal radication of Grasses is a necessary result of the remarkable mo- 

 dification of the caulicle (radicle). This forms by its lateral enlargement 

 the so-called cotyledon (scutellum). The key to its homology is sup- 

 plied by the embryo of Zvstera as pointed out by Mr. Clarke and Professor 

 Dickson. 



gotantcal llctos. 



In the recently-published first part of the twenty-first volume of the 

 Memoirs of the Societe de Physique et d'Histoire Naturelle de Geneve, 

 Dr. Duby has described and figured the new species of Acrocarpous 

 Mosses collected by Dr. Welwitsch during his travels in Portuguese west 

 tropical Africa, chiefly in the highlands of Angola and Benguella. The 

 species are twenty-two in number, as follows : — SjjJiaptnm africunian, Po- 

 ly trichinn (Po(jonatum) Iiitillense (wrongly given as uiifft)lt)ise in the text, 

 but correct on the plate), P. eleyans, Bn//nn virioesceiis, B. spovciiosnm, 

 B. (Bracliymcn'mm) (oiyolense, B. (Br.) IVdicitaclill, B. hn'dlentie, Cainpy- 

 lopus sciuroideus, C. montaHUS, C. cetJdops, C. Jwrridns, Fissideus IFelw'dschii, 

 F. macro jdiy Has, F. glaucissimi(s, F. dasyphiis, F. longipes, F. angolensls, 

 Pottia cum pacta, P. gymuostomoides, Trtmatodon interinedium, T. augolcnse. 

 The figures, which are drawn by the author, who had the assistance 

 derived from Dr. Welwitsch's notes and sketches, are complete and apjiear 

 to be executed with great accuracy. The Pleurocarpi will, it is intended, 

 form the subject of a second communication. 



Mr. Munroe, of Pennsylvania, on a botanical expedition to inspect and 

 report on West Indian fruits, has announced that Jamaica presents the 

 largest collection and variety of tropical fruits to be found in an^^ one 

 district between Brazil and Mexico. Mr. ]\Iunroe has been well received 

 by the Government Botanist, and engrafted a variety of Mangoes, an 

 operation hitherto unsuccessful in Jamaica though successful in Bengal. 



Under the title ' Georgika,' Professor Karl Birnbaum has started at 

 Leipzig a new monthly periodical (price 12 shillings per annum), devoted 

 to agriculture and kindred sciences, tlie first number of which, published 

 January, 1871, contains a paper on "Wars in the Vegetable Kingdom," 

 by Prof. H. Hoft'mann, of Giessen, giving an account of his observations 

 on the struggles for existence going on in fields where free play is left to 



* Figures of these plants will he found in the ' Flore des Serres,' vol. vi. pi. 666, 

 and p. 123. 



