392 Scientific Intelligence. 



would be expected, that this i 

 necessity of the situa 

 ing a tendril to seiz 

 from a thread, the 



turns of the coil in five ordinary situation. The lower side of the 

 tend lil is always interior in the coil. This comes from the 

 arrangement of its fibrous bundles, which form a circle only at 

 the base of the tendril, but above this only an arc, open on the 

 upper side; this upper cellular portion is accordingly more 

 turgescenee and can grow longer than the lower. 

 Tendrils which remain free are less vigorous than those which 



nciit : vigor, as well - in< ens ! gi u h 

 is developed hy use. The difference in 1 lie direction of the coil-* 

 ' ing, whether from right to left or left to right (or as we should 

 like to say. whether i-jttroplr or <i„titr<>pic) does not depend upon 

 anything in their anatomical structure, hut appears to he in some 

 way determined bv the plant. A series of experiments with de- 

 tached tendrils floated on water, or with the cut end immersed, 

 and with tendrils divided into pieces (which preserve their vital- 

 ity and continue their action) show this ; when fixed by one end 

 and free at the other, or at least when fixed bv the summit only, 

 they coil nearly as often in one direction as the other. The 

 ; the different portions of a tendril ceases first at the 

 . . ise to apex. a. g. 



3. Date V th: fists „f Mf.ntf* l!,.t<in./. — Referring to our 

 note in the January No. of this Journal, it is worth recording 

 that the tir>t fasciculus actually ended, as was supposed, on p. fo. 

 No. 5 consisted of pages 401 to 496, and bears the date 



ntained pages 4»7 to 606, and is dated 1821. This in- 

 is obtained from the inspe< 

 .ritrinal state, and is obligingly supplied by Mr. 



of copies of those j 



Dexter, of the Yale College Library, 



4. Onion-Smut, by Prof. W. G. Farlow.— A pamphlet of 15 



•pages, with a plate, extracted 

 S- cietary of the Massachusetts State Board 



ton, 1877.— The smut in question is as yet unknown oui oi x^« 

 England, and there it has not long been known; but of late it 

 has done much damage to the onion-crop at Wethersfield, Conn., 

 and in Kssex Co., Mass. The fungus proves to he a peculiar spe- 

 cies «>f the C*tn.ni;,n<KX« which that of Indian Corn ( / W<W" 

 .V, ,.VV,) and ,.i ICe. etc., belong. This onion-smut is most like 

 that of Rye, Ufor^ths <>.;-„It„. and a figure of an affected rv.-stalk 

 is given in this paper along with that of the onion. 

 of the latter was named, l.v Mr. Frost of liratth-hor.. C-<> !/-" ! '-' 

 <-* r „hM ; but it is now for the first time des.-rihed and illustrated 

 by Prof. Farlow. The subject had. however, been taken up bv 

 ■•n ■■ niicr- • ■ out at Washington. 



in the Report of 1872; but Prof. Farlow intimates— what we 

 •..at the account and figures there given 

 throw no light upon the matter. The remedy suggested is to burn 



