90 



BOTANY. 



department of La Paz, yields forty- eight ounces 

 of sulphate of quinine to the quintal (100 Ibs.). 



Railways. In addition to the line between 

 La Paz and Lake Titicaca, a new line is to be 

 constructed between Antofagasta and the ni- 

 trate-works of Aguas Blancas, and work on 

 another broad-gauge line between Tacna and 

 La Paz was to be begun in the course of 1885, 

 by Messrs. Campbell, Jones & Co., owners of 

 the line from Arica to Tacna. 



Telegraphs. Besides the line from La Paz to 

 the port of Ohililaya, on Lake Titicaca, a new 

 line from Potosi to Oruro, through the Colque- 

 chaca mining district, has been projected. 



BOTANY. The year 1884 closes an important 

 decade in the science of botany in America. 

 As measured by work published, of a high 

 order of excellence, this decade will be found 

 to compare favorably with any preceding it, 

 and, so far as America is concerned, it un- 

 doubtedly ranks above any other in the his- 

 tory of this science. As measured by new or 

 improved methods, and extended means of in- 

 struction and investigation, it truly begins an 

 era in this country; while in Europe there has 

 been a steady progress and development, in 

 this respect, in lines marked out before 1870. 

 For the change in the mode of instruction, 

 there were certain direct causes, notably the 

 translation into English of certain German 

 works. But these works are themselves linked 

 in with a history which it is important to trace. 



Influence of the Microscope. Before the com- 

 pound microscope was brought to comparative 

 perfection, the work of describing and classify- 

 ing plants from characters apparent to the eye, 

 aided by the simple microscope, engaged the 

 attention of botanists. The compound micro- 

 scope was the means of improving work of this 

 kind, and of opening a new field. The attention 

 given to the development of that instrument in 

 Italy, in Paris, and in London, between 1820 and 

 1830, resulted in the combination of systems of 

 lenses on sound principles, and also in their cor- 

 rection for spherical and chromatic aberration, 

 so that in 1837, in London, one-eighth-inch ob- 

 jectives were constructed which are scarcely 

 excelled by those of to-day. In 1823 Prof. 

 Amici, one of the first to attempt the perfect- 

 ing of the microscope, discovered the tubes of 

 the germinating pollen-grain, and demonstrated 

 the essential features of fertilization in higher 

 plants, while the subject was more fully elu- 

 cidated in 1827 by Adolphe Brongniart. In 

 twenty years from 1823, the date of Amici's 

 discovery, a series of brilliant papers had ap- 

 peared on the structure of cells, on the anat- 

 omy, physiology, and embryology of plants, by 

 Mohl, Schleiden, Schwann, and Robert Brown ; 

 and on the life and development of the lower 

 cryptogamia, by the Tulasne brothers and oth- 

 ersall of which are classic memoirs, and lie 

 at the foundation of all subsequent work in 

 their departments. In addition to these, in 

 1851, was published Hofmeister's "Verglei- 

 chende Untersuchungen," afterward translated 



and brought out by the Ray Society, of Lon- 

 don, in 1862, under the title "On the Germi- 

 nation, Development, and Fructification of the 

 Higher Cryptogamia, and the Fructification of 

 the Coniferse." This work takes up typical 

 forms of liverworts, mosses, ferns, equiseturns, 

 selaginellas, and conifers, tracing the life-his- 

 tory of each, and recording the result by 

 means of simple, clear descriptions, and many 

 exquisitely drawn and engraved plates, as faith- 

 ful in the story they tell as the plants them- 

 selves. But what gave unity to this admira- 

 ble statement of facts was the discovery and 

 absolute demonstration of the existence of two 

 generations, essentially different in form and 

 function, in the life-history of each of these 

 plants. One generation bears the sexual or- 

 gans, the other the asexual organs, of repro- 

 duction. Even the coniferae are linked with 

 the higher cryptogamia through the history of 

 their embryological life, forming clearly the 

 crowning group of the series. Prof. Sachs 

 says, " This discovery is one of the most fer- 

 tile in results that has ever been made in the 

 domain of morphology and classification." A 

 new class of facts, we see, are brought to bear 

 on the subjects last mentioned, inaccessible ex- 

 cept through the microscope, which opened a 

 new and almost boundless field in this as well 

 as in other directions. Even in the descrip- 

 tion of the species of flowering plants a revolu- 

 tion was being slowly brought about. Previous 

 to 1840, Decaisne, an eminent French botanist, 

 had introduced the method of including in 

 such descriptions, not only the external charac- 

 ters, but also the internal structure, such as is 

 shown by microscopical study. This practice 

 has been adopted by several systematic bota- 

 nists since that time in drawing up the charac- 

 ters of the species of certain orders, as the 

 equisetaceae, graminese, and cyperacese, and the 

 soundness of the principle will commend itself 

 more and more, and botanists will take the 

 broad ground of describing a flowering plant 

 by means of its structure and life-history as 

 well as its form, as they have already done in 

 describing the lower plants. 



Modern Instruction. All this fundamental 

 work on the structure and life of plants had 

 been accompanied by almost equal activity in 

 systematic botany proper, where former views 

 as to the affinities of groups were greatly al- 

 tered by the quantities of new material derived 

 from the new fields opened by geographic or 

 botanic exploration. The seed sown fell upon 

 well-tilled and fertile soil. An old, well-settled 

 country, long at peace, with organized systems 

 of education culminating in universities, en- 

 couraging original work, and possessing in 

 herbariums and libraries constantly increasing 

 resources, was ready to receive it. Moreover, 

 the sowers of the seed, men of singular acu- 

 men, enthusiasm, and self-devotion, and in the 

 full maturity of their powers, were present to 

 direct and stimulate the new growth, and the 

 older of them Mohl, Thuret, Hofmeister, 



