1865.] Botany and Vegetable Physiology. 657 



the highest term of each series or the limit towards which this 

 series tends. In the former case we admit a single rational angle, 

 which must be changed for another so soon as we find a higher term 

 of the same series. In the latter case we admit a single irrational 

 angle, which will explain all the phenomena whether present or to 

 come. 



Botanists have been apparently alarmed at the term irrational. It 

 simply means that any one leaf is not rigorously superposed over 

 another. May there not be some anatomical reason which demands 

 that the leaves, at tbe time when they are produced close to each other 

 on a vegetative cone, should not be exactly superposed ? Admitting 

 the theory of a single angle, we shall see that of all those which exist 

 in nature, the greatest is that of the most common series : — 



I I 1 &c 



2 3 5 



This is the angle in which the surface of the stem will be most 

 nearly equal for both sides of the same leaf. Botanists have observed 

 that in the case in which the laminae of the leaf are not symmetrical, 

 their greatest development takes place beside the greatest angle. If, 

 as is said, the angle corresponding to the other series is more frequent 

 in fossil plants, may not this frequent occurrence of the larger angle 

 between J and J indicate a tendency towards a great symmetry of the 

 laminae ? 



The fact that the angle comprehended between \ and \ is common 

 to almost all Phanerogamous plants, as well as to a great number of 

 Cryptogamous plants, seems to mark a oneness in the origin of all 

 these plants. 



Dr. W. Nassau Lees gives a satisfactory report of the cultivation 

 of Cinchonas in the valley of Kangra, Punjab, the most northern 

 locality yet tried. The species introduced are Cinchona succirubra, 

 C. Condaminea, C. micrantha, C. Calisaya, and C. Peruviana, received 

 from the Neilgherry hills. 



The cultivation of Cinchonas at Darjeeling is also going on 

 favourably, under the direction of Dr. T. Anderson, Superintendent 

 of the Botanical Gardens, and in charge of Cinchona cultivation in 

 Bengal. 



In the ' Appendix to the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' 

 No. 123, is a classified list of naturalists and others engaged in the 

 collection of specimens of Natural History, Coins, &c, with notes and 

 queries. The names entered under the departments of Zoology, 

 Botany, Geology, Ethnology, and Coins, are only forty-six, but there 

 are obvious omissions, as T. Anderson and Brandis among Botanists, 

 Jerdon and Walter Elliot among Zoologists. The periodical publica- 

 tion of such a list, indicating the special branches of science which 

 savans scattered over our Indian empire are pursuing, is calculated to 

 be of much service, and we hope that it is a step towards the organ- 

 ization of an annual meeting for the promotion of science generally. 



