3 2 ° The Botanical Gazette. [November, 



■ 



Mr. Francis Darwin's address, as President of the Biological Sec- 

 tion of the British Association, was upon " Growth-curvatures in 

 plants." 



* 



A new " Old-man Cactus," from Lower California, is figured and 

 described by C. R. Orcutt in Garden and Forest (Sept. 16). It bears 

 the name of Cereus Sargentianus. 



In experimenting upon the climatic conditions for the develop- 

 ment of nicotine in tobacco plants, Mr. A. Maver concludes that 

 increase of heat, light and atmospheric moisture all increase the per- 

 centage of this alkaloid. 



The American Journal of Science has begun an interesting series of 

 papers, by Dr. George L. Goodale, describing the museums and 

 botanical gardens in the equatorial belt and in the South Seas, which 

 the author recently visited. 



J 



In the first report of the Sugar-cane experiment station in West 

 _,_Lva, W. Kriiger has a paper on the diseases and enemies of sugar-cane, 

 which would probably be of value to some of our southern stations. 

 It is published by G. Schonfeld, Dresden. 



The ferns collected during the past three years in Mexico by Mr. 

 I nngle are being enumerated by Mr. George E. Davenport in Garden 

 and Forest. The new species described m the first two parts are 

 Asplenium Pnnglei (Sept. 23), A. dubiosum and Hemionitis elegans 

 (Oct. 14). The first and last are figured. 



excretion of acids by 



finely divided 



A -4 * 



Beyerinck has proposed 1 a neat test for the excret 



bacteria. He adds to the nutrient medium enough „~w, 



chalk to make it milky white and opaque. On growing acid-forming 

 microbes in such a medium the colonies of these will render the 

 opaque medium transparent in their vicinity, owing to the solution of 



the carbonate J b 



the carbonate 



'^w Journal of Mycology is making itself more and more useful to 

 mycologists both those of the experiment stations and those who can 

 study mycology for its own sake. Vol. VII, no. i, issued Sept. io, 

 marks a new epoch, as it becomes with this new volume the organ of 



L/;™ S !?* n J? ? e ^Partment of Agriculture, and not simply of a 

 section of the Botanical Division. 



f ,rXn N T ° BJECTS to u 'ortmann's view (see this journal xv. 346) that 

 U fr" ,,ffl S , c ? ntain no diastase or only such a small quantity that it 

 mnnn^ ? account f °r the transformation of the starch they 



Seen t™I C - ,nt V u S ar - He has re-investigated the subject and his 

 of R r Jt 4 ment ^ P £ lnt to the same conclusions as the earlier ones 

 Seen Kvl J T?u ™^' namel >', that there is diastase present in 

 green leaves, and that it does convert the starch into a sugar 



the c'im R J^ NDE < G u E ha ? J ust Published a paper on the " Flora of 

 known \TntU r g erent? B 'T F aUiorniSL: ' This very interesting region, 

 b^thm53?& r ° nly fr T the Sul P hur and Xantus collections, is 

 being thorough^unrestigated by Mr. Brandegee, and also by the Bo- 



'Centralb. f. Bakt. 9. 781. 



