110 Chronicles of Science. | Jan. 
III. BOTANY AND VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. 
Tue attention of the French government has been called to some ex- 
periments of M. Hooibrenk, a native of Holland, for obtaining, by 
artificial fecundation, a more abundant crop of cereals, vines, and fruit 
trees. These experiments have been carried on at Sillery, near Rheims, 
on the property of M. Jacquesson, the well-known wine-grower. They 
are simple and inexpensive: the apparatus employed in the case of 
cereals being a cord of from 25 to 30 yards long, upon which is fastened 
a stiff woollen fringe, about ten inches in length, the hanging threads 
of which touch one another, and have small shot attached at short dis- 
tances, At the time of flowering, this apparatus is passed over the 
crop so as to brush it lightly, an operation which employs three per- 
sons, a man at either extremity, and a child to hold up the cord at the 
middle. The object of this operation, which has to be repeated three 
times at intervals of about two days, is to scatter the pollen, and bring 
a larger quantity of it into contact with the pistils, and thus to ensure 
fecundation on a larger scale than is done by the ordinary operations 
of nature. The whole apparatus costs only five or six francs, and the 
labour employed is also very cheap, while the results have shown a 
vast increase in proportion. A modification of the process, as applied 
to vines and fruit trees, has also been followed by marked improve- 
ment in the crops ; and, as a consequence, two commissioners, named by 
the Minister of Agriculture, have visited the scene of the experiments 
during the past summer, and as they have been carried on simultaneously 
with the ordinary system of farming, a comparison of the results shows 
the advantages given by the ‘“ Méthode Hooibrenk ” as follows :— 
TTooibrenk System. Old System. 
Kilogrammes. Kilogrammes, 
\Winariy ae io be TG PSHE Gh gg Bl 
Rye hoo 0 28RD 6G a8 6 IG 
lly 5 Gg 0) 6G He Cl IG 
Oats outs! ites ee SY, ag 6 6 le 
The Commissioners recommend a methodical examination into the 
subject, and the Emperor has decided that such an examination shall 
take place on the imperial farms of Fouilleuse and Fontainebleau. 
Dr. F. Hildebrand, of Bonn, observing that in some tropical orchids, 
cultivated in the Botanic Garden, he found no ovules in the ovarium of 
the expanded flower, and that, nevertheless, he saw the enlargement 
of the ovarium after having applied the pollen to the stigma, has been 
led to make some interesting experiments upon this curious point, 
which has not escaped the notice of previous botanists. Observations 
on thirty different species of orchids proved that in the recently ex- 
panded flowers of orchids the ovules are never fully developed, while 
in some species, indeed, even the placentz are not yet fully developed. 
After the application of pollen to the stigma, the enlargement of the 
ovarium begins, and before the pollen-tubes reach the placents or 
