SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
203 
Duchartre, Dr. Hooker, and others. Botanists are not agreed as to the 
exact significance of the different parts of the leaf. The most generally- 
accepted opinion is that of the two former botanists. The author has 
studied the development of the leaves, and comes to the following con- 
clusion. At first the leaves are represented by little buds, little elevations 
with a convex surface. At a little later period the base of these organs 
dilates a little and becomes slightly concave inwards. This is the first 
rudiment of the sheath, a portion of the leaf which we see has no 
relation with the cavity of the urn of Sarracenia. This vagina, which will 
take later on a great development, bears itself here as in all the vegetables 
in which it is found, and has no influence upon the constitution of the 
urn. The first indication of the latter is a small depression, a sort of 
u fossette,” very slight at first, which produces itself gradually and within 
the cone which represents the young leaf. This depression is really due to 
an inequality of development in the various parts of the summit of the leaf. 
In this respect the leaves of Sarracenia behave themselves like those of the 
Nymphceacece with which they have other analogies. The remainder of M. 
Baillon’s paper is, though short, too long for an abstract. It should be all 
translated to render it intelligible, but it is not without value as a paper on 
vegetable morphology, if we may use the term. 
CHEMISTRY. 
The Production of Acetic Acid by the Destructive Distillation of Resin . — 
Mr. Charles R. C. Tichborne recently (January 9) read a paper on this 
subject before the Royal Irish Academy. He said he found that, when 
resin was submitted to distillation, among other products was a strongly 
acid solution. The silver salt of this acid was formed, and on analysis it 
proved to be acetic. He remarked that it was rather surprising to see acetic 
acid produced in appreciable quantities from a substance so comparatively 
poor in oxygen. The amount of oxygen in colophony was 10‘6 per cent., 
whilst in an acid-yielding substance, such as woody fibre, it was 49-4 per 
cent. 
Amorphous Sulphur. — A recent number of u Poggendorff’s Annalen ” 
(No. 11, 1870) contains a paper on this subject by Herr R. Weber. The 
paper contains the account of a series of experiments made with sulphur 
obtained by precipitation (by means of acids) from hyposulphites, alkaline 
sulphurets, and the decomposition of sulphuretted hydrogen. Sulphur 
obtained from hyposulphite of soda by the addition of some hydrochloric 
acid to the solution of that salt, exhibits the appearance of an oily fluid, 
which remains liquid for a considerable time after having been washed by 
carefully-conducted decantation, and resembles, as regards colour and con- 
sistency, the yolk of eggs. The sp. gr. of this sulphur varies from T92 to 
1 -927 ; it is amorphous, but becomes, when completely solidified, crystalline, 
a phenomenon which is greatly accelerated by heat. The author found that 
the liquid sulphur contains small quantities of persulphide of hydrogen, but 
the origin of that substance could not be traced. The assertion often made, 
