FOREIGN EXTRACTS. 319 



ovules on their margins, which acquired a very considerable degree 

 of development, becoming completely anatropous like those in the 

 normal ovary. 



Prof, Henslow exhibited a specimen of the Papover orientalis, in 

 which the filaments of the stamens were converted into bodies 

 bearing ovules. 



On mineral manure. By Prof. Liebig. 

 Soils exist under varying conditions, being greatly influenced by 

 geological and geographical condiiions. I'hey are improved byadapt- 

 mg to them those manures which these circumstances require. In a 

 wet region, tliose mineral manures should be selected which are not 

 nnmedialely soluble, but which slowly decompose so as to meet the 

 required exigency of the crop. This is proposed to be obtained 

 by the manufacture of mineral manures under the guidance of 

 this principle ; and as each kind of grain requires in part different 

 elements, or at least different proportions of the same elements, it is 

 proposed to make manures specially adapted to each kind of grain. 

 It was, in illustration of the above, pointed out that wheat, oats, 

 leguminous plants and potatoes, each require a different kind of 

 manure, to bring it to the highest state of perfection to which it is 

 susceptible. 



Coprolitic Nodules. From the paper of Prof. Henslow, we 

 learn that these nodules abound in the Green sand, London clay 

 and Red crag. It appears from analysis that these nodules abound 

 in phosphate of lime, and may be used to advantage in Agriculture. 

 They yield from 50 - 60 per cent of phosphate of lime. Equivalent 

 formations exist in this country, and will probably yield the same 

 substance. 



Ashes of the Narcotic Plants. By F. C. Wrightson. 



It is maintained that the great problem of the chemistry of the 

 present day, in its application to agriculture, is to determine the con- 

 ditions necessary for a soil to produce the largest amount of any 

 given crop for the suslenance of man or animals. The solution of 

 this problem will be made, when it is determined what mineral con- 

 ditions are essential to obtain vegetables in their full perfection. 

 The analysis of our cultivated plants will not be sufficient for this 

 purpose ; but it will be necessary also to analize the weeds which 

 spring up among them, and which are unfit for the sustenance of 

 man, for these also rob the soil of much that is essential to the per- 

 fection of our cultivated plants. Besides robbing the soil of elements 

 wanted for the valuable ones, they also injure it mechanically, 

 shading and otherwise interfering with their growth. 



