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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
were placed seeds wliicli had not been acted on by the current. It was 
found that the electrified plants germinated much sooner than the others, 
and produced better stems and greener and more healthy-looking leaves than 
the others. A very curious effect was produced in some of the seeds — the 
stem and leaves grew down into the earth, and the roots came up and took 
their place. 
Who discovered the Laticiferous Vessels ? — It would appear from a letter 
which Herr Schultz has lately addressed to the French Academy that he 
considers he is entitled to some of the merit belonging to the discoveries of 
the latex vessels. Our readers will remember that from time to time we 
have recorded the various additions made to our knowledge of the laticife- 
rous system by M. Trecul, the great French botanist. Herr Schultz’s letter 
is simply an attempt to deprive M. Trecul of the credit of discovering these 
vessels. In fact, it denies M. Trecul’s right to be regarded as the discoverer 
of the latex canals. M. Trecul replies to Herr Schultz’s letter with great 
modesty. He states that he never dreamt of being regarded as the discoverer 
of the laticiferous vessels, which he says were investigated many years since 
both by Malpighi and Duhamel. He merely claims to have more thoroughly 
explained the nature and relations of these vessels than modern observers. 
To this claim of M. Trecul’s it is impossible to raise any objection. The 
numerous contributions recently made by M. Trecul to the French Academy 
demonstrate three points in the anatomy of the laticiferous vessels which were 
hitherto surrounded with considerable obscurity : — (1) The structure and 
modification of the vessels ; (2) their anastomoses with the fibro- vascular 
canals \ and (3) the existence of latex in both the spiral and punctated 
vessels. 
An Abnormal form of Ophrys. — In the Journal of Botany for November, 
Mr. I. J. Traherne Moggridge describes a curiously abnormal form of the 
ophrys which is worthy of notice. This subject had before received Mr. 
Moggridge’s attention, for in the Journal of Botany for June, 1866, we find 
descriptions of other monstrosities in the same plant. In his first paper he 
described two flowers, in one of which a second anther was produced within 
the lobes of the normal one, and the other was a third rostellum on the edge 
of the stigmatic cavity at the point where the glandular processes in orchis 
seem to indicate the presence of rudimentary anthers. In the paper which 
he has recently published he adduces examples of different stages of abnor- 
mal development, all showing how the petal, when in connection with that 
part of the stigmatic cavity which sometimes produces a rostellum, is gra- 
dually modified into an anther. The specimens illustrating this process 
were collected at Mentone, and have been carefully figured in a page-plate 
which accompanies Mr. Moggridge’s paper. 
PolUmferous Ovules in a Bose. — The occurrence of polliniferous ovules in 
certain plants shows us how very careful we should be in drawing conclu- 
sions as to what is termed vegetable parthenogenesis. The fact of pollen- 
bearing ovules existing in a rose has been pointed out in a valuable contri- 
bution to teratological botany by Dr, Maxwell T. Masters. The most strik- 
ing feature in the specimens examined by Dr. Masters was the occurrence on 
the throat of the calyx, in the position ordinarily occupied by the stamens, 
and sometimes mingled with those organs, of twisted, ribbon-like filaments. 
