BRIEF REMARKS. 279 



woody fibres up to the leaf did not prove their origin there. With 

 regard to the descent of the sap, he did not agree with the author of the 

 paper, who, he thought, took too physical a view of the function of the 

 plant. The leaves were not mere organs of evaporation. They per- 

 formed the function of exhalation, which was independent of heat, and 

 depended on the vitality of the plant. He believed that the leaves did 

 effect a certain change in the juices brought to them, which changed 

 matter was again taken back into the system of the plant, and there 

 being taken up by the cells, produced the results which were found in 

 the deposit of lignine and the other secreted matters of plants. — Mr. 

 Huxley quoted the instance of the rapid growth and great quantity of 

 wood formed by the various kinds of Lianes of tropical forests as in- 

 stances in favour of the formation of wood independently of the leaves. 

 These plants had all of them a remarkably small number of leaves. — 

 Professor Asa Gray believed that the theory of the formation of wood, 

 as held by Du Hamel, Dupetit Thouars, and others, was no longer 

 tenable. The formation of vessels from cells could be easily observed, 

 and in exogenous plants there was no vacant space between the wood 

 and the bark for the woody fibres to be sent down through. Even in 

 the spring of the year, when the sap was passing most rapidly between 

 the wood and the bark, the organic connexion was complete. Whether 

 matter was elaborated in the leaves and sent down into the plant he 

 was not prepared to say, but further experiments were desirable. — Dr. 

 Fowler quoted some experiments which he thought proved that the 

 materials of the growth of the plant were not prepared in the leaves. — < 

 Dr. Lankester replied, and stated that at present it appeared to him 

 that the statement of the preparation of gum or any other secretion in 

 the plant which was found subsequently in any other part of the plant, 

 was an assumption that required proof. The practice of looking for 

 analogies between the vegetable and animal kingdoms has led to the 

 adoption of theories in vegetable physiology which were quite incon- 

 sistent with the simplicity of the structure of plants. In order to 

 advance the science of vegetable physiology, we must fix our attention 

 on the functions of the cell, and discharge all theories which were not 

 compatible with our knowledge of its functions. 



Horticultural Society's Rooms, Regent Street, October 7. — 

 Messrs. Weeks sent a bloom of the Royal Water Lily (Victoria regia), 

 a bud of Nymphaea cajrulea, and a flower and a leaf of N. dentata, 

 from the open heated pond in their nursery, in which such plants have 

 been found to grow and flower successfully. The leaf of N. dentata 

 was certainly as large and fine as it could well be in the best-managed 

 stove aquarium. It was stated that the Victoria had produced fifty 

 blooms in the course of the past summer, and that the plant was still 

 unprotected. A Banksian Medal was awarded. — I. Anderson, Esq., 

 of Maryfield, near Edinburgh, sent a cut specimen of a seedling 

 Veronica, which, although pretty, was inferior in beauty to V. Ander- 

 sonii, a charming hybrid, raised by the same gentleman. Mr. Frost, 

 gardener to E. L. Belts, Esq., of Preston Hall, Aylesford, furnished a 

 seedling Begonia, obtained by crossing B. cinnabariua with B. nitida. 

 The result is a freer- flowering plant than B. cinnabariua, with even 

 higher-coloured flowers than those of that fine kind, while the foliage 



