392 r Clironide$ of Science. [July, 



suppose that the production of quinine is in relation with the 

 formation of the liber. This consideration has naturally led 

 M. Mailer to inquire at what period and in what region of the bark 

 the first appearance of the quinine takes place, and he proposes to 

 take up this question as soon as he can procure a sufficient number 

 of living Cinchona-plants. 



Fungi-spores. — Professor Karsten has published some observa- 

 tions on the stylospores of Sphaerias. Spnoerim were found in the 

 opened anthers of Fuscliia sjrfendens, which when placed in water, 

 gave exit to a white tortuous thread, which quickly broke up in 

 the water, into innumerable simple oval vesicles. These vesicles 

 when moistened with dilute solution of iodine acquired, like starch, 

 a beautiful violet colour, and when preserved in glycerine, disappeared 

 in a little time. This is probably the first known example of 

 a starch-reaction in the spores of Fungi, as which (and indeed, as 

 stylospores | the corpuscles noted must be regarded, and although 

 a similar reaction of the spores was observed by Carrey in the 

 Lichens, and in the plant named Amylospora tremeUoides by that 

 botanist, it is nevertheless worthy of notice as certainly a very rare 

 occurrence among these plants. 



5. CHEMISTRY. 

 (Including the Proceedings of the Chemical Society.) 



ts recording recent discoveries and progress in Chemistry, we may 

 in the first place mention two facts which have, however, as much 

 relation to physics as chemistry. The first is a new determination 

 of the density of ozone, by M. Soret. We have already recorded* 

 the conclusion to which M. Soret was led by his former experi- 

 ments, viz. that the density of ozone was one-and-a-half times that 

 of oxygen, or 1 • 658. This conclusion he has recently confirmed, 

 by determining the rate of diffusion of ozonized oxygen, which was 

 found to correspond exactly with the rate required by Graham's 

 well-known law. 



TVe have in several numbers referred to the invaluable labours 

 of M. Berthelot on the Hydrocarbons, and not long since f to his 

 important paper on the action of heat on these bodies. His more 

 recent experiments have been devoted to the oxidation of hydro- 

 carbons, and have yielded interesting results. Acetylene, 4 H 2 , 

 only differs from oxalic acid by wanting eight atoms of oxygen. 

 M. Berthelot finds that these can be added directly ; and thus, 

 seeing that he has already formed acetylene by the direct union of its 



* Vol. iii.. p. 264. t Page 78. 



