SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
553 
BOTANY. 
The Calabar Poison Bean ( Physostigma venenosum). — The seed of this 
plant has lately been much noticed for the medicinal properties which 
reside in it. The most energetic results are obtained from the kernel. 
These are chiefly marked upon the spinal cord, producing muscular 
paralysis. When applied locally to the eyeball or eyelids, destruction of 
the contractility of muscular fibre, and contraction of the pupil result. 
This property is advantageously employed by the oculist. 
Cultivation of Cinchona Trees in India. — Dr. Anderson, Superintendent 
of the Calcutta Botanic Garden, is inspecting the introduction of Cin- 
chona into the Sikkim Himalayas. His nursery is reported to be in a 
most flourishing condition, and he has seven species under cultivation. 
He states that it promises to be a most successful experiment on those 
moist hills. 
Iron as a Tonic in the Vegetable Creation. — It is alleged that a discovery 
of a curious kind has been made regarding the influence of iron on vege- 
tation. On chalky soils where there is an absence of iron, vegetation has 
a sere and blanched appearance. This is entirely removed, it is said, by 
the application of a solution of sulphate of iron. Haricot beans watered 
with this substance acquired an additional weight of 60 per cent. It is 
expected that the salts of iron will be found as beneficial in farming as in 
horticulture, but the experiments are yet very incomplete. In the culti- 
vation of clover, wonderful advantages are declared to have been gained. 
The material is cheap and the quantity applied is small. 
The Flora of Australia. — Dr. Murray, who accompanied Mr. Howitt’s 
expedition as medical officer, has brought back specimens of timber repre- 
senting seventeen species of trees, the most peculiar of which have received 
the name of the cork tree, and the orange tree. The fruit of the latter in out- 
ward appearance is not unlike a small orange, but it has a pungent flavour, 
which renders it disagreeable to Europeans, being something between a 
water-melon and cayenne pepper. The collection of timber, made with 
great labour, has been sent to Dr. Muller for examination. 
The Receptacles of the Juices of Plants. — M. Lestiboudois endeavours 
to dispel the doubt respecting the existence and nature of latex 
and laticiferous vessels. He propounds a series of questions, which 
he answers as the result of his researches. The coloured juices of plants 
do not resemble (according to this botanist) a fluid which has to furnish 
organs with the materials of growth, either in their physical properties, in 
their composition, or in the situations in which they are found. In some 
plants the reservoirs of the coloured juices constitute a vascular system, so 
disposed as to follow the vesication of the leaves, and appertaining more 
particularly to the cortical structure of the stem. The proper juices are 
more dense, and of a deeper colour in the lower and older parts of the 
plant, and usually are nearly absent from the root ; but in some instances 
(as Lactuca sativa) abound there. The vasa propria are, as a rule, distin- 
guishable from neighbouring tissues by the colour of their contents, and 
by their flexuous, thin, branching, and anastomatic form. 
