28 The Botanical Gazette. [January, 



similar to those of A. linearifolia, but the involucre is very different 



John M. Coulter and J. X. Rose. 



Anaesthetics and Transpiration.— Mr. ' C. P. Lommen finds that Ju- 



melle's results regarding the influence of anaesthetics upon transpiration 

 in green plants may be obtained quantitatively by the simple method of 

 weighing on the analytical balance at intervals of a few hours. Sprigs of 



Selaginella rupesfris Spring, were employed in a series of experiments, 



and the percentage of water lost under glass in darkness and in light, 

 with and without ether, corresponded with Jumelle's general results as 

 chronicled in the Revue Generate de Botanique, October, 1890. This 

 affords a very simple and easy method of demonstrating the relation 

 between transpiration and assimilation. — Conway MacMillan, Uni- 

 versity of Minnesota. 



EDITORIAL. 



Most advanced college students now-a-days are expected to secure 

 some personal freedom of judgment by the independent investigation 

 of a suitable subject. The larger part of such efforts do not rise to 

 to the plane of an addition to recorded knowledge, but serve at the 

 time to assist the student in his mental development. A strong stu- 

 dent with the necessary preliminary training, however, may do work 

 of scientific value, if it is properly planned and directed by the teacher 

 in charge. But whether of value or not from the scientific point of 

 view, if reasonable success is attained the work must be well outlined 

 at the start, and to do this often taxes the teacher's resources. If he 

 is interested in mycology, the natural tendency is to turn students 

 into that line of work, if in embryological development, into that 

 work, and so on. This secures the best assistance from the teacher. 

 but does not always bring to light the pupil's special talents or apti- 

 tude where he is most likely to excel. An inability to successfully 

 manage the delicate manipulations required for high class histological 

 work, stands in the way of fair success for many students, and for sev- 

 eral years past our laboratories have chiefly cultivated this field of 

 research. The work outlined for the student should be adapted not 

 only to his knowledge and maturity of judgment, but to his skill as 

 a manipulator, and to do this the selection must be made through a 

 wide range of topi* . There is a field of research of absorbing inter 

 est, crowded with unsolved problems, and in v which the use of the 

 microscope can be largely dispensed with, hitherto much overlooked, 

 and that is the physiology of movement in plants. The changes in 

 position of leaves, stems and roots due to gravitation, heat, light* 



