1881.] Botany. 229 
contrary occurs in darkness. These Sap explain the transforma- 
tion of legumin into asparagin.—/Vat 
BotranicaL Notes.—In recent pea of Nuovo Giornale Bo- 
tanico Italiano, Caldesi has been publishing a catalogue of the 
plants of Fenza and vicinity. It is fully annotated and contains 
many references and synonyms. There are many names in the 
list which are familiar to even local botanists in this country, as 
witness the following: spa cornutt, Calystegia sepjum, Scrophu- 
laria nodosa, Veronica ana V. officinalis, Brunella vulgaris, 
Typha lati ifolia, qj oe ‘Funcus effusus, F. bufonius, Eleo- 
charts palustris, Phragmites communis, Poa pratensis, P. compressa, 
Liquisetum arvense, E. palustre, Adiantum capillus-veneris, Preris 
aquilina, Polypodium vulgare, etc. Among the weeds are the fol- 
owing familiar names: Panicum crus-galli, P. sanguinale, P. 
klabrum, Setaria glauca, S. viridis, Urtica dioica, Amaranius 
retrofiexus, Chenopodium album, Verbascum thapsus, etc. Many 
plants which with us are cultivated for their flowers, or for other 
purposes, find a place in this catalogue as wild or naturalized 
species, ¢. ¢., Euphorbia cyparissias, Iris germanica, Colchicum 
autumnale, Hyacinthus orientalis, Ornithogalum umbellatum, A 
new species of Orobanche (0. pelargonii ), is described ; it is par- 
asitic upon Pelargonium inguinans. -The glumaceous plants are 
very unequally divided between the sedges and grasses, there _ 
being but twenty-one of the former, while of the latter there are 
no less than ninety-eight. A new Alga is described and figured 
in the November number of the same journal by Borzi. It is re- 
garded as the type of a new genus; Hauckia, related to Cosmocla- 
ium. The cells, which are two and two, are in the ends or sides 
of hyaline erect or curved stalks. Each cell by fission produces 
‘two daughter cells, and the latter develop hyaline stalks, thus 
' giving rise to a repeatedly bifurcating mass. Macro and micro- 
zoospores are also produced by the successive division of certain 
cells into two, four and eight parts, each provided with two 
vibrating cilia. No conjugation has: been observed; on the con- 
trary, both forms of zodspores were seen to germinate. The 
species is named Hauckia insularts. According to a corre- _ 
spondent of the Gardener's Monthly, Caladium esculentum has 
escaped from cultivation in some portions of Texas, and run 
E. W. G 
same journal J. Schenck records his observations upon seventeen 
chestnut trees in Wabash county, Ill, which were planted many — 
ea ago by the early settlers. Where the trees are in groups 
two or more they have invariably been fruitful, but whenever 
hey are isolated they as a rule: produce nothing but empty burs, 
indicating that the flowers need to be cross-fertilized from iree to 
tree, In recently excavating a dock at Bombay, India, a forest 
bed was found composed of 382 trees, of which no less ‘than 223 
