396 Chronicles of Science. [July, 
pith of the Cyperacee ;” “Acrosyncarpia in Brywm cxspitiewm,” 
beg an abnormal development of the sporangium; “The 
antheridia of Nitella syncarpa ;” “The reproduction of Tetraspora 
lubrica,” of a new species of Staurastrum, and also of those 
familiar Desmids, Huastrum margaritiferum, Ehren., and Cosma- 
rium cylindricun, Ralfs.; and, lastly, a paper on the development 
of the spores of Scapania nemorosa, Nees. 
France.—The Influence of Light on Plants—The Parisian 
Academy of Sciences have received a highly interesting communica- 
tion from M. Duchartre on certain well-known plants, which, too 
weak to support themselves, tend to twine around the nearest 
objects. They generally do this from left to right, that is, inversely 
to the motion of the sun, but some species turn in the contrary 
direction, and it is impossible to make either the one or the other 
change its direction. Palm, Von Mohl, Dutrochet, and latterly 
Darwin, have successively expressed the opinion that light was the 
cause of this tendency; but further experiments being wanting to 
confirm this theory, M. Duchartre, who had discovered that the 
Chinese yam could live a long while in the dark, resolved to try the 
effect of absence of light upon it. At the end of May last he 
placed one in a pot, and as soon as it showed its stem above ground 
he took it down to a cellar, where it remained in complete darkness 
until the 2nd of August following. The stem, in the course of 
seven weeks, grew to the length of a metre and a half. It looked 
withered and whitish, but was upon the whole strong and even stiff 
and perfectly straight, showmg nowhere a tendency to twine itself 
round the stick which had been placed there for its support. 
Another yam was planted nearly a month later, and left exposed to 
daylight until it had twined itself twice round its stick. It was 
then taken and placed in the cellar, where its stem, still obeying its 
natural tendency, went round once more, but in a more yertical 
direction than before; after which it grew straight up along its 
pole, to which it was fastened as it grew. It was now again taken 
up into the garden, where it immediately began to twime round 
again, making five close turns; and when it was once more taken 
down into the cellar it continued its growth again in a straight line, 
and so on, according as it was alternately in the light or in the 
dark. The same phenomenon was observed, not only in the yam or 
Dioscorea Batatas, but also in the Mandevillea suaveolens; but, on 
the other hand, the bean and the Ipomexa purpurea continue to 
twine round their supports in the dark.” 
In the ‘ Bibliotheque Universelle’ of the 25th of March, 1866, 
there is a “ Note on some new facts in Botanical Geography” by 
Edmond Boissier, from which we learn that there are certain 
* *Galignani’s Messenger,’ 
