Scientific Intelligence. — Botany. 187 



the United States, in sending hither these specimens, and that he is 

 entitled to the thanks of all good citizens who take an interest in this 

 important branch of industry. I am, &c. 



P. A. Brown. 



BOTANY. 



15. Microscopical Description of the Protococcus nivalis from 

 the Arctic Regions, by M. Justice. — The perfect type of the Pro* 

 tococcus nivalis, is a globular cyst, varying in size from the 

 sso o^ 1 °f an inch to the toV o tn °f an inch * n diameter ; each cell 

 or cyst having an opening, whose smallest diameter measures only 

 the soV o tn P art °f an inch. This opening is surrounded by marked 

 serrated or indented lines, as though by the expansion and gradual 

 growth of the cell the opening had also been irregularly expanded. 

 The plant, when perfect, greatly resembles the red currant of our 

 gardens ; as it decays the red colouring matter is lost, being gradu- 

 ally superseded by a deep orange, which finally appears to change 

 into a brown, or the cell becomes transparent. In this transparent 

 state, when the cell is broken, the thickness of the enveloping cuticle 

 may be measured, this does not exceed the 2 oo o o^ n P ar ^ °f an inch » 

 and where the opening is preserved, the interior of it becomes of a 

 delicate green colour. Many of the cells exhibit the hexagonal 

 figure instead of being globular ; but this is the result of compression, 

 where masses of them have been thrown together. Mingled with 

 the protococcus are fragments of a tissue of reticulated and cellular 

 formation, much resembling some of the infusorial polycystina. So 

 minute are the openings in these that they do not exceed the T5 ^^th 

 part of an inch in diameter. — {Proceedings of the American Phili- 

 sophical Society.) 



16. Dr Kane on Specimens of Vegetable Matter found by him on 

 the Ice Plains of the Polar Seas. — They consisted of the minute 

 filaments and radicles of two species of moss (undetermined), mingled 

 with the leaves and corticlo of a heath, recognizable by the un- 

 assisted eye as the Andromeda tetragona; the broken thalli of 

 several lichens, and in one case, the capsule of a saxifrage. 



Those were collected at different times during the long ice drift 

 of the late Grinnell expedition, and at distances from land varying 

 from forty to seventy-six miles. They appeared as almost micro- 

 scopic specks upon the surface of the snow-fields, and would readily 

 elude casual observation. They had been undoubtedly conveyed from 

 the shore over the dry and polished surface of the ice by the action of 

 the winds, and it seemed as if they might be transported in the 

 same manner to indefinite distances, unless arrested by the continued 

 intervention of open water. 



Dr Kane alluded to the infusorial dust of South America and 

 Africa, and the diffusion of volcanic ash and scoriae over extended 



