258 Chronicles of Science. [April, 
they appear to be habituated. Of Cucurbitaceous tendrils, next to 
Sicyos the most active are those of Echinocystis lobata. The inter- 
nodes and tendrils of this plant revolve im about 12 hour; the 
former sweeping a circle or ellipse 2 or 3 inches in diameter, the 
latter often one of 15 or 16 inches in diameter. If a full-grown 
cucurbitaceous tendril fails to lay hold of an object, it soon ceases 
revolving, bends downward, coils up spirally, and ultimately withers 
and falls off; should it succeed in attaching itself, however, to a 
support, on the contrary, it thickens, hardens, and gains wonder- 
fully in strength and durability. The contraction of tendrils into 
a spiral coil renders them highly elastic, and therefore in a gale of 
wind powerful organs of defence. Mr. Darwin says that the ten- 
drils of Bignonia capreolata avoid the light, crawling into dark 
holes and crevices after the manner of roots. The tendrils of this 
plant will clasp a smooth pole, but soon detach themselves and 
straighten; a rough, fissured, and porous surface alone satisfies 
them, such as the bark of trees, to which they attach themselves. 
Ampelopsis quinquefolia, or the Virginia Creeper, also avoids the 
light, uniformly seeking dark crevices or broad flat surfaces, as a 
wall, a rock, or the trunk of a tree. The tips of the tendrils, 
brought into contact with such a surface, swell out, and form in a 
few days those well-known discs or cushions by which the plant 
firmly adheres to its support. 
The learned and accomplished lichenologist, Dr. W. Nylander, 
has described, during the past year, 23 new species of British 
lichens ; viz., one new species of each of the following genera, 
Collema, Leptogium, Pyrenidium, Calicium, Lecanora, and Ope- 
grapha, two new species of Pertusaria, five of Lecidea, and twelve 
of Verrucaria. Some of these lichens are so small, that they cer- 
tainly required for their detection great nicety of botanical diseri- 
mination ; as, for example, Verrucaria tristicula, Nyl., which was 
discovered by Admiral Jones on Moss ( Weiss¢a), in Aberdeenshire, 
and Lecidea contristans, Nyl., discovered by Isaac Carroll, Esq., on 
decaying Andre, on the summit of Ben Lawers. 
Dr. Nylander has also described a collection of lichens made in - 
New Zealand, in 1861, by Dr. Lindsay, including 26 genera and 
117 species. Many of these lichens are common to Britain, Scan- 
dinavia, and the United States. We notice in the list seven species 
of Lecanora and Lecidea, three species of Opegrapha, two species of 
Sticta and Pertusaria, and one species of Arthonia, Platygrapha 
and Physcia, for the first time described by Dr. Nylander, and 
therefore new to science. Among the rarer and more interesting 
species in the collection, already described by other botanists, are 
Collema leucocarpium, Tayl., Baeomyces fungoides, Ach., Cladonia 
retepora, Flk., and Stictina fragillima, Bab. 
Three new British flowering plants have been discovered. 
a a a 
