licproduction appears to be excellent, as indeed we 

 ^- geographical and sreoloirieal part is necessarily very 



A. O. 



The chapter on 



should expect. The geographical and geological part 

 briefly treated. 



2. Naudin's Researches into the Specific Characters and the Varieties of 

 the Genus Cucurbita, are publislied in the 6th volume (4th series) of the 

 Annaks des Sciences Naturelles, and are of no small interest, being 

 founded upon a very conscientious investigation of nearly all the known 



V 



440 Scientific Intelligence. 



m 



from .the fullness of his acquaintance with the writings and doings of all 

 the continental phytotomists, and also with the authority of an experi- 

 enced original investigator. And, so far as we know, it compiises much 

 the best resume of vegetable anatomy and development now extant in 

 the English language, at once succinct, clear, trustworthy, and well 

 brought up to the present state of the science. Perhaps the succeeding j 



chapters, on the Physiology of Plants generally, the Physiology of Vege- 

 tation, and on Reproduction, are equally commendable in their way; hut 

 Ave have as yet barely glanced over the pages. We like the following 

 definition, and the ensuing paragraph upon the 7'6le of vitality in plants. 



"The physiology of plants is that department of botany in which we 

 irivestigate the phenomena of the life of plants, manifested in a series of 

 changes taking place in the diverse parts of which each plant is com- 

 posed." — p. 475. ' 



"The physiological phenomena which indicate vitality are always of 

 more or less complex nature, and admit of being analyzed into a number 

 of factors, of which a large proportion are found to be purely physical or 

 chemical, A very considerable part of the changes wdiich accompany 

 the process of organization are the results of the action of physical and j 



^hemical forces, [and] capable of being explained up to a certain point, 

 Dy the known laws of thoi=e forces. But in every case, after referring all 

 the^ chemical and physical phenomena to their respective places, there re- 

 mains a residual phenomenon to be accounted for, which is precisely the 

 most important of all, — namely, that in living organic structures .... 

 the laws of inorganic matter are subdued under a higher influence,- and 

 caused to undergo modifications never occurring except in the presence of 

 living matter; while — most important of all — the peculiar compounds of 

 matter thus produced are not only made to assume forms, according to 

 definite laws, totally unlike any forms of mineral matter, but [to] consti- 

 tute bodies manifesting a continued interchange of material with the sur- 

 rounding media, which, instead of resulting in decomposition, as in min- 

 eral bodies, eflccts a reproduction and increase of the already existing 

 [organized] matter." — p. 542. 



In the paragraph on the longevity of trees (p. 549), we find reirewed 

 occasion to notice the longevity of unfounded statements, copied from 

 one book into another long after the error has been pointed out. Here 

 apiif^ the Adansonia of Senegal and the Wellingtonia or Seqicoia of 

 California figure as trees "whose age, deduced from the rings of growth 

 of the stems would amount to upwards of 3000 years." There is really 

 no evidence to prove that the famous Baobabs described by Adanson are 

 of such an age, and as to the Wellingtonia in question, an actual c-ouut- 

 iiig of the rings has shown that the tree was not half so old as it was 

 vaguely computed to be. 



'n 



