AT THE MEETING OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION, 313 
into the structure, dcippep. and mon of the various Mio by which 
b, 
plants climb, t objects. Inthishe reviews 
every family in the vegetable kingdom, and every organ m bya any plant for 
the above purposes. The result places the whole subject in a totally new light 
» before us. The guesses, crude observations, and abortive capac that had 
disfigured the writings of previous observers are swept away ; organs, struc- 
tures, and functions, of jmd Petania ida no previous knowledge, are re- 
vealed to them, and the made as clear as it is interesting 
uct 
of cay is not iecoris only ; already the horticulturist and agriculturist 
have begun to ponder over them, and to recognize in the failure of certain 
plica 
* Another instance of successful experiment, in Physiological botany, is Mr. 
Herbert Spencer’s observations on the circulation of the sap and formation of 
wood in plants. As is well known, the tissues of our herbs, shrubs, and trees, 
has not only shown that these vessels are charged at certain seasons of the year 
e further investigates the nature of the special tissues concerned in this ope- 
ration, and shows, not merely how they may act, but to a great extent how they 
o act 
* Mr. Darwin’s recent two volumes, * On Animals and Plants under Domes- 
tication,’ are a catacomb of data, etienne and experiments such as as- 
suredly no one but himself could pr t is hard to say whether they are 
most remarkable for the number and "i" of the new facts they disclose, or for 
exem ina 
terials of other sisiitilo: men's laboratories, which is a very naai fea- 
ture of their author. 
“ It is in this work that Mr. Darwin expounds his new hypothesis of Pan- 
genesis, which certainly correlates, an nd may prove to contain the rationale of 
all the phenomena of reproduction and inheritance. You are aware that every 
plant or animal commences its more or less independent life as a single cell, 
from which is developed an organism more or less closely similar to its parent. 
One of the most striking examples I can think of is afforded by a species of 
Begonia, the stalks, leaves, and other parts of which are superficially studded 
