592 
THE 
GARDENERS’ 
CHRONICLE. 
(May 11, 1995, ; 
y Wm. 
Agriculture (Washington). ' This records the work 
done during the year, the condition of the crops and 
climate, a note on the Uncertainty of Varietal 
Names of Fruits, Dəscriptions of Promising New and 
Wild Fruits, &e.— of Myco Devoted 
ame s = Study of Fungi in their Relation to 
lant Dise . Department of Agriculture 
eee ATbelnding Treatment of Pear- leaf 
Blight in the Orchard, Prune Rust, an Improve ved 
Method of Making Bordeaux Mixture, Reviews of 
& .— s of Observations and 
Recent eee 
Ex, the Practical Work of the Division. 
Made 9 a Direction of the Eatomologist, 
U. 8. Department of * 8 
Division of Eatomology, Balleti: 
on Insects reba to Forest Trees. Bulleti 
of the North Louisiana Experi al Station, Calhoun, 
M. STUBB Pn D, Director. Second Series, 
No. 33. yide by J. G. Ler, Assistant - Director, 
giving directions how best to plant, manure, and 
a Thistle (Salsoli Kali, 
gs WILSON. Balletin No. 26, 
e seed), and also an account of the 
College. Bulletin No. 27, 1895, con- 
taining various ee — one on Potato Scab 
P ing as efficient 
soaking the ae in preparations contain- 
ing such ingredients as corrosive sublimate, hydro- 
chloric acid, a eaux Mixture, So far 
Report eays) eee Csabi a the 
w aux Mixture is promising.” 
mieing. 
Selborne —.— 
of Nature. James Britten, F. L. S. 
London: ALE & Sons, 85 to 89, Great 
Titchfield Street, W. 
Book NOTICE, 
CELLULOSE. 
A worx of considerable merit under the author- 
sbip of Messrs. Cross & Bevan (Longmans & Co), 
has recently appeared upon the important subject of 
llulose, The work is an outline of the chemistry 
of the atructural elements of plants, with 38 
It 
complex. 
an ere vari 
the main lines of differentiation — 
forming with variations in De The growing 
cell is of a nitrogenous STN the living functions 
depending upon its protoplasmic contents, The 
authors, however, deal e with the cell-wall or 
envelope of the cells, to which the term cellulose 
has been applied as to a chemical individual, 
„in fact, there are many varieties of cellu- 
— and the term is taken as denoting a chemical 
p. 
are 
The. ae exhibit 
The celluloses are found to present the following 
u 
solv n 
having the constitution of bene Thet 
—carbon, 44:2; hydrogen, 6 3; oxygen, 49 5. These 
figures show the composition of the ‘ ash-free” 
cellulose, of which cotton cellulose is due as the 
type. 
The celluloses of the e; would, so far as they 
rom the point of view of 
comprise in addition to the typical cotton settles 
s to be noted, is a seed hair—t 
following fibrous 9 which 1 the bast 
of exogenous flowering annuals, viz, of Fax (Linum 
usitatissimum), Hem 122 — sativa), China- grass 
2 an n ria species), and of the lesser 
known Marsdenia tenacissima, Calotropis gigantea, 
Sunn Hemp (Crotalaria j juncea). 
(b). Those of lesser chemical resistance. Celluloses 
of this class are much more 1 distributed in the 
plant world than those of the o 
—which 
main s of the fundamental tissue of flowering 
plants, in w they us exist in intimate 
ixture ombination with other groups more or 
m 
less allied in general characteristics. 
the following have been more particularly investi- 
gated :—(1), Celluloses from woods and lignified 
tissues generally; (2), Celluloses from cereal straws, 
from Eaparto, &c. 
(c). This includes the heterogeneous class of non- 
fibrous celluloses, which the authors define as of low 
chemical resistance, being easily resolved by boiling 
with dilute — and being also more or less soluble 
in dilute alkaline solutions, 
Physiological ee has shown that there are a 
large number of cellular as distinguished f from fibrous 
of ep zymes (ferments) within the plant itself whether 
as or abnormal incident of grow ous 
the germination o rehy seeds, the cell walls 
( — of the starch- containing cells are broken 
down, as a preliminary to the attack upon the starch 
granules themselves, to form the supply of nutrition 
to the embryo. In an exhaustive investigation of 
the germination of Barley, Messrs. Brown and Morris 
have recently thrown a good deal of light upon this 
particular point which they emphasise in these words 
—that the dissolution of the cell wall invariably 
precedes that of the cell contents during the break- 
ing down of the endosperm, is a fact of the highest 
physiological importance, and one which for the most 
ee 
tissues wi they inv 
These processes are well 
known to phys rologiat, who, rah generally 
regard ‘‘cell-wall” and “ cellalos as substantially 
identical terms, The chemical —— ok the 
substances comprising the cell-wall is, on the other 
hand, an entirely new field of research ; but although 
investigation has not gone very far, the e results are 
sufficient to show that the celluloses of this order are 
Colluloses Tù compounds 
ing the fundamen gos orate of plants 
mr classified in correspondence with the three 
main types of diffa ee of the cell-wall, long 
recognised by physiologists, viz. , lignification, suberi- 
sation, and conversion into mucilage. Of these 
three groups the ligno-celluloses stand first in order 
of importance, not a a they by far the most 
widely distributed, bu 
onstita- 
ae be 
significance, =~ mark 
them out ns eld a of zame of the most interest- 
ing pr sented by tus miia iii the- 
F activity of the plant · cell. ce 
the Nee there are two well-defined 
958 (1), 
former, 
they hava a physiological 
more promising subject for the investigation of th 
ge eneral Lese a of lignification than the 
ich are, of 
n a not less important degree upon the 
special chemistry of ome substances, Their indus. 
trial value again depends upon the conditions of 
supply, the enen, nee, cd yield, and the 
in 
r — operation i 
by which hs are dante shaped for use. J. J, es 
Harpenden, 
HOME CORRESPONDENCE 
HE CAMELLIA AS A HARDY SHRUB. Pi 
in any part of p> country n 
t e seen at Belvoir small 
8 where Mr, \ 
pictures; but suc 
sufficient 8 to the 
. Mongredien, i r W Hardy Trees ¢ 
lantations, states that 
8 is that ver 
ted 1 — open, except against 
mig ett ledge of plants . 
open in — idla ug nd north, ao 
information as to whether they received iojary 
n in this country; but 
Ireland, where the Camellia 55 a, e oF 
of the Ear 
and they had protection. 
inter, 
actly. Being desirous of K 
— te had fared during the 
