September i6, 1915] 



NATURE 



61 



in a report recently issued by the Forestry Branch, 

 Department of the Interior, it is stated that at 

 the present day, owing to altered conditions, there 

 is small possibility of reviving the potash industry 

 as formerly practised. The amount of potash to 

 be recovered from the waste from the sawmills 

 is considered to be too small to be regarded as 

 commercially practicable for the mills to undertake 

 its recovery. In most cases the only use for the 

 ash from sawmill burners is for the farmers in 

 the locality to apply it directly on the land. 



Experiments made at Rothamsted recently have 

 shown that the ash of hedge cleanings, consisting 

 of grass, weeds, and clippings, contained on the 

 average about 11 per cent, of potash, that is to 

 say, about as much as kainit (Russell, Journ. 

 Board Agric, 1914, vol. xxi., p. - 694). The 

 potash is present in a very soluble form (carbonate) 

 and is rapidly washed away. If it is to be 

 utilised, therefore, care must be taken to protect 

 the ashe's from showers of rain while they are 

 cooling. 



A rather neglected source of potash is the soapy 

 water used for removing grease from wool. The 

 matter soluble in water contains potash equivalent 

 to 5 per cent, of potassium carbonate, calculated 

 on the raw wool, but as the recovery of potash 

 is not remunerative unless conducted on a large 

 scale, the wool washings are usually allowed to 

 go to waste. On the other hand, in Belgium, 

 France, and Germany the wool suint is utilised 

 as a source of potash ; it is estimated that in the 

 Roubaix district alone potash salts to the value 

 of ioo,oooL are obtained annually from this 

 source. 



One of the most promising future sources of 

 potash supplies seems to be the recently discovered 

 deposits in Alsace. In 1904 deep borings were 

 made at Niederbruck in the hope of striking oil, 

 but instead saline matter was encountered at the 

 depth of 1 1 74 ft. Since then the number of mines 

 has increased to twelve; in 1912 the output was 

 137,243 metric tons, and in 1913, 350,341 metric 

 tons. Recent reports state that the Alsatian de- 

 , posits are probably continued across the Rhine 

 ■^feto Baden. 



^^B During the past few years attention has been 

 ^^Krected to the possibility of employing as 

 ^^■lanures, with or without previous treatment, 

 ^^ninerals which contain potash in an insoluble 

 ^^^H>rm ; the more important of these are alunite, 

 l^^^lspar, and leucite. An account is given in the 

 I I pamphlet of the methods which have been experi- 

 mented with. W. A. D. 



PROF. D. T. GWYNNE-VAUGHAN. 



A FTER completing barely one year of duty in 

 ■^ the chair of botany at Reading, Prof. 

 Gwynne-Vaughan died on September 4. He was 

 only forty-four years of age, but he had made a 

 solid position for himself as a plant anatomist, 

 and he had already shown his capacity as a 

 teacher and a director of research. A life not 

 NO. 2394, VOL. 96] 



only of promise, but also of notable achievement 

 has thus come to a premature close. 



Born in 1871, at Llandovery, he was educated 

 at Monmouth School, whence he passed as scholar 

 to Christ's College, Cambridge, and took the 

 Natural Sciences Tripos. After graduation he 

 held a mastership for a time, but soon relinquished 

 it to pursue research. For this end he went to 

 the Jodrell Laboratory, Royal Gardens, Kew, 

 which was then under the directorship of Dr. 

 D. H. Scott. Here his investigations of stelar 

 morphology began, and in 1897 he published his 

 first results on Nymphaeaceae (Trans. Linn. Soc.) 

 and Primulaceae {Annals of Botany). A pecu- 

 liarly lucid preliminary statement at the British 

 Association at Liverpool (1896) led to his appoint- 

 ment as assistant in botany in the University of 

 Glasgow, where he worked for about ten years, 

 laying the foundation of his unrivalled knowledge 

 of the anatomy of the Pteridophyta. In 1907 he 

 became head of the department of botany in Birk- 

 beck College, London, but after two years he was 

 appointed professor of Botany in Belfast. Finally, 

 in 1914, he took up similar duties at Reading. In 

 191 1 he married Dr. H. C. I. Fraser, herself an 

 accomplished botanist, who had succeeded him in 

 the post at the Birkbeck College. 



He acted for several years as secretary and 

 afterwards as recorder of the botanical section of 

 the British Association, winning the warm regard 

 of all its members. His funeral occurring on the 

 opening day of its current session in Manchester, 

 the business of the section was by common consent 

 suspended during the time of the service. 



Gwynne-Vaughan's position as an anatomist is 

 based, not only on his published works, but also 

 upon a great accumulation of well-assured facts 

 recorded in notes, which he readily made available 

 to his colleagues. He was chiefly interested in 

 stelar problems relating to the Filicales. From 

 the list of his works two series of papers may be 

 mentioned as of outstanding importance. The 

 first includes the two memoirs on solenostelic 

 ferns {Ann. of Bof., 1901, 1903), in which he estab- 

 lished the method of representation of the vascu- 

 lar system in the solid, as reconstructed from 

 sections. The second series was written in happy 

 co-operation with Dr. Robert Kidston, and dealt 

 with the fossil Osmundaceae (Trans. R.S. Edin., 

 1907-1911). Seldom have two minds blended their 

 results more effectively. The one brought to bear 

 a wide knowledge of fossils from the stratigraphi- 

 cal and systematic point of view. The other 

 supplied critical and expert anatomical experience, 

 based upon study of living plants. The result is 

 a series of beautifully illustrated memoirs, which 

 trace in a natural sequence of plants an anatomical 

 progression which follows most convincingly the 

 successive stratigraphlcal horizons. They also 

 kidicate the underlying method of that progression 

 which finds its reflection in other series of vascular 

 plants. Already these memoirs may be held to 

 have taken their place among the botanical 

 classics. 



Work of such a nature alreadv achieved makes 



