1867.] Botany, Vegetable Morphology, and Physiology. 237 



plant comes very near to P. lucens, but in that species the leaves 

 are not so much rounded at each end, are slightly stalked, and the 

 border is thickened and minutely denticulate. The stipule is winged 

 on the back on the lower part, and the peduncle is incrassated 

 upwards. P. prselongus has leaves with a similar border to those 

 of P. decipiens, but they are different in shape. 



Utricularia neglecta, Lehm., has lately been ascertained as a 

 British plant from a specimen in the British Museum, collected by 

 the late Edward Forster, in a gravel-pit in Hainhault Forest, Essex. 

 Professor Babington has noticed this species in all the editions of 

 his manual, as likely to be found native in Britain, and his expect- 

 ations are thus realized. 



France. — Another Botanical Congress. — We understand that the 

 Botanical Society of France have arranged to hold an International 

 Botanical Congress in Paris, during the time of the Exhibition, to 

 which botanists of all countries will be invited. The Congress will 

 open on the 26th July, and will last for a month. Meetings will be held 

 every Friday evening at the Society's Kooms, 84, Kue Grenelle St. 

 Germain. On other days during the period, visits will be made 

 to the Exhibition, to the Museum of the Jardin des Plantes, to 

 private collections, and excursions will be made in the neighbour- 

 hood of Paris, especially towards the end of August. 



Vitality of Seeds, — M. Pouchet, of Kouen, the well-known 

 advocate of the cause of spontaneous generation, has observed 

 that a small proportion of the seeds of Medieago Americana 

 are able to withstand an uninterrupted boiling for four hours 

 without losing their vitality. In the greater proportion of the 

 seeds thus treated the contents had swollen and broken the in- 

 tegument, and the water necessarily became mucilaginous, but 

 others successfully withstood the high temperature, the outer in- 

 tegument resisting the water, so that when they were sown, they 

 sprang up in the course of from ten to twenty days. 



The Histology of the Dilleniacese. — M. Baillon contributes a 

 careful account of the microscopic structure of various plants of 

 this order to the ' Comptes Kendus.' His object is to show the 

 close relation existing between the Dilleniaceae and the Magnoliaceae, 

 and in particular the striking affinities with Magnoliaceae which the 

 Illiceae presents. The Dilleniaceae are enormously rich in bundles 

 of raphides ; and in the pith of Dillenia speciosa these crystal- 

 line needles are exceedingly abundant. The wood of Dilleniaceae 

 exhibits at a certain age very remarkable fibres, with areolar punc- 

 tations. They do not occur in young branches, and their gradual 

 development presents many points of interest. The dried leaves 

 of most Dilleniaceae are rough to the touch, and in tropical 

 America are used for the purpose of polishing. This property is 

 due to the accumulation in the leaves of a very large number of 



