5i8 



NATURE 



[Oct. 5, 1876 



inspect and report upon the technical and scientific arrangements 

 of the telegraphs in the United States. This is one result of the 

 report of Dr. Lyon Playfair's Select Committee. 



A Berne observer has registered the number of days when 

 the shade temperature had exceeded 20° C. in the last twenty- 

 eight years (1849-1876). The number in each of the twenty- 

 eight years is as follows:— 31, 19, 22, 27, 22, ii, 17, 29, 30, 26, 

 47. 10, 37, 16, 34, 20, 30, 24, 31, 56, 31, 56, 31, 44, 38, 26, 40, 

 55. No regularity whatever is exhibited. 



It is rumoured that the Colorado beetle is amongst us, and 

 unfortunately nut confined to the cabinets of collectors. 



A Bill is being framed to be brought before Parliament next 

 session for the incorporation of the Andersonian University, 

 Glasgow. The Bill will provide for a change of name and 

 several importjint modifications in the constitution. 



The progress of education in Russia has in recent years been 

 very marked. In April 1866 the Czar appointed Count Tolstoi 

 Minister of Education. In commemoration of lus first ten years 

 of official activity, this minister has recently published a "com- 

 parative map of the higher and middle educational institutions of 

 the ministry of education in the years 1866 and 1876." The 

 facts expressed by the map are given in tabular form, in a recent 

 number of the Russische Revue, and the following extract will show, 

 in general form, the increase in number of higher and middle 

 educational institutions during the decennium in question : — 



Universities and other higher institutions 



Gymnasia 



Pro-gymnasia 



Real-schulen and Real-gymnasia 



Technical institutions 



Seminaries for teachers 



Girls' gymnasia and schools of first rank 



Girls' pro-gymnasia and schools of second rank 55 148 



1866 i8;6 



8 18 

 101 133 



7 69 



" 53 



— II 



9 60 

 39 66 



222 540 



Under thf XVlz " L'Erborista Toscano," the eminent professor 

 of botany at Piii., Prof. Caruel, publishes an analytical key to 

 the natural orders, genera, and species of Phanerogams and 

 Vascular Cryptogams (or, as he terms them, Prothallogams) 

 found wild in Tuscany, 



Under the title " Contributions to the Flora of Iowa," Mr. 

 J. C. Arthur prints a list of the flowering plants of the State, 

 979 in number, including varieties and introduced species, with 

 critical notes on some of the species. 



We have before us the Bulletins of the Torrey Botanical Club 

 of New York, Nos. 17-20 of vol. vi. They comprise a list of 

 the Musci and Hepaticte of Colorado collected by T. L. Bran- 

 degee in 1873-75, and determined by E. A. Rau ; notes on 

 some rare southern plants, by H. W. Ravenel ; and several 

 minor papers, chiefly of local interest. 



We have a useful contributiou to botanical biography in a 

 sketch by Prof. E. Morren, " Malhias de I'Obel (Lobelius), sa 

 vie, et ses oeuvres, 1538-1616." 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week inc'ude five Perch {Pejca Jluviatilis) from British Fresh 

 Waters, presented by Master B. L. Sclater ; a Ruppell's Spur- 

 winged Goose {Plectropterus riippelli) from East Africa, a Grey 

 Struthidea (Siruthid(a cinerea) from Australia, two Chinese Jay 

 Thrushes {Garrulax c/dnensis) i'rom China, deposited; four 

 American Darters iPlotus anhinga), two Boatbills {Cancroma 

 cochlearia), a Sun Bittern {Eurypyga helias), two Black-faced 

 Ibises {Gironticus melanopis), a Stilt Plover (Himantopus nigri- 

 collis), two Bahama Ducks {PoecilloneUa hahamensis), a Red- 

 billed Tree Duck {Deiidrocygna autumnalis) from S. America, a 

 Slaty-headed Parrakeet {.Palxornis scJiisticeps) from India, 

 purchased. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



The recent numbers of the yournal of Botany, Nos. 161-165 

 (now edited solely by Dr. H. Trimen), contain no one article of 

 very special interest ; but several interesting contributions to 

 foreign and British botany of a more or less technical character, 

 and strongly illustrating the present tendency of British botanists 

 to devote themselves to systematic and nomenclatorial, to the 

 almost entire exclusion of morphological and physiological work. 

