30 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



tion " by a plot of Baron Alstroemer, who wanted to have them, 

 and who procured authority to confiscate the whole after it was 

 sold." A note from Swartz to Dryander (preserved in the volume 

 of Dryander's correspondence in the National Herbarium) attri- 

 butes the attempt to detain it to Dahl, whose name I think has 

 not hitherto been mentioned in this connection. The fragment is 

 dated by Dryander "Stockholm, 19 June, 1789," and the name 

 Dahl is added by him. It begins " he had picked up in Germany 

 and Copenhagen which also he gave to the Academy " ; and con- 

 tinues : " It was just this man [Dahl] who offered 4000 ED. 

 [rix- dollars] for the Linnaean collection, but came to late, when 

 it was shipped and the vessel gone, but in this dilemma, went up 

 to the king, who ordered an expres to be dispatched to the Sound 

 — but then the vessel was already out of the reach. The money 

 was borrowed from Mr. Maule in Gothenbourg and the interrest 

 paid for 3 months. But the sail went on in a so clandestine 

 manner that instead for advertising it in the public papers accord- 

 ing to law, it was packed up in the nightime and sent away from 

 Upsala itself, that very few knew it. Indeed I think it now much 

 better that England is in possession of this treasure, as it wil 

 be there of more use to Science than in any other place." Swartz 

 wrote English fluently, but his spelling, which I have preserved, 

 is often inaccurate. 



BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, dtc. 



At the meeting of the Linnean Society on November 21, 1912, 

 the Rev. George Henslow gave the substance of his paper, " On 

 Vegetable Mechanics," as follows : — The object of this paper is to 

 show that plants respond to gravity, strains, and stresses, in 

 order to resist them and so secure stability. Kerner thought that 

 the stems of herbs and trunks of trees were constructed on a 

 combined system of girders ; but if a tree has a heavy mass of 

 foliage borne at the summit of a tall cylindrical stem (as of 

 Mahogany), or even a short one (Fagus Rumphii), buttresses are 

 often formed by the roots, which enable the tree to keep the 

 centre of gravity over an extended base. If the stem be hollow, 

 diaphragms are introduced to render it secure. These are in 

 some cases cut-shaped as in East Indian Bamboos, thereby 

 securing a greater " pull " against lateral injury. In tropical 

 lianes, various mechanical contrivances secure strength with 

 elasticity. In Bauhinia there are cup-shaped bulgings on either 

 side of a flattened stem. In the Monkey-ladder (Caulotretus), 

 besides the bulgings, flanges are added on the edges making a 

 complete girder. In Cucurbitacea3 and Passiflora the tendril 

 coils, after securing a hold by its curled tip, the coils being in 

 opposite directions. This is secured by a "crank" being first 

 formed which rotates. In leaves, the distribution of the mid-rib 

 and veins secures the blade from transverse bending and tearing. 

 In bananas, the leaves, being degenerate in character, are in- 



