272 Miscellaneous. 



loliacea and pratensis ; and that the wild Parsnip had become en- 

 nobled under his hands in the same way as the wild Carrot was 

 formerly, under the management of the elder Vilmorin. 



M. Decaisne, the able Professor of Agriculture in the experimental 

 department of the Garden of Plants in Paris, one of the most acute 

 of living botanists, and an extremely cautious experimentahst, being 

 engaged in the same line of inquiry, and having become desirous of 

 seeing some of the living results of Professor Buckman's experiments, 

 that gentleman readily acceded to a request that he would furnish 

 them ; and in the spring a small parcel was forwarded to Paris. [It 

 is necessary to remark that although it passed through our hands we 

 were prevented by other occupations from examining it.] We have 

 now before us a report on the subject from M. Decaisne himself: — 



"I was very much obliged to you for the specimens of Glyceria 

 (Pod) aquatica which you were good enough to send over from 

 Mr. JBuckman. Thanks to this authentic information, the value of 

 the experiments mentioned last year in the ' Gardeners' Chronicle ' 

 begins to appear. Towards the end of last year I myself had col- 

 lected and sown seeds of Glyceria fluitans and G. spectabilis (Poa 

 aquatica). At this moment G. fiuitans sown in dry ground is in full 

 flower, without having lost any one of its characters in the smallest 

 particular. Each plant forms a close tuft, from which arise many 

 flowering branches, which spread over the ground just as they do in 

 water. We have therefore, in this instance, no transmutation. 



" As to Gl. spectabilis, it is not as yet in flower, but its creeping 

 rhizomes, thick yellowis-h-green shoots, and broad leaves with rough 

 sheaths leave no doubt as to its identity with its type. My experi- 

 ment shows therefore that Glyceria fluitans and Gl. spectabilis 

 remain unchanged, 



" The curious circumstance attending the account of transmutation 

 related by Mr. Buckman is that it rests upon a palpable mistake. 

 The two specimens he was so good as to send me in neither case belong 

 to the genus Glyceria, but are in both instances Poa sudetica ! 

 This brings down the whole scaiFolding with which his theory was 

 constructed. 



"■ If, however, Mr. Buckman has fallen into an error about Poa, I 

 believe that others have done the same in the case of Carrots. That 

 is to say, for four years past I have placed myself in the same conditions 

 as were described by M. Vilmorin, and nothing has come to pass. 

 Wild Carrots remain field Carrots still. I cannot but believe that 

 when M. Vilmorin saw them changing to red, yellow, and purple, 

 such changes must have been brought about by accidental crossing. 

 Insects must have conveyed the pollen of cultivated Carrots to the 

 wild ones, and thus intermediate conditions have been obtained. 



" May I add that I have no confidence in the discovery of a 

 Broccoli on the clifPs of Cornwall. I am perfectly acquainted with 

 the wild Cabbage of our French coast, and I cannot bring myself to 

 believe it the parent of our cultivated races. However we shall learn 

 in time, for 1 have been engaged for several years in experimenting 

 on the subject." — From the Gardeners' Chronicle, Aug. 17, 1861. 



