﻿Geology and Natural History, 81 



upper surface has a bloom, and so to a considerable extent sheds 

 the rain, there is a strong tendency to the accumulation of sto- 

 mates on that surface. A paper by Mr. Ridley on Orchids from 

 Madagascar, and a readable narrative by C. Baron Clarke, of 

 Observations made in a Journey to the Naga Hills, in Upper 

 India, need not be remarked upon. A remaining article, Contri- 

 butions to the History of certain species of Conifers, by Dr. Max- 

 well T. Masters, pp. 169-212, with nine plates and copious 

 figures in the letterpress, is of general interest and importance. 

 The illustrations and much of the text are reproduced from the 

 Gardeners' Chronicle in this more convenient and accessible form. 

 The species here discussed, with which we in this country are 

 most concerned, are Abies amabilis, A. grandis, A. concolor, A. 

 subalpina, and A. nobilis with magnified, the observations of Engcl- 

 mann and Sargent, as well as those of Hooker, supplemented by 

 Dr. Masters's own critical studies. We trust that this paper is 

 only the first of a series. 



Volume xxiii opens, and the first number (150) is filled, with a 

 paper of much botanical importance, viz : An Enumeration of all 

 the Plants known from China proper, Formosa, Hainan, Corea, 

 the Luchu Archipelago, and the Island of Hongkong, together 

 with their Distribution and Synonymy, by Francis Blackwell 

 Forbes, F.L.S., etc., and Wm. Botting Hemsley, A.L.S., etc. 

 This first portion extends from the Banunculacem to the Tern- 

 stroemiacece. It will fill the volume, and when completed will be 

 separately issued, with introduction and summary, under the title 

 of Index Florm Sinensis. a. g. 



11. Heterogeneous Grafting. — Strasburger, in the Berichte der 

 Deutschen Bot. Gesellschaft, vol. Hi, records some curious results 

 of his experiments in intergrafting various herbaceous Solanacew. 

 Thus, he successfully grafted species of Stramonium, and common 

 Tobacco plant, Henbane, Atropa Belladonna, and Petunia upon the 

 common Potato plant. Grafts of Datura Stramonium and Nico- 

 tiana Tabacum took remarkably well, the plants growing freely 

 and coming into flower. Tschudy, however, long ago had grafted 

 lycopersicum upon a Potato stock, and so had gathered potatoes 

 from the bottom and tomatoes from the tops of the same plant ; but 

 this is not so extraordinary, the two plants being no essentially 

 congeneric. 



The most remarkable result of Strasburger's trials was that, 

 when Datura Stramonium was grafted upon a Potato plant, the 

 potatoes borne by the latter, to all appearance normal, were found 

 to be impregnated with atropine. He does not say whether these 

 grafted into Nictiana Tabacum had their tubers infected with 

 nicotine. a. g. 



12. Contagious diseases of Insects. — A number of the Bulletin 

 of the Illinois State Laboratory of Natural History, recently is- 

 sued contains a very interesting paper on this subject, prepared 

 by S. A. Forbes, from careful personal studies and experiments. 

 It constitutes Article iv, in Volume ii, of the Bulletin. 



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