Miscellanies. 227 
For the purpose of obtaining some immediate pecuniary aid in the 
prosecution of his present arduous undertaking, Mr. Geyer also offers 
for sale, (through the parties above mentioned,) a selection from his 
collections of the last year in Illinois and Missouri; consisting of twen- 
ty sets of one hundred and fifty species of plants, which are offered at 
six dollars per set. A list of this collection, with critical remarks, and 
descriptions of some new species it contains, received from Dr. Engel- 
mann too late for present insertion, will find a place in the ensuing num- 
ber of this Journal. A. Gr. 
5. Iodine in Phanerogamic Plants and Mosses.—At a meeting of 
the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, on the 7th of December last, ‘¢ Mr. 
Brand read ‘a notice of the presence of iodine in some plants growing 
near the sea,’ by G. Dickie. The author found, by chemical examina- 
tion of specimens of Statice Armeria from the sea-shore, and of oth- 
ers from the inland and higher districts of Aberdeenshire, that the for- 
mer contained iodine, and that soda was more abundant in them, while 
potassa prevailed in the latter. lodine was also found in Grimmia mar- 
atima ; and Mr. P. Grant of Aberdeen has also found it in Pyrethrum 
maritimum. An analysis was made of specimens of Statice Armeria, 
Grimmia maritima, Lichina confinis, and Ramalina scopulorum, all 
growing near the same spot, and occasionally during storms exposed to 
the sea spray: all these plants, with the exception of the Lichen, con- 
tained iodine. ‘The specimens having been washed previously to anal- 
ysis, the iodine could not have been derived from saline incrustation. 
All these vegetables were healthy, and the author of the paper has 
been led to conclude that the marine Alge are not the only plants which 
possess the power of separating from sea water the compounds of io- 
dine, and of condensing them in their tissues, and this without any det- 
riment to their healthy functions.” —Gardener’s Chronicle. 
6. Disengagement of Carbonic Acid by the Roots of Plants.—* It 
appears from the researches of Messrs. Wiegmann and Polsdorff as re- 
ported in the last number of the ‘ Annals of Chemistry,’ that the roots 
of living plants disengage carbonic acid, and that this acid is capable 
of decomposing the silicates of the soil, which resist even the action of 
nitro-muriatic acid. ‘This most curious discovery throws a new light 
upon the importance of carbonic acid to vegetation, and explains clear- 
ly, what has been by no means evident, namely the manner in which 
flinty substances prove beneficial to vegetation, and how minerals so 
hard as feldspar are made to contribute to the maintenance of plants. 
Plants of tobacco, oats, barley, clover, &c. were grown in quartz sand 
which had been heated red hot, and then digested for sixteen hours in 
