1877.] Botany. 305 
is strikingly superior in intensity and purity of blue color in the fluores- 
cing cone to the Æsculus decoction. — Ropert Toomss, M. D., Wash- 
ington, Georgia. i 
On THE TRANSFORMATION OF CRYSTALLIZABLE SUGAR INTO CEL- 
LULOSIC Propucts. — M. Durin gives in Annales des Sciences Naturelles 
(iii. No. 4-6) a detailed account of a peculiar fermentation observed by 
im. Under certain conditions, a solution of crystallizable sugar is con- 
verted into cellulose either firm and organized, or swollen, and into 
inverted sugar. He has never noticed the formation of cellulose from 
glucose. 
Resriration or Roots. — Two different functions have been con- 
founded under the term respiration, namely, assimilation and true respi- 
ration. The first of these takes place only through the agency ot 
chlorophyll or its equivalent, and under the influence of light; the latter . 
is common to all plant organs when growing or working. Assimilation 
is a process characterized by the production of carbhydrates from car- 
bonic dioxide and water, with disengagement of oxygen; respiration 
involves the oxidation of assimilated matter and is accompanied by the 
formation of carbonic dioxide. Dehérain and Vesque have lately reéx- 
amined the subject of root respiration, and they have published the fol- 
lowing results ; — 
First : oxygen is necessary for all plant organs. It is not enough fora 
living plant to have its upper part in the air ; it is requisite that the roots 
themselves should find oxygen in the atmosphere of the soil. Second: 
absorption of oxygen by the roots is attended by only a slight evo- 
lution of carbonic acid ; thus roots produce a partial vacuum in the 
receptacles in which they are confined. Third: the disengagement of 
carbonic acid takes places as well in an atmosphere deprived of oxygen 
as in an atmosphere containing it; whence we may conclude that the 
carbonic acid evolved does not come from a superficial oxidation of 
organs in a state of decomposition, but as a consequence of the circula- 
tion of gases in the plant. 
Taree Ferr or Fern-Srores.— Bureau ånd Poisson have examined 
a substance found in large quantities in a cave at Reunion Island. The 
cave is ten metres in depth by six metres square, and is covered toa 
depth of more than a metre by a yellow, soft, insipid, inodorous sub- 
stance, which crumbles under the fingers to an impalpable powder. The 
ty powder burns without flame or odor, but when moistened gives off 
during combustion much smoke and odor of a burning plant. By exclu- 
sion they have decided that this matter consists of the spores of species 
of ferns, probably Polypodiaceæ. The spores are not those of Lycopodi- 
acer, according to the writers, but they have the shape, markings, and 
color of the spores of the Polypodiace with large fronds now occurring 
on the island. 
_ Hearner mw Nova Scotta.— Professor Lawson adds to the locali- 
VOL. XI.— No, 5. 20 
