1082 



ing races by sowing seeds. Hundreds joined eagerly in what proved 

 to be the vain pursuit. A vrorthy armourer at Solingen even pub- 

 lished an elaborate pamphlet in support of the idea. Nein mehr 

 Hungersnotli — no more famine — was his audacious motto — a predic- 

 tion wofully falsified by the result, for the seedling potatoes were, if 

 possible, more diseased than their parents. 



" So many persons, however, disregarding what we presume to think 

 the preponderating weight of evidence to the contrary, still continue 

 to look upon the question as one open to further discussion, that a 

 learned German Scientific Society has determined to make it the 

 subject of further and more elaborate examination. 



" A committee appointed under the Demidoff foundation in Berlin, 

 has just announced that a prize of ^£30 (200 thalers) is offered for the 

 best essay upon the duration of life in plants propagated otherwise 

 than by seed. The question to which competitors must address them- 

 selves may be thus freely translated : — ' Is the life of an individual 

 plant, in its widest sense, that is to say, of a plant itself raised from 

 seed and then propagated otherwise than by seed (by cuttings, layers, 

 buds, grafts, &c.), unlimited in duration, and destructible only by 

 accidental or external unfavourable circumstances, before the extinc- 

 tion of the species itself.? or is the life of such individual Hmited, and 

 to a certain definite extent shorter than the duration of the species } ' 



" Competitors are expected to give, in addition to any unpubhshed 

 cases, the fullest possible collection and examination of published 

 facts relating to the degeneracy or total extinction of seedlings, pre- 

 served and propagated otherwise than by seed, and more particularly 

 of seedling fruits cultivated in Europe, viz., apples, pears, quinces, 

 medlars, plums, cherries, apricots, peaches, almonds, figs, mulberries, 

 the different kinds of orange, olives, walnuts, filberts, grapes, goose- 

 berries, currants, raspberries, and strawberries ; and the sources from 

 which the facts are taken must be stated. Attention must also be 

 paid to the circumstances under which the degeneration of the plants 

 reported on occurred ; the climate and soil in which they grew, the 

 treatment and care they received, so far as these can affect the answer 

 to be given to the question, and any evidence relating to them which 

 can be found. 



" It is announced that the essays for the prize may be written in 

 English, French, German, Italian, or Latin, and must be delivered 

 before the 1st of March, 1854, to Dr. Noes von Esenbeck, President 

 of the Academy of Naturalists at Brcslau. Each essay must have a 

 motto prefixed, and in an accompanying envelope the name of the 



