458 Lhe Botanical Gazette. [October, 
4. Origin of the littoral flora. The paucity of species of 
the littoral flora is accounted for by the diversity of destruc- 
tive causes at work, which also explains the great number of 
individuals in the case of those plants which are well adapted 
In order to throw light upon this subject the author has 
sown and transplanted to Brussels a large number of the plants 
of the dunes and schorres. This will be followed by a study 
of whatever modifications take place because of this change 
of environment. The inverse experiment has also been tried 
of transplanting 400 species of perennials cultivated in the 
Botanic Garden at Brussels, to various places along the coast. 
—GILBERT H. Hicks. 
Nature and life history of starch grains.! 
peices way analagous to the katalytic action of acids 
except that it is more easily influenced by external conditions, 
such as heat, etc. 
Under diastatic action, amylose takes up water and splits 
into two molecules of amylodextrin, which is transforme 
into isomaltose and dextrin. Both of these substances pass 
Pooks i A 
Lebenspecch eq, Untersuchungen liber die Starkekérner 
esen und 
Starkekérner der hdheren Pflanzen. pp. xvi+318. pl. % 
figs. 99. Gustav Fischer. Jena. 1895, 
