( 234 ) [April, 



4. BOTANY, VEGETABLE MOBPHOLOGY, AND 

 PHYSIOLOGY. 



England. — The Structure of the Seed in Solanaeese, &e. — Mr. 

 Tuffen West, the well-known micrographic artist, has published a 

 paper on this subject, read to the International Botanical Congress 

 held in London last summer. The seeds of the Solanaeese are re- 

 markable for the rugosity of their surface, being scrobiculated, or 

 deeply pitted. Numerous observations were made by Mr. West, 

 under a binocular of high power, and the structure was observed 

 by making thin slices of the objects, longitudinally and transversely, 

 by a sharp razor. The cancellated prominences seen around each 

 depression form sinuous intersecting bars, and are caused by the 

 extreme thickening of the walls of the cells, owing to the deposition 

 of solid matter upon the inner surface of the original cells. In 

 the Scrophulariacess the structure of the seeds presents a consider- 

 able difference; but in the intermediate family, the Atropacese, 

 formed to embrace the many genera whose corolla have an imbri- 

 cated aestivation, and which have been separated by Mr. Miers from 

 the Solanaeese so as to render this last family uniformly consistent 

 in the valvate aestivation of the corolla, the structure of the testa, 

 although sufficiently distinct, approaches nearer to the character 

 observed in Solanaeese than to that of Scrophulariacess. A very 

 large series of observations on the species of various genera of these 

 three families is given by Mr. West. 



Effect of Cold on the Growth of Trees. — Professor Caspary, of 

 Konigsberg, contributed to the proceedings of the late Botanical 

 Congress the results of some very elaborate observations on the 

 effect of low temperatures in altering the direction of the branches 

 of trees, from which it appeared that different species are, in this 

 respect, acted on in diverse manners, some moving during a frost 

 vertically upwards, and others downward ; whilst a lateral move- 

 ment towards the left is nearly universal. 



A Heterogeneous Flora. — At the same meeting Mr. Axel Blytt, 

 of Christiania, read a paper "On the Yegetation of the Sogne 

 Fiord," one of the larger arms of the sea on the coast of Norway. 

 In this singular district, cut off from the rest of Norway by im- 

 passable mountains covered with eternal snow, and lying in lat. 

 61° N., all seasons and climates seem to be mingled and coexistent ; 

 whilst an Alpine flora extends down to the very sea-level, and its 

 members grow on the rocks of the shore mixed with maritime 

 species, vines, peaches, nectarines, and walnuts ripen their fruit in 



