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TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION D. 867 
destitute of chlorophyll, and growing most freely in darkness, is a fact of the 
highest scientific interest. Winogradsky suggests that an amide is probably the 
compound first produced. The formation of an amide, and still more the formation 
of albumin or ceilulose from ammonium carbonate, is a very improbable chemical 
reaction, asit must be attended with a large absorption of energy. If, however, we 
may regard the molecule of ammonium carbonate existing in solution asa large one, 
and that the oxidation of the ammonia to nitrous or nitric acid proceeds at the 
same time as the formation of organic matter, the action becomes possible, the 
large liberation of energy during the oxidation of the ammonia counterbalancing 
the absorption of energy during the formation of organic matter. 
2. Notes on Phylloglossum. By Professor F. O. Bower. 
3. On the Question of the Phylogeny of Ferns. By Professor F. O. Bower. 
4. On Hybrids and their Parents. By Dr. J. M. Macrarnann. 
The author stated that about 2,000 hybrid plants had been recorded up to 1881 
and that since then the number had been nearly doubled. While Kélreuter and 
Gaertner had won for themselves lasting honour by conducting laborious and care- 
ful experimental crosses, the first who attempted to compare minutely a hybrid 
with its parents was the late Professor Henslow of Cambridge. Other observers 
followed, but no attempt had been made to observe the individual cells of which 
plants are built up. 
Proceeding on this line of inquiry, Dr. Macfarlane stated that he found hybrid 
plants to reproduce, in a blended manner, the structural peculiarities of both 
parents. Selecting several well-known hybrids, he showed that alike in the vege- 
tative and reproductive parts, the number of cells in a given area, the shape, size, 
and contents of these, and even their growth, to give a certain position to the organs 
of which they form the units, was intermediate in the hybrid between the parents. 
Reference was then made to the remarkable Adam’s Laburnum (Cytisus 
Adami), which was produced near Paris in 1825 as a graft hybrid, and was now 
to be found in gardens and shrubberies throughout our country. This produces 
on some parts of the tree branches bearing yellow flowers, exactly like the stock- 
parent—the common Laburnum, or other small tuft-like growths with purple 
tlowers, as in the purple Laburnum, and again branches with flowers intermediate 
in size and colour. From microscopic examination it was proved that such a graft 
hybrid as this differed from seed hybrids in showing largely a mixture of tissue 
masses instead of a blending of cell characters. 
The author pointed out how investigations such as these might aid in deter- 
mining the relation of offspring to parents, the laws which govern the production 
of hybrids, and the possible value of hybrids in the origin of species. He also 
insisted on the need for microscopic comparison in the determination of the affinity 
of species from an evolutionary standpoint, and in conclusion asked zoologists and. 
delegates from local Natural History Societies to help forward the further study 
of this extremely wide and interesting branch of inquiry. 
5. Dehiscence of Fruit of Ecballium elaterium. 
By Professor T. Jounson, B.Sc., F.L.S. 
The author has examined the violent mode of dehiscence of the fruit of Zcballium 
elaterium, to see how it compared with that of the parasitic phanerogam Arceutho- 
bium oxycedri, previously investigated. In both cases dehiscence is due to rupture 
under pressure of a basal zone of meristematic tissue, the fruit falling off and the 
seeds or seed being jerked out. In £cballium F. Hildebrandt considers the thin 
