OCTOBER 22, 1897. ] 
gathered in the morning. Thus an im- 
portant function of the leaves is positively 
established. This function consists in facili- 
tating the formation of proteids in all parts 
of the plants by the assimilation of nitrates, 
yielding thereby amido-compounds which 
are in all probability better sources for pro- 
teid formation than nitrates, in organs 
poorer in sugar and with a less energetic 
respiration process. A great advantage is 
thus gained for the stems, roots and fruits, 
in which the conditions for nitrate assimila- 
tion are less favorable than in the leaves. 
These amido-compounds produced are either 
asparagin, which, as I have shown in a 
former article, can be formed synthetically 
from ammonium salts as well as from ni- 
trates, or they are the decomposition prod- 
ucts of proteids formed in the assimilation 
of nitrates.” 
A BROADER STUDY OF LOCAL FLORAS. 
Ir is a hopeful sign of a broadening con- 
ception of the work of the local botanist 
that we see in a recent plant catalogue 
issued by Professor McClatchie and entitled 
the ‘ Seedless Plants of Southern California.’ 
We have so long been familiar with plant 
catalogues which include nothing more than 
the flowering plants, often innocently re- 
garded by their compilers as quite com- 
pletely representing the flora, that it is 
refreshing to find one in which the flower- 
less plants are enumerated, while the 
flower-bearing species are omitted. 
Not content with such a departure from 
time-honored custom, the author prefaces 
his work with a descriptive synopsis of the 
classes and orders and freely introduces 
handy artificial keys to the genera, thus de- 
parting still more from the old-style treat- 
ment. 
shows that the the author has been more 
than a mere cataloguer of forms. He has 
been a student of the groups of which the 
Species are representatives. Accordingly 
SCIENCE. 
The synopsis of the plant groups ~ 
625 
we find that the sequence and limitations 
_of classes and orders are considerably differ- 
ent from those of the ordinary text-books. 
For this the author has been criticized by 
some botanists, but we cannot agree with 
these critics. It will be far better for 
botany when local students put more rather 
than less thought into their work, and, in- 
stead of deprecating their attempts to make 
improvements in the general system, we 
should rather welcome them as hopeful in- 
dications that the day of the old-time com- 
piler of bare lists of species, following 
blindly the prevailing system, is drawing 
to a close. 
In the smaller matters, also, this list is 
strictly modern, as in the consistent use of 
metric units in all measurements, the de- 
capitalization of all specific names, the use 
of trinomials (for varieties), the omission 
of the comma after the specific name, and 
the double citation of authorities in the 
ease of species which have been removed 
from the genera in which they were first. 
described. 
CHARLES H. BrssEy. 
THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA. 
NOTES ON INORGANIC CHEMISTRY. 
THE Jahrbuch fir Mineralogie contains fur- 
ther investigations, by C. Doelter, on the 
permeability of minerals for the X-rays. 
Phenacite (silicate of glucinum) is almost 
perfectly transparent, even more so than 
boric acid. Olivine and zoisite are, like cal- 
cite, almost opaque; vesuvianite slightly 
lessso. Diopside and hiddenite, like topaz, 
are half transparent. Sphene is almost 
opaque, sapphire almost transparnt, the 
ruby hardly less so. A close relationship 
appears between the atomic weights and 
the permeability to the X-rays. 
Accorpine to lL. Davy in the Comptes Ren- 
dus, all authors who have studied the 
ancient working of tin in the west of Hu- 
