136 TiMEHRI. 



should have been " unsuccessfully ;" but, in either case, 

 there seems to be some mistake in the matter, for it 

 would scarcely have been so positively and barely stated 

 in the Kevv Bulletin for December, 1888 (No. 24) that 

 " certainly in the rich Herbarian at Kevv there are no 

 seed-bearing specimens," if at the time there were 

 a6lual seeds there — for, presumably, specimens of them 

 would have been preserved. 



Contemporaneously and independently, the late Dr. 

 SOLTWEDEL appears to have attained the same results 

 in Java, that Messrs. HARRISON and BovELL did in 

 Barbados ; and excellent figures are attached to the 

 report in which these investigations have been published 

 by Dr. F. Benecke. The special credit is, however, 

 due to Messrs. HARRISON and BovELL that it was 

 through their work that the matter is now regarded as 

 definitely settled, and general recognition given to the 

 fa6t that the sugar-cane produces fertile seed. 



With the history of the matter, as touched upon 

 above, before one's mind, it becomes almost comical to 

 read in the last issue of the West Indian and Com- 

 mercial Advertiser (June 1890) — a magazine in which 

 one ought at least to expe6l some credit for good work 

 done in the West Indies — " There is no douDt as to the 

 value of the experiments successfully condu6ted by Mr. 

 Morris at the Royal Gardens, Kew, in the obtaining 

 seeds from the Sugar-cane. Pra6tical men agree that it 

 is impossible to over-estimate the value of the discovery 

 made by Mr. MoRRiS." 



Luminous Larva. — On page 108, a description has 

 already been given of some luminous larvae, obtained 



3 



