TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 141 



by its own fibres connected. Yet the consumers state it will not spin — a customary 

 objection to anjiihing new. More recently a similar import (about half a dozen 

 bags of 70 lbs. each) came from the River Plate via Pernambuco. Any quantity 

 can be had fi-om the east side of the Andes and the plains of the Amazon. As to 

 the staple of the cotton, it is very silky and short ; but by grafting-, or superior 

 technical cultivation known to naturalists, it might no doubt be improved. Large 

 quantities must be brought to market, and then machinery will be altered to siut 

 its working, as was the case with alpaca, which has a sQky fibre. He sold one bag 

 of the Barrugudo cotton at Sd. per lb. ; but, as the Yorkshire buyer did not accept 

 delivery, the whole of the last lot was taken by the importer for stufling sofa 

 cushions and mixing in feather beds, instead of purchasing swandowu at 12s. Gd. 

 per lb. Here is a large field for the use of such fibres ; and if brought to this 

 coimtry in large quantities, it must be mixed with cotton, like Mingo or devil's 

 dust, or be spun up with sheep's wool. Through the kindness of J\[r. M. J. "NVhitty, 

 of the ' Liverpool Daily Post,' the wi'iter was authorized to exhibit a sample of new 

 fibre from the wild flax of North America. Millions of bales, he states, can be 

 obtained at a cost of less than id. per lb., so profusely does the wild flax exist. 

 These new fields ought to command attention when there is so much anxiety to 

 increase the supply of cotton. The author contends that six million acres of land 

 in Ireland can be had at a nominal rent, on which good cotton can be grown, the 

 land never having been gi-azed, scratched, or nibbled by cattle. 



On the Functions discharged hy the Roots of Plants; and on a Violet peculiar 

 to the Calamine Mod's in the neiqhhourhood of Aix-la-Chapelle. By 

 Professor Daubeny, LL.D., M.D., F.B.S. 



This violet, although its petals are of a unifomily yellow colour so long as the 

 roots are in contact with the zinc, seems to be a mere variety of the common Viola 

 lutea, which has purple petals when it grows on ordinary soil ; and accordingly, on 

 the confines of the two sh-ata, the petals of the plant are partly yellow and partly 



Eiu-ple. The author made some fm-ther remarks upon the absoi-ption of mmeral 

 odies by the roots of plants, and in conclusion gave it as his opinion, that the 

 selective power possessed by them indicated a force independent of any physical 

 cause, and which he therefore regarded as of vital origin. 



On the Influence exerted hy Liyht on the Function of Plants. 

 By Professor Daubent, LL.D., M.D., F.E.8. 



The author referred to certain principles established by him in a paper published 

 in the ' Philosophical Transactions ' for the year 18-36, in which it was laid down, 

 first, that the decomposition of carbonic acid and the consequent disengagement 

 of oxygen was influenced by the luminous rays of the spectrum, and not by tho 

 calorific or actinic ones ; secondly, that under particular cu'cmnstances nitroo-en is 

 emitted during sunlio-ht from the leaves of plants ; and thirdly, that other functions 

 of plants, such as the greenness which the leaves assume, the peculiar propei-ty 

 which belongs to certain ones, as to the sensitive plant, of collapsing on the appli- 

 cation of stimuli, the exhalation of water from the leaves and its absorption b}^ tlie 

 roots, ai'e probably dependent upon the same influence. 



On tlie Method o/ Mr. Darwin in his Treatise on the Oriyin of Sjyecies. 

 By H. Fawcett, M.A. 

 He said that, as he could not conform to what he believed was the rule, that 

 communications should be read (Mr. Fawcett being blind), he would promise to 

 keep as close to his subject as though he had vn-itten his paper. The title which 

 he originally fixed upon was, " That the method of iuA-estigation pursued by Mr. 

 Darwin, in his Treatise on the Origin of Species, is in strict accordance with the 

 principles of logic." He feared that he might be charged with presumption in 

 attempting to say anything on Mr. Daiwin's gi-eat work, which had already en- 

 gaged the attention of the most accomplished naturalists of the day. He had been 



