1869.] Botany and Vegetable Physiologij. 525 



the smoke and noxious gases from tlie cliemical works have greatly 

 increased, and one plant and tree after another has succumbed to 

 their baneful influence. Of forest trees and shrubs, the fir and the 

 larch were the first to give way; then followed the Cotoneaster 

 macroplujlla, arbor-vitae, juniper. Erica, and rosemary. Berheris 

 ilicifolia, yew, rose, and holly are disappearing, and none of the 

 Conifers will live more than two or three years. The sycamore and 

 hornbeam are decaying fast ; the horse-chestnut is vigorous, but the 

 leaves are often cut by the noxious vapours ; beech and lime are 

 more healthy; ash and elm the most vigorous. Ehododendron, 

 Aucuba, and hawthorn flourish ; the oak does very well ; labm-num, 

 Syringa, willow, birch, ivy, and elder are still healthy, and the 

 privet moderately so. Of fruit-trees the pear stands best; plum 

 and damsou moderately well; apple sufiers much; also red and 

 white currant; raspberry and gooseberry rather better, but the 

 fruit much deteriorated in flavour. Of vegetables which do well in 

 the summer-months, kidney-beans sometimes drop off early in Octo- 

 ber ; cauhflower and broccoli do not stand any fr'ost ; and even the 

 common winter greens are very frequently injured by the cold ; 

 cucumbers cannot be grown. One efiect of the gases fr'om the 

 chemical works is to make vegetation far more suscej)tible to cold ; 

 the trees, even when healthy, cast their leaves six weeks earlier 

 than in the country districts. The greatest amount of injury 

 occurs when the atmosphere is heavy and foggy, with scarcely a 

 breeze ; the young fohage being sometimes found cut and blackened 

 in a straight line, as if by fr-ost ; when the wind is fr'om the west it 

 does more damage than when in the east. 



Action of Ether on Plants. — Dr. Masters states that if a 

 drop of ether is placed gently on the leaves of the sensitive plant, 

 Mimosa 2^udica, it produces an anaesthetic or paralyzing efiect, 

 rendering them insensible to subsequent contact. If, however, the 

 ether impinges on the leaf with force, or is allowed to drop fr'om a 

 considerable height, contraction of the leaf immediately ensues, the 

 impact of the falhng drop counteracting any paralyzing power. 

 Experiments of a similar kind on other plants resulted in the death 

 of the leaf or of the whole plant, or in causing the leaf to (5url up 

 along its imder-sm-faee. 



Anniversary Address to the Linnean Society. — The usual 

 anniversary address by Mr. Bentham, the President of the Linnean 

 Society, was distinguished by the declaration of the adhesion of 

 the first EngHsh systematist to the principle of the derivative 

 origin of species, and the close connection between aflSnity of 

 structm'e and consanguinity of descent. The portion of the 

 address devoted to botanical science was chiefly occupied by a 

 discussion of the means of dispersion of plants, the theory of 

 stores of buried seeds, and the characteristics of dissevered species. 



