NOTES AND ABSTRACTS. 



275 



Vienna, or London. " The famous De Candolle Herbarium and Library 

 are preserved by the present owner in a house in the city purchased by 

 his great-grandfather, Auguste de Candolle, in 1785." The Candollean 

 Library ranks with that at Kew in being one of the best and largest 

 botanical libraries in existence. It contains more works on general 

 botany than are found at Kew, but it is not so rich in works on pure 

 systematic botany as either Kew or the British Museum. L'Herbier 

 Bossier is also described. It is kept in a house at Chambesy, two miles 

 out of Geneva. The Conservatoire Botanique and the new Botanical 

 Gardens are also just outside the city. The Conservatoire contains the 

 " great Delessert Herbarium and Mons. Burnat's magnificent European 

 herbarium." — G. S. S. 



Genista glabrescens. By J. Hutchinson (Bot. Mag. tab. 8201).— 

 Nat. ord. Legicminosae, tribe Genistae. Central Europe. Shrub 3 feet 

 high ; leaves trifoliate ; leaflets ^ inch long ; flowers yellow. — G. H. 



Germination, Action of Sea-water upon. By S. Berger (Le 

 Jardin, vol. xxii. No. 500, p. 138, May 5, 1908).— In view of the 

 dispersion of plants by sea-currents, M. Berger has experimented with 

 salt water upon twenty-seven species of Scandinavian plants, making 

 simultaneous control experiments with fresh water and with moist filter- 

 paper. The effect appears to vary a good deal, since the vitality of the 

 seeds was in some cases destroyed by the sea water ; in others the 

 percentage of seedlings was higher even than with moist filter-paper. 



F. A. W. 



Germination of Seed : Boiling* Water as an Aid {Rev. Hort. 

 June 16, 1908, p. 267). — Hard-shelled seeds of normally slow germination 

 immersed in boiling water for ten or fifteen seconds have germinated in 

 a week or two, and in a test case quoted here seeds of Acacia podalyriae- 

 folia so treated germinated in twelve days, while five untreated had not 

 done so in three months ; but when lifted and treated in the same way 

 germinated in twelve days like the others. Such treatment is highly 

 recommended for many tough-coated seeds. — C. T. D. 



Germination, Selective Action of Ether upon (Le Jardin, 

 vol. xxii. No. 509, p. 139, May 5, 1908).— M. Vigier states that if seeds 

 are placed in a vessel hermetically sealed, with a superposed flask contain- 

 ing ether enough to saturate the cavity and left for a fortnight, the effect 

 (after airing them for three or four days before sowing, to get rid of the 

 ether) will be to diminish germination ; but, on the other hand, the 

 surviving seeds will be markedly vigorous, as if there had been a survival 

 of the fittest. — F. A. W. 



Gipsy and Brown-tail Moths in New Hampshire. By E. D. 



Sanderson (U.S.A. Exp. Stn., New Hampshire, Bull. 136, February 

 1908 ; 34 figs.).— These two pests, which have been the subject of much 

 legislation in the United States, and have been referred to at length 

 several times in these abstracts (Journ. R.H.S. xxxi. p. 821 ; xxxiii. 

 pp. 145-600), are dealt with at length, the life-histories and appearance 



