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CHAPTER XII. 



MISCELLANEOUS BOTANICAL LETTERS. 

 1873-1882. 



[THE present chapter contains a series of miscellaneous 

 letters on botanical subjects. Some of them show my father's 

 varied interests in botanical science, and others give account 

 of researches which never reached completion.] 



BLOOM ON LEAVES AND FRUIT. 



[His researches into the meaning of the " bloom," or waxy 

 coating found on many leaves, was one of those inquiries 

 which remained unfinished at the time of his death. He 

 amassed a quantity of notes on the subject, part of which I 

 hope to publish at no distant date.* . . 



One of his earliest letters on this subject was addressed in 

 August, 1873, to Sir Joseph Hooker: 



" I want a little information from you, and if you do not 

 yourself know, please to enquire of some of the wise men of 

 Kew. 



" Why are the leaves and fruit of so many plants protected 

 by a thin layer of waxy matter (like the common cabbage), 



* A small instalment, on the lished results identical with some 



relation between bloom and the which my father and myself ob- 



distribution of the stomata on tained, viz. that bloom diminishes 



leaves, has appeared in the 'Jour- transpiration. The same fact was 



nal of the Linnean Society/ 1886. previously published by Garreau, 



Tschirsch (Linncea, 1881) has pub- in 1850. 



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