44 



SCIENCE. 



and Williamson's " Fern Etchings," are signs ,of the 

 healthy growth of popular interest in the objects of the 

 Science. 



Among the lower orders of plants, systematic work 

 has not been so vigorous. The literature is widely scat- 

 tered, and of many of the groups is in a most disheart- 

 eningly chaotic state. The disentangling and critical 

 arrangement of this matter is at present one of the most 

 important services that could be rendered the student. 

 The labor of consulting all the descriptions belonging to 

 any one group is often very great, and is always accom- 

 panied with a doubt if complete success has been at- 

 tained. Further perplexities are the unequal value of 

 the material when found, and the difficulty of determin- 

 ing synonymy. Monographs of the groups are exceed- 

 ingly desirable ; but such exhaustive studies are not often 

 made, and in lieu of them careful compilations, aided by 

 as much investigation and verification as possible, are 

 very useful. Professor Bessey's "Erysiphei," Mr. Peck's 

 " United States Species of Lycoperdon," and Dr. Hal- 

 sted's " American Species of Characeae " are admirable 

 examples of such contributions to the advancement of 

 knowledge. 



It is a law in the growth of a biological science that 

 the objects with which it deals must be carefully identi- 

 fied and systematically described before much progress 

 will be made in the recondite investigations of structure 

 and development, and the relations to physical forces, or 

 in the higher problems regaiding the rationale of forms 

 and processes. Every advancement in morphology and 

 physiology, however, reacts upon classification and helps 

 to establish it upon a more satistactory basis. While 

 systematic work is thus the very foundation of the sci- 

 ence, it is only by following it up in the same zealous 

 manner with anatomical and physiological researches 

 that the science makes most substantial advancement. 



It is manifestly the natural and wise thing for Ameri- 

 can botanists to collect herbaria and study floras till the 

 species and their distribution are fairly known. For 

 Phanerogams and Ferns this has been well accomplish- 

 ed, and approximately so for Mosses and Liverworts, but 

 the Thalloyhytes (Alga; and Fungi) remain comparative- 

 ly unknown. Not but what there is still room for excell- 

 ent systematic work among Phanerogams, but that the 

 stumps and stones and other obstacles in the field have 

 been pretty fully cleared away and it is now a matter of 

 plain cultivation, while the other departments of the 

 science need earnest workers who are not afraid of diffi- 

 culties, and are willing to clear up and cultivate single 

 handed as large areas as possible. 



In the article cited, the Professor feels called upon to 

 apologize for the neglect of Anatomy and Physiology 

 during 1879. He says: — "While we may regret that so 

 much of the field has been so sadly neglected in our 

 country, we should remember that, as a rule, our botanists 

 are overloaded with other duties which render it often 

 impossible for them to command the time for making the 

 necessary investigation." Admitting that the plea partly 

 accounts for the inactivity, it still does not seem to touch 

 the chief cause of the difficulty. It is rather to be as- 

 cribed to a lack of enthusiasm for these subjects. They 

 have not yet come into vogue with lovers of the science: 

 the tidal wave of laboratory and experimental Botany is 

 yet but slightly felt ; the problems seem new and strange, 

 and just where and how to attack them appears obscure 

 and uncertain. The work already done in these fields 

 has mainly related to the means and accompanying pheno- 

 mena of the fertilization of flowers. Some excellent pa- 

 pers have been published, although not lengthy. Histo- 

 logy, Embryology, and Physiology proper, however, ap- 

 pear almost without followers, judging from the results 

 communicated. At the present time, Germany is the 

 centre of the most active researches relating to the latter 

 subjects, and France is not far behind. 



In order to keep informed of the latest discoveries and 

 results in the botanical world, an acquaintance with the 

 journals in which they are announced is imperative. It 

 is a trite saying in matters of daily life, that if one wishes 

 to be " posted " he must read the papers. This applies 

 even more forcibly to botanists, because their usual isola- 

 tion deprives them of most other means of obtaining 

 botanical news. 



Among the most important exclusively botanical 

 journals are the following : Botanisches Centralblatt, 

 abstracts of the latest writings, and a full index, for all 

 departments of the science ; Botanische Zeitung, anat- 

 omy and physiology chiefly ; Flora, general botany ; 

 Pringsheim 's Jzhrbucker., physiological botany ; Hed- 

 wigia, cryptogams ; Annates des Sciences Naturelles 

 Botanique, general botany, but with a large share of 

 anatomy and physiology ; Bulletin de la Societ/ Botan- 

 ique de France, general botany ; Journal of Botany, 

 largely systematic ; Grevillea, cryptogams ; and the two 

 home journals — Bulletin of the Torrey Club, largely 

 systematic ; and Botanical Gazette, general botany, but 

 inclined towards physiology. The first two of the list 

 are weeklies ; Flora is issued in thirty-seven numbers, 

 and the others are monthlies. Beside these there are a 

 large number of periodicals which devote considerable 

 space to botanical matters, such as the Quarterly 

 journal of Microscopical Science, Hardwicke 's Science 

 Gossip, American Naturalist, American Monthly Mic- 

 roscopical Journal, etc. If one were confined to two, 

 probably the Botanische Zeitung and the Bulletin de la 

 Societe Botanique, would prove the most satisfactory, 

 presuming that the home journals are also taken, as a 

 matter of course. Mr. Douglas, of Richland, N. Y., 

 proposes to issue a translation of the Zeitung, for less 

 than the subscription price of the original (but without 

 the plates, we suppose). This laudable undertaking 

 should receive substantial encouragement from English 

 speaking botanists. 



Probably there is no better indication of the beginning 

 of a new era for American botany, than the changes 

 made in the recent text-books. Dr. Gray's " Botanical 

 Text-book" is- expanded into four volumes, treating of 

 the Morphological Structure of Phanerogams, Histology 

 and Physiology, Cryptogams, and the natural orders of 

 Phanerogams, respectively. The second volume is to be 

 written by Dr. Goodale, and the third by Dr. Farlow. 

 The first volume of the series has already appeared. 



THE DETECTION OF STARCH AND 

 DEXTRIN. 



By Spencer Umfreville Pickering, B. A.,Oxon. 



In conducting some experiments in which it was nec- 

 essary to ascertain the presence or absence of starch in a 

 liquid containing various amounts of dextrin, the few 

 facts here described were brought to light, and may, per- 

 haps, be of sufficient interest to warrant their publica- 

 tion. 



When a solution of starch which has been colored 

 blue by the addition of iodine is heated, it is found that 

 the temperature at which the color disappears varies 

 with the intensity which it possessed before heating. 

 Thus, for instance, 100 c. c. of a rather dark iodine-starch 

 solution on being heated gradually in a flask became per- 

 fectly colorless at 58 C, and, on being cooled, showed 

 a slight reappearance of color at 49° C, whereas an 

 opaque blue solution did not lose its color till heated to 

 99° C, and became visibly colored again when cooled to 

 63 C. Similarly variable results were obtained by ex- 

 perimenting on iodine-starch solutions in sealed tubes, 

 the temperatures of reappearance being much more con- 

 stant (generally about 50° C) than those of disappear- 

 ance ; this no doubt is due to the fact that, the stronger 

 solutions having been heated to a higher temperature than 



