1864. | Botany and Vegetable Physiology. 317 
II. BOTANY AND VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. 
Tue prizes offered by the French Academy in this department of 
science call attention to subjects of great importance in vegetable 
physiology, and are three in number; the first Bourdin prize, postponed 
from 1861 to 1866, March 31st, is for an essay to determine by ana- 
tomical research, if there exists in the structure of the stems of vege- 
tables the characters belonging to the large natural families, and thus 
agreeing with those deduced from the organs of reproduction. Any 
comparative work on the branches and stems will be admitted to com- 
petition. Another prize, postponed from 1860, to September 1, 1865, 
and to consist of a gold medal, value 3,000 francs, will be given for 
the determination experimentally of the causes in the inequality of 
absorption by different vegetables of the solutions of the various kinds 
of salt which the earth contains, and to recognize by anatomical study 
of the roots, the connection which may exist between the tissues which 
constitute them, and the matter which they absorb or give out. A 
prize, also standing over from 1859, is now offered for 1866 ‘for the 
study of vessels of the latex, or proper juice, of vegetables, considered 
in a double aspect from their distribution in the different organs of 
plants, and particularly their affinities and connections with the lymph- 
atic or spiral vessels, as well as with the fibres of the plant.” 
The prizes awarded in vegetable physiology at the annual meeting of 
the Academy, were, first, the grand prize of 3,000 francs, “to discover 
what the changes are which take place during germination in the consti- 
tution of the tissues of the vegetable embryo and perisperm, and in the 
matter which these tissues contain.” Dr. Arthur Gris, assistant-natur- 
alist to the Museum, obtained the award. The Barbier prize was equally 
divided between M. Jules Lepére, of Pondicherry, and M. Veillard, a 
naval surgeon ; the first having presented a paper on the study of the 
different medicaments used in India, and comparisons of them with 
those which our European plants furnish; also, researches into the 
Hydrocotyle Asiatica, and its use in medicine. The second writer 
‘presented a work relating to the medicinal and alimentary plants in- 
digenous to New Caledonia, throwing light upon the therapeutic use 
of vegetables as yet but little known, but studied in two most impor- 
tant colonies, by officers attached to the naval medical service of 
France. 
A prize awarded for a chemical rather than for a botanical subject 
may be alluded to here. M. Bouffé received 1,500 francs reward for 
his natural green (vert nature), a mixture of picric acid and Guignet’s 
chrome green, intended to replace the arsenical greens, so much sought 
after on account of their beauty and brilliancy, but so dangerous to the 
makers of artificial flowers. 
While upon the subject of prizes we may mention that the Royal 
Horticultural Society of London, in order to foster the study of 
scientific botany, has offered the following prizes for botanical col- 
lections :—1. One silver and two bronze medals for the three best 
