79 



The III and IV Decades of Americaii Hepaticm have been 

 recently received and among them the following are specially 

 desirable: Aneicra latifro?is, Pellia endivioefolia, Radiila spicata, 

 Poj'ella Bolanderi and Diplophylhim albicans. The accompany- 

 ing circular also announces that but one set remains of decades 

 I and II. Prof. Underwood and Mr. Cook are to be congratu- 

 lated on having supplied such desirable exsiccatae. E. G. B. 



Raspberry and Blackberry. In vol. xxxiv. No. 890 of '*The 

 Garden/' C. H. Engleheart contributes a note in regard to a hy- 

 brid between the raspberry and blackberry, growing wild near 

 Lynton, North Devon. The fruit is described as long, mulberry 

 colored, and with a taste intermediate between that of the two 

 parents. 



Reviews of Foreign Literature. 



At a recent meeting of the Botanical Society in Munich, Prof. 

 Hartig gave the results of some experiments on the red beech, 

 in reference to the influence of seed production on the increase 

 in growth and the reserve material of the tree. According to 

 these results, he believes the present accepted theory in regard 

 to the use made by the tree of its reserve-stores is entirely in- 

 correct. This theory, briefly stated, is as follows: A large part 

 of the carbohydrates stored away as starch grains in the outer 

 annual wood layers is used every year as material in forming 

 the new leaves, stems, and annual wood and phloem rings. Prof. 

 Hartig claims to have proven that in case of the red beech only 

 a small portion of the yearly increase of the tree is due to the 

 reserve material, but by far the larger part to the products of as- 

 similation of the same year. 



Certain experiments showed that the entire reserve material 

 of carbohydrates in trees of fifty years of age was suflicient to 

 furnish only about five per cent, of the yearly increase of the 

 trees. Other experiments tried on trees of one hundred and one 

 hundred and fifty years, just before a seed-bearing summer, 

 proved them to contain twenty per cent of the yearly increase. 

 This was proven by taking off the whole number of branches so 

 that durinij the entire summer not a single leaf was present to 



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manufacture new carbohydrates, and so the tree was obliged to 



