Miscellaneous Intelligence. 495. 
now-a-days, that the turpentine is of real good to the tree, else 
turpentine-bearing trees would not exist. De Vries has made out 
a real use, which he thinks is the true function of the resiniferous 
up under tension, so that it is immediately poured out over an 
abraded or wounded surface; for these wounds it makes the best 
of dressing, 
especially the germs or spores which instigate decay; and so the 
process of healing, where there is true healing or reparation, or of 
healthy separation of the dead from the living — is favored 
in the highest degree. The saturation of the woody laye rs with 
resin, in the vicinity of wounds and fractures (as is seen in the 
light-wood of our hard pines), is referred to as effectively arresting 
the decay which teresa fungi set up, this “fat” wood being 
impervious to myce 
Latex or milky j ie is a more complex product, of which cer- 
tain portions have been shown to be nutritive; but as to the 
caoutchoue and the waxy matters they aarp , De Ye insists 
that they subserve a similar office, are e, in aoe medy, rotec- 
cuts, are prefixed. So that, all phas ‘considered, beginners in 
botany on the Pacific coast are fairly provided for G. 
Ill. MisceLLANEOUS SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. 
stronomical and Meteorological Observations made during 
the 1 year 1877 at the U. S. N. Observatory ; Rear Admiral Joun 
Ropegers, Superintendent. Washington, 1881.— This volume 
contains the results of the regular observations, and also six val- 
uable appendices. (1) Thvestinetion of the Objective and Micro- 
meter of the 26-inch Equatorial, by E. Holden; (2) The 
Multiple Star = 748, or the trapezium in Gris n, by E. S. olden 5. 
(: ies Solar Parallax fom pss an observations of Mars in 
y 
astman and H, s. Pri te het t (viz: are 3™ 5926 west of Ra 
ton); (6) Observations of Double Stars, by Asaph Hall. Several 
of these appendices have been noticed in previous numbers of this — 
Journal, 
2 igh tgs iat agg — The next meeting—the th ae 
2. 
first—of American Association “for the Advancement ° 
aa wilt be held at Montreal, Canada, commencing eee 
