160 The Microscope. 



Editor The Microscope : — 



Again I enjoy with you and others the streaming of the pro- 

 toplasm in the cells of the onion, as I did the continuous micro- 

 scopic net of protoplasmic lace, so well communicated by you. 

 Many thanks to Profs Gardiner, Coulter, Burrill and you for the 

 interesting discoveries and for the publications. Topsy said " I 

 growed," and the majority of persons say plants grow, but when 

 we see the little granules in the protoplasm moving from place 

 to place, most likely for the completion of the internal structure 

 of the cells, we find a very important part nearer to the com- 

 mencement, how plants do grow ! 



When we observe the movement of animalcules and their 

 cilia, we have an explanation of their motions ; but the move- 

 ments of Desmids and Diatoms are not fully explained, neither 

 is the motion of the granules developed from the homogeneous 

 condition of the protoplasm ; yet after seeing the movement of 

 the particles by mixing the solutions of acetate of lead and iodide 

 of potassium, before crystalization, or mixing alcohol with water 

 containing visible particles, we find a similar motion. The most 

 plausible theory to my mind is this. The different specific gravity 

 of the liquids, and the streaming from the specifically heavier 

 substance toward the lighter to fill the spaces and to equalize 

 matters, as mother Nature demands. 



An onion growing in a glass of water, as we treat hyacinths, 

 has given me the best results. Dr Carl H. Horsch. 



Dover, N. H. 



Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture, 1888. Wash- 

 ington : The Government Printing Office, 8 vo., pp. 708. This 

 volume contains valuable matter relative to the fungous diseases 

 of certain cultivated plants, with beautiful illustrations of their 

 microscopic characters, while the Report of the Microscopist is 

 devoted chiefly to'jthe investigations of the adulterations of con- 

 diments, with^colored illustrations of sections, isolated cells and 

 fibres. These portions of the volume are of great interest to mi- 

 croscopists, and merit a wide circulation. Dr Taylor also de- 

 scribes and^figures his new pocket polariscope, which he calls an 

 Oleomargariscope. The book may be had if courteously re- 

 quested from the Secretary of Agriculture at Washington, D. C. 