 ■ — Dr. R. Spruce describes a new genus of Hepaticae, and the 

 Rev. M. J. Berkeley two new genera of Fungi, under the names 

 respectively of Anomoclada, Kalchbrenncra, and Macowania ; 

 and the Rev. J. M. Crombie some new Lichens from Rodriguez. 

 — Mr. Hemsley and Dr. Hance add to our s^ock of information 

 on the botanical products of China and Cambodia. — Dr. M. T. 

 Masters identifies the pear recently discovered in Britain and 

 described under the name of Pyriis communis var. Briggsii with 

 the well-known continental P. cordata of Desvaux. — Mr. J. G. 

 Baker continues his useful work on the hitherto little-studied 

 Iridese, his contributions in the present number including the 

 Ixiese and the genera Aristea and Sisyrinchitim, with descriptions 

 of a new Xiphion and Crocus from the Cilician Taurus. — There 

 are many minor notes of much interest. 



The Nturvo Giornale Botanico Italiano, edited by Prof Caruel, 

 has increased its number of pages in each part ; but, with its 

 increase in quantity, has suffered no deterioration in quality. 

 Indeed, the Italian botanical journal is now among the most 

 important of European serial publications in botany. In the 

 two numbers before us, the second and third for the present 

 year, the articles of interest are so numerous that we can only 

 glance at some of the most important, at the risk of doing scant 

 justice to the remainder. The longest article is one which 

 extends over the two numbers, on the alimentation of cellular 

 plants, by G. Cugini. The result evidently of great labour and 

 research, it is impossible even to give an abstract of the conclu- 

 sions at whicli the writer arrives. With regard to the relative 

 importance of the various elementary substances of which the 

 food of plants is composed, he differs somewhat from the results 

 arrived at by Sachs and detailed in his "Text-book," espe- 

 cially in considering potassium, calcium, magnesium, and iron 

 as of nearly equal value in the vegetable economy. He thinks- 

 that potassium has a somewhat similar relationship to the carbo- 

 hydrates to that which phosphorus bears to albuminoids. Signor 

 Cugini's list of the essential food-materials of plants comprises 

 organic carbonaceous substances, water, ammoniacal salts, sul- 

 phates of potassium and iron, phosphate of magnesium, and an 

 alkaline silicate ; and that of non-essential ingredients, in the 

 order of their importance, the chloride, iodide, or bromide of 

 sodium or potassium, the phosphate, nitrate, or sulphate of cal- 

 cium, and salts of zinc, manganese, and aluminium. — Prof. 

 Delpino contributes a paper on dichogamy and homogamy in 

 plants, which is of great interest in view of Mr. Darwin's pro- 

 mised work on cross-fertilisation and self-fertilisation. After 

 classifying plants into homogamic and dichogamic, he further 

 subdivides the former class into homoclinic, in which the pollen 

 fertilises the ovules in the same individual hermaphrodite flower; 

 homocephalic, in which it fertilises ovules in flowers belonging 

 to the same inflorescence ; and monoecious, in which fertilisation 

 is effected on ovules contained in flowers on a totally different 

 part of the same individual. A seties of experiments indicated 

 that the fecundity resulting from pollination was in an inverse 

 order to that given above. — Dr. G. Gibelli has made a careful 

 examination of the infolded leaves of Enipetrum nigrum, a com- 

 mon plant on our mountain heaths, and finds a striking resem- 

 blance, on a min'ature scale, to the pitchers of Aepentkes, 

 Sarracenia, &c., suggesting also an analogy of function. The 

 paper is illustrated by two well-executed plates. — Cryptogamic 

 laotany comes in for its full share of attention. — In addition to 

 papers On the Bacteria parasitic on fungi, by Dr. Lauzi, On the 

 structure of Pilularia globulifera and Salvinm natans, by G. 

 Arcangeli, and On Isoetes Duricci, by A. Piccone, there are 

 others on the fungi of Venetia, on the Hepaticse of Borneo, on 

 new Italian fungi, and on the mosses of Liguria. 



Der Naturfoncher, April — July. — In the numbers we note an 

 account, by M. Hoffmann, of a singular phenomenon in an 

 orchard near the village of Heuchelheim. A large fire occurred 

 in the village in the beginning of September, and four weeks 

 after it numerous trees in the orchard (pears and damsons, e.g.) 

 that had been singed by the fire began to vegetate anew, putting 

 forth tender green leaves and blossoms, often by the side of fruits 



