1867.] Botany and Vegetable Physiology. 95 



many thousand trees, one above El Baruk and another near Ma'asiv, 

 where the trees are very large and equal to any others : all are 

 being destroyed for firewood. Still another grove has been dis- 

 covered near Duma, in the western slope of Lebanon, near the 

 one discovered by Mr. Tristram himself. This gives ten distinct 

 localities in the Lebanon, to the south of the originally discovered 

 one, and including it. Ehrenberg had already discovered one the 

 north of that locality, and thence northwards the chain is unex- 

 plored by voyager or naturalist." 



The Flora of Ireland. — Mr. A. Gr. More and Dr. D. Moore 

 have published their work entitled 'Contributions to a Cybele 

 Hibernica,' which has been for some time expected. The work 

 was one which was much wanted by Irish botanists, and appears to 

 be creditably done. A grant from the British Association of 25?., 

 which was voted to Dr. E. P. Wright, of Dublin, for the purpose 

 of investigating the flora of the north-west of Ireland, was handed 

 over to the authors of this work, since they had already done much 

 which Dr. Wright was contemplating, and by its assistance they 

 have been enabled to finish their task successfully. 



Acquisitions at the British Museum. — The national collection 

 has lately been enriched by the invaluable series of DiatomaceaB 

 which belonged to the late Dr. Greville, many hundreds of which 

 were described by him for the first time, and figured in the ' Micro- 

 scopical Journal ' and other periodicals. They will now be acces- 

 sible to all persons for purposes of comparison and identification, 

 and, together with the . collection of the late Professor Smith, also 

 in the British Museum, form probably the largest and best collection 

 of Diatomacese in the world. The Botanical department has also 

 received an addition in the collection of ferns formed by the late Mr. 

 Smith, which was considered to be, next to that of Sir William 

 Hooker, the finest in existence. 



France. — Boussingaulfs Researches on the Action of Foliage. — 

 From the earlier part of these highly important investigations, it 

 appears that leaves taken alone (avoiding the complication of roots, 

 &c.) and exposed to the action of sunshine in pure carbonic acid gas, 

 do not decompose this gas at all, or only with extreme slowness. 

 Secondly, that in a mixture with atmospheric air, they decompose 

 carbonic acid rapidly. The oxygen of the atmospheric air, however, 

 appears to play no part. Thirdly, leaves decompose carbonic acid in 

 sunshine as readily when this gas is mixed with nitrogen or with 

 hydrogen. Finally, Boussingault determined that rarefaction of 

 the carbonic acid by diminished pressure had the same effect as 

 diluting it, and considered the case analogous to the oxidation of 

 phosphorus by rarefied or dilute oxygen. In a continuation of his 

 investigations, published in the 'Comptes Bendus,' Sept. 25, the 



