272 Notes of a Visit to North America. 



grapes and the American is striking. On the Continent 

 the winepress used from time immemorial is the method 

 adopted, in America they employ a centrifugal machine, 

 which crushes 200 tons a day in the most perfect and 

 cleanly manner. In this single vineyard they have about 

 6000 tons in a season to crush ; hence the necessity for 

 these machines. 



On our journey home we passed through Arizona and 

 New Mexico. We crossed a partial desert amongst yuccas 

 for a long way; as it became more arid, we passed thousands 

 of Cacti, frequently 20 feet high, and now and again much 

 more. Thej' looked very strange. Americans are always 

 devising means of developing the natural resources of their 

 great country, and a notion was mentioned to me to turn 

 these enormous Cacti to some useful dollar-producing 

 purpose. Nothing else will grow there in Arizona, so it is 

 proposed to graft vines on these great succulent masses. 



The author then summed up the chief differences 

 between the North American and European floras, and 

 the probable causes that have led to these differences. He 

 cannot do better in this abstract than refer to Professor 

 Asa Gray's admirable address " On the Characteristics of 

 the North American Flora," published in the B. A. Eeport 

 of the Montreal meeting, and in Nature, December 1884, 

 as one of the most brilliant contributions to the geographi- 

 cal distribution of plants.* 



Obituary Notice of the late T. C. Archer^ F.R.S.E.^ Director 

 of the Museum of Science and Art, Edinburgh. By 

 A. Galletly, Curator. 



(Read April 9, 1885.) 



Thomas Croxen Archer was born in Northamptonshire 

 in the year 1817, and was educated in London as a surgeon, 

 but does not appear to have practised for more than a few 

 years. He received an appointment in the Import Depart- 

 ment of the Customs, at Liverpool, in 1841, and remained 

 in the service for nineteen years. Having a natural taste 

 for botany, he took a special interest in the vegetable 

 products which were brought to that port from all parts of 



* See also " Die Florenreiclie der Erde," by Dr Oscar Drude, and Peter- 

 manu's '"Mitteilungen," Erydnzunsheft, No. 74, 1884. 



