200 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
between the unmanured and manured conditions ; and hence the series of 
soils would be better fitted for the purposes of further experiment. 
American Experiments on the Compass Plant. — Mr. Thomas Meehan has 
laid a series of remarks before the Academy of Sciences of Philadelphia 
(October) upon the Compass plant, which clear up the question as to its 
pointing 1 to the north or not, which many people deny. When first he saw 
the Silphium , to any great extent, in its natural localities, there was not the 
slightest indication of this northern tendency. It was a great surprise, as a 
limited knowledge of it before had taught the reverse. He determined to 
watch a plant carefully on his own grounds the next year. The result was 
just as described by President Hill, and related in our last number of 
u Popular Science Review.” There was the unmistakable northern tendency 
in the leaves when they first came up. and until they were large and heavy, 
when winds and rains bore them in different directions, and they evidently 
had- not the power of regaining the points lost. This often took place by 
their own weight alone, especially in luxuriant specimens. Mr. Hill says it 
was in June when he saw them on the prairies, all bearing north ; when 
Mr. Meehan saw them, and not doing so, it was early in September, and 
then no doubt the mechanical causes he has referred to had been in opera- 
tion. The plant he has had in his garden now for some years affords much 
interest in many respects. He learned a useful lesson from it this year, in 
reference to the relative rates of growth in the different parts of the inflo- 
rescence. Noticing that there appeared to be no growth in the disc florets 
in the day, he determined to note accurately one morning during the last 
week in August exactly when growth did commence. The ray flowers 
close over the disc during night, and at 4 A.M., with day just dawning in 
the east, he found the ray petals just commencing to open back. In the 
disc there are about fifteen coils of florets in the spiral. 
The Plants of West Newfoundland. — A recent number of the u Canadian 
Naturalist” contains an able paper on the above, by Dr. John Bell. Its 
length and the discursive habit of the author prevent us giving an abstract 
of it. 
The Herbaria of Linne and Micliaux. — Professor D. C. Eaton, M.A., of 
Yale College, U.S., the eminent American pteridologist, when in Europe on 
a visit in 1866, examined many of the standard herbaria, and made notes on 
the American plants contained in them. He has most liberally placed a 
series of these notes on the North-American Filices in Mr. D. A. Watt’s 
hands for perusal, has allowed him to take copies of them, and to print such 
selections from them as he might deem of sufficient interest : those relating 
to the collections of Linne, now in London, and of Michaux, in Paris, are 
o-iven. The herbarium name of each plant is placed within quotation 
marks, as are also such notes (of habitat, &c.) as were deemed of sufficient 
interest to be copied from the sheets to which the respective specimens 
were attached. Mr. Eaton’s observations follow. He has not printed these 
verbatim, as, not being intended for publication, they were, more or less, 
made up of indications and signs which he has attempted to write out with 
exactness, One or two observations of his own are placed within brackets, 
and bear his initial. For convenience of reference he has arranged the 
species in the order of their occurrence in the species Plantarum, and in 
