1868. | Botany and Vegetable Physiology. 73 
ously boiled, the solution does not become turbid until from one to 
two days later. 
The experiments of Dr. Child, of Oxford, and of other recent 
observers, are referred to by Dr. Wyman. 
Encianp.—A new Arctic Conifer. In the ‘ Journal of Botany,’ 
Mr. Andrew Murray describes the most northerly tree that has been 
met with on the north-west coast of America. It was found in the 
voyage of H.MS. ‘Herald,’ forming forests on the banks of the 
rivers Noatak and Buckland, on the American side of Behring’s 
Straits. This latitude is nearly seven degrees farther north than 
the limits of the woods on the eastern side of the American conti- 
nent. This tree was described originally by Dr. Seeman as a variety 
of Abies alba, but Mr. Murray thinks that certain differences in the 
bract of the scale warrant a separation, and calls the new species 
Abies arctica. The desolate country where this tree is found is 
thus described by Dr. Seeman :—* There is nothing to relieve the 
monotony of the steppes. A few stunted Coniferous and Willow 
trees afford little variety, and even these, on passing the boundary 
_of the frigid zone, are either transformed into dwarf bushes or dis- 
appear altogether. About Norton Sound groves of White Spruce 
trees and Salia speciosa are frequent ; northwards they become less 
abundant, till in latitude 66° 44' north, on the banks of the Noatak, 
Pinus alba disappears.” 
An Edible Fungus from Tahiti.—Mr. Brander, of Tahiti, gives 
an account of a fungus which is largely exported to Sydney. It is 
found principally in the Society and Leeward Islands, on decayed 
trees. The Tahitians call it “Teria iore” (¢.e. “ rat’s ear”), from a 
fanciful resemblance of shape. The fungus first began to be col- 
lected in 1863, and fetches in China, where it is much esteemed 
and made into soups, from eighteen to twenty cents a pound. 
Excellent articles (chiefly technical) occur in the same number 
of the ‘Journal of Botany, on the Plants cultivated or naturalized 
in the valley of Caracas, and on the staple products of Jamaica. 
Weeds and their Characteristics——Dr. Henry Trimen has made 
some very sensible remarks on the use of the term “ weed,” in reply 
to some observations on the same point by Dr.Seeman. Dr.Seeman 
says that a weed signifies a naturalized herb, which has a soft and 
membranaceous look, grows fast, propagates its kind with great 
rapidity, and spreads to the prejudice of endemic or cultivated 
plants, in places in some way or other disturbed by the agency 
of man. Dr. Trimen urges that the popular idea of a weed 1s 
any plant, irrespective of origin or appearance, occurring in culti- 
vated ground, in addition to, and therefore more or less interfering 
with and injurious to the crop intended to be grown. ‘This is the 
idea of a weed in the mind of horticulturists and farmers, and as 
it is sufficiently definite Dr. Trimen objects to the restricted sense 
