‘BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 99 
a eee ena ee eer eg) 
A STRONG popular interest is manifested in England in the scientific results 
of the study of the diseases of cultivated plants. 
Pror. W. W. Bariey, of Brown University, reports finding a raceme of 
Cytisus Canariensis, a common hot-house plant, terminated by a well-marked 
leafy branch. 
In Mr. L, H. Barzey’s supplement to his catalogue of N. Am. Carices sev- 
.eral additions and emendations are made, making the whole number of specics 
catalogued 200, varieties 85. 
“THE porantsts of this country need arousing, they are far behind their 
zoological brethren,” says a cotemporary. This is lamentably true, but not to 
the extent that the page devoted to the subject in Science Record would lead one 
to believe. 
THE NOTABLE botanists from across the Atlantic who may be quite confi- 
dently expected to attend the American Association at Philadelphia are, so far 
as now known, Sir Joseph Hooker, Prof. W. R. McNab, Mr. John Ball and Sir 
J. Lubbock. 
E PREPARATIONS for the entertainment of botanists at the Philadelphia 
meeting are steadily progressing. Among the special excursions decided upon 
is one to the Bartram house and garden at Kinsessing, and another to the pine 
barrens of New Jersey. 
PULVERIZED PLANTS dissolved in distilled water have been used recently 
in some experiments in plant physiology. It is suggested that the solution will 
probably prove useful in many cases where it is desired to determine the amount 
and quality of plant food. 
WARMING opposes Lupwic’s THEORY that Philodendron bipinnatifidum is 
fertilized by snails (Bor. Gaz. viii, 230), and considers that it is effected by 
“small black bees,” During the flowering of this Aroid a rise of temperature 
to the extent of 18.5° C. takes place. 
By sruDYING THEIR DEVELOPMENT, Urban has concluded that the axil- 
lary spines of the Aurantiacee are the metamorphosed lowermost leaves of a 
theoretical axillary shoot. This explanation is confirmed by finding interme- 
diate forms in some species of Citrus. 
Rev. Francis Wour’s new work on the Desmids of the United States will 
contain fifty-three colored plates, and descriptions of nearly five hundred species. 
It is published at the very low price of five dollars; subscriptions should be 
sent to the author at Bethlehem, Pa. 
red roots of Wachendorfia thyrsiflora, though diffused in the cell-sap, is formed 
even in absolute darkness. The bright red of the fruit of Rivina humilis and the 
bracts of Euphorbia fulgens is produced by the superposition of cells having dif- 
ferent pigments. ; 
