1897] NOTES AND COMMENTS 87 
latter are obligative parasites, and no culture medium has been 
substituted at any stage for the living host plants. 
There are a number of parasites among the ‘ Fungi imperfecti’ 
which may prove to be heteroecious forms of parasitic ascomycetes, 
and it would be well worth while to carry out further experiments 
on the subject. 
A Bacterium Livinc In ALCOHOL 
Durine the last year much of the rum manufactured in Demerara 
has been found to be ‘faulty, and, the cause having been sought for 
in vain, great loss has resulted to the colony. Mr and Mrs Victor 
H. Veley, of Oxford, have recently discovered a micro-organism in 
some samples of faulty rum sent them for examination. The 
bacterium belongs to the group Coccaceae, adopting Zopf’s  classifica- 
tion, and is probably a new species. Mr and Mrs Veley have 
already obtained several stages in the life-history, by cultivation, 
and hope shortly to publish an account of its development and the 
chemical changes which it produces in the liquid. The fact of any 
micro-organisms existing and multiplying in spirit correctly assessed 
at 42° over proof, or about 74°6 % by weight, is of great interest 
both from a scientific and technical point of view, and the investi- 
gation is likely to prove of considerable importance. 
JOHN JEFFREY . 
In the Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington (vol. xi., 
pp. 57-60), Mr F. V. Coville gives a sketch of the route taken by 
John Jeffrey, ‘one of the most obscure” of the botanical explorers 
who have done important work in North America. Botanists know 
him only as the subject of the dedication of a Californian pine (Pinus 
- jeffreyr), described by Andrew Murray from material sent home by 
Jeffrey. The brief account of his work as a traveller and collector 
has been drawn up by Mr Coville by the aid of documents both 
manuscript and printed, which have hitherto been almost unknown, 
or at any rate unexamined. We know that Jeffrey was a Scotsman, and 
that in 1850 he was sent to North America under the auspices of an 
organisation formed in Edinburgh, with Prof. J. H. Balfour as chair- 
man, and known as the “Oregon Botanical Association.” He was 
to go to Western North America, and collect the seeds of trees, 
shrubs, and other plants suitable for horticultural purposes, in the 
region traversed by David Douglas, “ to complete his researches, and 
to extend them into those parts of the country not fully explored by 
him.” Starting from York Factory on Hudson Bay in August 1850, 
