1192 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



though not suitable for the best macaroni, is consumed largely in: 

 France itself in the inferior forms of vermicelli and what is known as- 

 Italian paste, &c. It is felt as a great drawback by the French semolina* 

 millers that, being forced to import grain from various sources, it comes- 

 to them in varying degrees of size and hardness, so that they are always 

 altering their machinery to suit the new material, and never really get 

 thoroughly to understand any one kind. It is suggested that in America 

 one variety of wheat could be grown in practically unlimited quantities,, 

 and that native semolina millers would therefore be able to concentrate 

 their attention on perfecting the process best adapted to that one sort. 



Though it is impossible to produce semolina from more than one- 

 class of wheat at one milling, it is the custom with the best macaroni, 

 manufacturers to blend several sorts of semolina together in mixing their 

 paste, either to attain just the right amount of gluten or for economic 

 reasons. No formula is apparently forthcoming for a theoretically perfect 

 semolina, but macaroni manufacturers know by long experience when any 

 given sample is up to the standard of their requirements. 



The writer aims not only at awakening American farmers and millers 

 to the possibility of building up an export trade in semolina, but also at, 

 encouraging the manufacture of macaroni in the United States for home 

 consumption. It has never been anything like so popular an article of 

 focd there as in most European countries, for the simple reason that the 

 imported article necessarily reaches the consumer in such poor condition. 



He gives minute descriptions of all the processes to be gone through 

 in the preparation of semolina and macaroni, with figures of the various 

 machines in use in Europe, and discusses the comparative advantages of 

 wet or dry cleaning of the wheat, the problem being to produce the greatest 

 quantity of large-grained semolina, a residuum of flour of the most sale- 

 able appearance, and at the same time to prevent the rapid deterioration 

 of the semolina which is a frequent result of damping the grain. 



On the whole, this drawback is said to be greatly outweighed by those 

 attending dry-cleaning. 



Various tables follow, giving all the statistics connected with the 

 macaroni trade, of" the exports of semolina and of edible pastes from 

 Marseilles, of the importation of wheat to Marseilles, range of prices of 

 semolina at Marseilles from 1885 to 1900, and declared values of im- 

 ports of macaroni and vermicelli into the United States in 1900. 



M. L. H. 



SeneciO, A new Hybrid. By F. W. Burbidge and Nathaniel 

 Colgan (Journ. Bot. 480, pp. 401-6, 12/1902 ; pi. 444).— Description of 

 a natural hybrid of Scnecio Cineraria, DC, and S. Jacobcea, L., from 

 Sorrento Park, Killiney Bay, co. Dublin, for which the name x S. albes- 

 cens is proposed. — G. S. B. 



Sensitive Plant as a Weed in the Tropics. By D. G. Fairchild 



(Bot. Gaz. xxxiv. p. 228, No. 3). — The author describes Mimosa imdica as 

 a most troublesome weed, and gives a photograph showing its luxuriance 

 and how cattle avoid it in Ceylon fields. They had eaten the herbage 

 closely around the plant, leaving it strictly alone ; and as it crept across. 



