SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



267 



GROWTH OF PLANTS IN THE 

 By G. H. Bryan, Sc.D., F.R.S. 



bundle of papers. 



PRESS. 



POME years ago I placed a sprig of Sedum 



telephiiim in a botanical press to dry for my 



herbarium. Knowing the plant to be very moist 



and succulent, I removed it to fresh sheets of 



I can vouch for the accuracy of 

 the figure as a representation of facts ; as to its 

 artistic merits, I do not claim any. 



A plant of Cotyledon umbilicus, which I attempted 



Sedum telephium. 

 The abnormal leaves were grown during drying in the press. 



drying paper in a few days, but after that, my press 

 was unopened for about ten days. At the end of 

 this time all the leaves of my Sedum were dry and 

 stiff, but I was surprised to find white shoots 

 sprouting from their axils, and on these grew tiny 

 leaflets, also white. As my press was full of other 

 plants at the time, I thought it desirable to remove 

 the specimen, and placed it in a jug of water, where 

 the sprouts continued to grow, in a few days 

 beginning to turn green as the result of being no 

 longer kept in the dark. 



I made a careful sketch of this botanical curiosity 

 at the time, and was reminded of the incident by 

 finding my drawing, a few days ago, among a 



to dry about the same time, threw out a tiny little 

 white leaf about half an inch long while in the 

 press, and as over a fortnight's pressing did not 

 appear to kill it, I planted it in a rockery, where 

 it grew and flourished for a year or two, although 

 some mice nibbled it down several times. The 

 best way to kill these Crassulaceae appears to 

 be to bake them in hot sand, after giving them 

 a little preliminary flatten down in the press. 

 Plunging into boiling water at once kills them, 

 but it reduces their leaves to such a soft, 

 flabby pulp as to render them useless for the 

 herbarium. 



ThomUa, Cambridge ; November 27th, 1S95. 



