Botany. 239 



piration like that of animals, correlative with decomposition, is so 

 well made out of late years, (and besides is understood to be inev- 

 itable if the plant is to do any work), that it was hardly necessary to 

 refer back to a work of Liebig fourteen years old, and even then a 

 little antiquated, for an enunciation of the opposite doctrine. Then 

 the process answering to respiration was overlooked or thought 

 unessential, being overshadowed by the vaster, larger and more 

 important counterpart process of assimilation. The researches of 

 which the results are given in this paper were made to ascertain 

 the relations between vegetable respiration, i. e., the expiration of 

 carbonic acid, and light, temperature, growth, &c. The results, 

 on the whole, were, that changes of temperature within normal 

 limits were of little effect and transient when the change was sudden; 

 that the influence of light, although generally appreciable, was fee- 

 ble, and probably indirect. This action, as is well known, goes 



under either, or, it would appear prefers darkness. But Maye 

 and Wolkoff conclude (contrary to some of their predecessors) 

 that there is no direct relation between growth in length and 

 respiration, so that one should in any sense serve as the measure 

 of the other. a. g. 



6. Clmsification of Nostochineoe. — Dr. Bornet, in a recent 

 number of the Annales des Sciences Naturelles, has published a 

 most useful key to the genera of the Nostoc tribe, which was drawn 

 up by the lamented Thuret, shortly before his death. Although it 

 was not intended for publication in its present state, it cannot but 

 be useful. The appended enumeration mentions most of the species, 

 with leading synonyms. a. g. 



1. Gymocladiis in China.— U M. Baillon is right in his identi- 

 fication by means of pods and loose flowers, there is a second species 

 of %moc^ac?ws, our Kentucky Coffee-tree, indigei — '^'--- -•- 



vicinity of Shanghai, where the gummy substance in the legume 

 ^= used as a substitute for soap. This is an additional instance of a 

 supposed monotypic genus of Atlantic North America being repre- 

 sented in the corresponding part of N. E. Asia. Baillon 's notice of 

 it is in Bull. Soc. Linn., Paris, Jan., 1875. a. g. 



8. Flora Brasiliensis, fasc. 68, issued in March, 1875, has just 

 come to hand. It contains the Amarantacem, by Prof. M. Seu- 

 bert of Carlsruhe, with 26 plates ; and this fascicle completes vol. 

 V, part I. There are 13 Brazilian genera; of which much the 

 largest is Gomphrena, with 66 species. The species figured 

 which concern the North American flora are Alternanthem achy- 

 rantka and Amarantus hypochondriaeus. 



9. JDas Haustorium der Loranthaceen und der Thallus der 

 ^afflesiaceen und Balanophoreen ; von H. Geafen zu Solms- 

 Laubach. Halle, 1876. 4to. The present paper is supplemen- 



rticle on the vegetative organs of phanerogamic 



K 



Bd. 

 three parts. The first 



