﻿80 Scientific Intelligence. 



plantarum exsiccatarum que in codicibus vel capsis asservantur, 

 ut quavis anni tempestate inspici possent. 



Whether the first-known maker of such a collection of pressed 

 specimens was Ghini, of Pisa, or John Falconer, an Englishman 

 or probably a Scotchman, seems unsettled. Anyhow, it is odd 

 that neither of them has had a genus of plants named for him by 

 any of the long line of their successors. 



The history of the most ancient herbaria known has now been 

 carefully written up by M. Saint-Lager, of Lyons. Of John Fal- 

 coner's herbarium it is only known that it was admired by Italian 

 botanists at Ferrara in the year 1545, and was examined by Tur- 

 ner at London, on the owner's return to his native country. The 

 most ancient herbaria now extant, or partially so, are those of 

 Aldrovandi, commenced in about the year 1553 (and which con- 

 tains as many as 5,000 specimens in seventeen volumes); of Gi- 

 rault, of Lyons, which bears the date of 1558, and of Cesalpin, 

 which bears the date of 1563. The first of these is preserved at 

 Bologna, its proper home, although it was once taken to Paris ; 

 the second is at the Jardin des Plantes ; the third is at Florence. 

 Next in chronological order is that of Rauwolf (who died in 

 ] 596), preserved at Leyden; then that of Caspar Bauhin (who 

 died in 1613), preserved at Basle in excellent condition. The 

 curious reader will find a full account of these herbaria and much 

 interesting lore besides, in M. Saint-Lager's essay. a. g. 



10. The Journal of the Linncean Society, Botany, vol. xxii, con- 

 tains unusually interesting papers, to which, however, we can 

 make only brief reference. The first paper is Mr. John Ball's 

 Contributions to the Flora of the Peruvian Andes, etc., of which 

 an extended review has already been given to our readers. In 

 the succeeding number (pp. 137-168), under the title of Notes on 

 the Botany of Western South America, Mr. Ball, after sketching 

 the features of the climate of the seaboard from Panama to the 

 Chonos Archipelago, specifies the principal plants he collected at 

 several points, characterizing also a few new species, and adding 

 various critical annotations and interesting suggestions. Mr. 

 Bolus gives a second part of his Contributions to South African 

 Botany, relating to the Orchidew. The Rev. George Henslow 

 follows with his suggestive Contribution to the Study of the rela- 

 tive effects of different parts of the Solar Spectrum on the Trans- 

 piration of Plants. He confirms Weisner's results, adding " some- 

 what tentatively,"- the " additional fact that yellow light has a 

 retarding influence upon transpiration." Mr. Francis Darwin 

 here publishes the results and many of the details of his researches 

 — begun in connection with his lamented father in 1878 — On the 

 Relation between the " Bloom " on Leaves and the distribution of 

 the Stomates. The point is, that one function of bloom is to be 

 found in the protection of the stomata from wet, which would 

 interfere with the prompt ingress and egress of air. It is famil- 

 iarly known that in very many leaves the stomates occupy the 

 lower surface, either exclusively or most largely, and this is the 

 face least exposed to rain. But it appears that whenever the 



