1867.] Botany and Vegetable Physiology. 527 



these ' amorphous alkaloid substances ' may have virtues of their 

 own ; but possibly, with more perfect processes, they may be found 

 separable. Anyhow, it is better to take what India can give us for 

 dispensary use, than to prepare (as they do in some dispensaries) 

 their mistura quinise out of concentrated infusion of quassia and 

 calumba, with a dash of aromatic sulphuric acid." 



It is reported that Mr. Clement R. Markham is to join the 

 Abyssinian expedition in a civil (scientific ?) capacity. 



France. — Monstrosities becoming New Species in Plants. — 

 M. C. Naudin, in a late number of the ' Comptes Rendus,' mentions 

 some very remarkable cases of this phenomenon, which have, of 

 course, a very close bearing on Darwin's hypothesis. The first case 

 mentioned is that of a Poppy (Palaver officinale), which took on a 

 remarkable variation in its fruit — a crown of secondary capsules 

 being added to the normal central capsule. A field of such poppies 

 was grown, and M. Cropper t, with seed from this field, obtained still 

 this monstrous form, in great quantity. Deformities of Ferns are 

 sometimes sought after by fern-growers. They are now always 

 obtained by taking spores from the abnormal parts of a monstrous 

 Fern, from which spores Ferns presenting the same peculiarities 

 invariably grow. Some facts with regard to gourds are mentioned, 

 but the most remarkable case is that observed by Dr. Godron, of 

 Nancy. In 1861 that botanist observed, amongst a sowing of 

 Datura tatula (the fruits of which are very spinous), a single 

 individual of which the capsule was perfectly smooth. The seeds 

 taken from this plant all furnished plants having the character of 

 this individual. The fifth and sixth generations are now growing 

 without exhibiting the least tendency to revert to the spinous form. 

 More remarkable still, when crossed with normal Datura tatula, 

 hybrids were produced which, in the succeeding generation, re- 

 verted to the two original types, as true hybrids do. M. Naudin is 

 not very happy in his remarks upon these highly interesting facts. 

 He urges that they give reason to believe that the origin of species 

 by transmutation has not been a very slow process of natural 

 selection ; but rather that monstrosities have been produced right 

 and left, according to the Lamarckian speculation. 



Germany. — The Potato. — A wealthy citizen of Berlin has 

 applied to the municipality of that town for a site on which to erect 

 a statue of Francis Drake, as the introducer of the potato into 

 Europe, and offers to subscribe 2,250Z. towards the statue. This 

 seems an easy way of settling the doubt lingering about the early 

 history of the potato, and to which the corrupted Spanish name 

 which the plant bear3 in English, and the corrupted Italian it 

 bears in German, or the unmeaning French and Dutch ones, give 

 no clue. 



The Colouring Matters of Algse. — Dr. Cohn, in a paper to which 



