S18 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



of which seeds may be obtained to elucidate any of the following points. The 

 seed has " sometimes a double embryo." (Smith, in Eng. Flora, iv. 236.) Mr, 

 Baxter, curator of the Oxford Botanic Garden, has shown, in his Illustrations 

 of the Genera of British Floivering Plants, t. 40., the manner in which the ger- 

 minating embryo protrudes its radicles, and apposes them to the face of the 

 bark of the tree to which the seed has been affixed ; and has remarked thus : 

 — " Out of nine seeds which I rubbed on the smooth bark of an apple tree 

 in the botanic garden, this spring (1833), and left there to germinate, two 

 produced only one radicle each; six produced two radicles each; and one 

 produced three. It appears, from this experiment, that two is the most com- 

 mon number of radicles produced by each seed of this curious plant." I 

 have to add to this a fact, as I believe it to be, which seems so strange that I 

 have feared my observing incorrectly ; yet I could not : — a seed sown on the 

 bark of a plant of hawthorn protruded two just such radicles as Mr. Baxter 

 has figured, but, perhaps, longer : after a time, these disparted at the point in 

 which they had met in the seed ; each became erect in a degree, and each a 

 separate plant. Hence, may not the one case with me, and the six cases, 

 in which two radicles were protruded from each seed, with Mr. Baxter, have 

 been instances of two embryos in each seed ; and the case with Mr. Baxter, 

 in which three radicles were protruded, a case of three embryos in the seed ? 

 It would gratify curiosity to learn whether or not, in the cases in which two 

 plants are produced from the two embryos in one seed, both are of the same 

 sex. The two plants from the one seed of which I have spoken, both be- 

 came established ; and I have asked a statement of their sex or sexes, but 

 have not received it. It is worth}' of remark that Mr. Baxter has shown that 

 the tips of the radicles, where apposed to the tree's bark, are so much thick- 

 ened as to be quite tubers ; they were exactly 

 49 -as^^^sr-. similar in that instance which I witnessed. This 



case is sufficiently similar to that of the para- 

 sitic Lathrae^a Sqnamaria as to render the simi- 

 larity quite worthy notice, i^ig. 49. represents a 

 section of a tuber of the Lathrae^a Squamaria, with 

 its point intruded into the root of the shrub. 

 Lathrae^a Squamaria is a plant mainly subter- 

 raneous, which subsists parasitically upon the 

 roots of shrubs. Those of its fibres which have 

 union with the shrub, have tubers at the point 

 of juncture of the size of a small pin's head. 

 Fig. 49. represents a section of one of these 

 magnified. The structure and economy of the 

 Lathrae^a Squamaria has been illustrated by J. E. Bowman, Esq., whose 

 researches and discoveries are published in Lin. Trans., xvi. : an abstract of 

 them is given in Mag. Nat. Hist., v. 45 — 48. 



(Tb be contimced.') 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. General Notices. 



Metallic Wire for Tying up Trees, attaching Labels, and other Garden 

 Purposes. — We noticed, p. 265., that leaden wire had been used in France for 

 tying up trees ; and a number of specimens have since been sent us by Mr. 

 W. A. Rowland, plumber and glazier, of Chester, who manufactures it. Mr. 

 Rowland informs us, tliat his wire is composed of an alloy of lead, and another 



