166 BOTANICAL NEWS. 
hj competent botanists who paid but flying visits to the country. A man of 
sound obserfation and a ready pen might yet help to produce a report "which 
might be accepted by all parties as a trustworthy and thorouglily satisfactory- 
document." 
' The Botanists' Chronicle,' a penny serial, edited by Mr. IrvinCj the publi- 
cation of which we announced last year, has been discontmued. 
The Italian Scientific Congress will take place at Tfaples, on the 24th of 
September, instead of the 7th of May, as previously anriovmccd. 
In a highly suggestiTe paper, lately published in the ' Nova Acta Acaderaise 
Csesarea? Naturse Curiosorum/ Dr. Stieber controverts the hypothesis that 
planets and comets revolve around the sim in ellipses. He thinks that the 
motion of the sun haviiig heen demonstrated, planets and comets would be left 
behind if revolving in that manner, and that, unless the exploded motion of tho 
sun being a fixed star be resumed, there is no escaping the conclusion that the 
celestial bodies move in elliptico -spiral or infinite, instead of elliptical or finite 
lines. All this, of course, is matter for astronomers to consider ; what in- 
terests us particularly is that the laws first brought to light by the physiolo- 
gical study of plants and animals should have led the way to this important 
astronomical discussion. The merit of first directing attention to this subject 
is due to Dr. Cams, who entered into it in his ' System of Physiology ' (8to, 
Leipzig, 1838). Dr. Carus himself gives Thienemann the credit of suggesting 
the spinJ motion of the celestial bodies ; but Dr. Stieber shows that Thiene- 
mann (Oken's 'Isis/ 1834-, p. h* 7), on discussing the spiral tendency of plants, 
as first demonstrated by Martins and Schimper, does so only in a vague manner, 
and that the venerable Carus must bear the honour of a discovery which with 
too much modesty he disclaims. " The law of spiral motion," says Dr. Stieber, 
" does not seem to prevail merely amongst the celestial bodies, but throughout 
nature. That it finds an expression in the spiral vessels and other parts (leaves, 
bracts, etc.) of plants, has long been acknowledged. In the animal kingdom it 
is in force in most shells, the horns of many Mammals, etc. ; even in inorganic 
bodies traces of this law are perceptible (Airy's Spirals ; see Jentzsch's Theory 
of Quartz) j and the Earl of Hosse — interesting to relate — discovered, by means 
of his large telescope, that many nebulse had a spiral form." 
The first part of the * Fiore de la Chaine Jurassique/ comprising the Dialy- 
petales, by Ch. G-renier, has just reached us. In many respects it seems to 
answer the purpose of a supplement to Grenier and Godron's 'Fiore de 
France,' and likely to be useful to students of European plants. 
The late M. Gay's Herbarium is for sale. 
BoiANiCAL Society of Edikbuugh, Decernier Sth. — Ecportonthe Govern- 
ment Tea Plantations in Korth- Western India, by W, Jameson, Esq. The 
plantations have yielded upwards of 85 tons of seeds. The teas at Dehi'a 
Doon and Almorah are classified under souchong, pouchong, bohea, hyson- 
skin, and young hyson. It is calculated that the produce of seeds in the 
Koliistan of the ^orth-Western Provinces last year was 2361 maunds, and 
that each maund contains 24,000 eeeds. Supposing that 4000 seedlings were 
requ'red for an acre, Mr. Jameson calculates that he might have upwards of 42 
v' 
