ABSTRACTS. 



307 



mercial results would follow the use of glass for forcing Lettuces for the 

 New York market in North Carolina instead of the plant-cloth at present 

 universal. 4th, an article showing that it appears to be more advan- 

 tageous to the trees to irrigate South Arizona orchards in winter than in 

 summer, while the practice possesses this great advantage, that in the 

 former season water is plentiful and can be administered in really 

 satisfying quantities, while in summer the available supplies are at best 

 scanty ; and 5th, a tabulated comparison of the results of scientific 

 hybridisation and selection among native varieties of Grape, undertaken 

 with the view of producing or preserving kinds which shall be desirable in 

 themselves and adapted to resisting disease and adverse conditions of 

 climate. M. L. H. 



Farmyard Manure. By Malpeaux and Dorez (Ann. Agr. pp. 353- 

 356 ; August 1901). — A discussion of the relative advantage of ploughing 

 in the manure at once, or after leaving it spread on surface for some time. 

 The balance is in favour of quickly ploughing in the manure. 



C. H. H. 



Farmyard Manure, Fermentations of Nitrogenous Matters 



in. By Deherain and Dupont (Ann. Agr. pp. ±01-427 ; September 1901). 

 An important paper of some length which requires to be consulted 

 en bloc.—C. H. H. 



Fasciation in Sweet Potato. By Henry S. Conard, A.M. (Contr. 

 Bot. Lab. Phil. vol. ii., No. 2, p. 205 ; 1901 ; pi. 19).— The common Sweet 

 Potato as grown about Philadelphia produces fasciated vines very plenti- 

 fully. It has been suggested that an excess of nitrogenous fertiliser 

 (ammonia) in the soil seems to increase the amount of fasciation. At 

 any rate, the evidence seems strong in favour of the view that fasciation 

 in this plant is connected with high nutrition. 



Along with the ordinary fasciations there appear in the Sweet Potato, 

 -as in other fasciated races, various peculiar malformations, such as split 

 or dichotomous branching, split fasciations, and especially that remarkable 

 condition which has been termed "ring fasciation." 



Then follows a detailed description of ring fasciation as it has occurred 

 in Pcpcromia, as described by H. de Vries ; and also in Veronica longifolia. 

 Also two doubtful cases of ring fasciation in Sempervivum, and two 

 fasciated Sweet Peas reported by C. P. Qualch. — M. C. C. 



Female Flowers of some Juglandaeese, The. By G. Karsten 

 (Flora, xc. 1902, pp. 316-333; pis. 12).— The species studied were 

 Juglans regia, J. cordiformis, J. nigra, Pterocarya fraxini folia, Carya 

 amara, C. tomentosa. Two embryo sacs are often found, both fully 

 developed, one behind the other, separated by vegetative cells. There 

 would appear to be an abundant " sporogenous " tissue. The pollen tube 

 enters the nucellus by the outer integument. /. nigra and regia are 

 remarkable for the equivalence in size of the synergids and oosphere, 

 the tardy union of the polar nuclei (possibly sometimes not effected, and 

 one only mating with the male nucleus), the abundant sporogenous 



