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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
tannin material ; with gelatine solution it is precipitated, with chloride of 
iron it yields a green precipitate, and its combinations with the heavy metals 
are insoluble in water; its formula is C 54 H 28 0 22 . This material yields, 
when split up by the action of sulphuric acid, sugar, and a peculiar reddish- 
brown- coloured resinous substance, insoluble in water and ether, difficultly 
soluble in alcohol, readily soluble in caustic soda solution and in ammonia, 
from which solutions it is precipitated again by acids. 
Fossil Botany in 1869. — The first number of the Journal of Botany 
contains, besides various other papers of much interest, a very important 
communication from Mr. W. Carruthers, of the British Museum, entitled, 
“ Review of the Contributions to Fossil Botany published in Britain in 
1869.” The author gives some account of all the .papers of the year, and a 
list of the genera and species referred to. 
The Structure of a Fern-stem. — At the last meeting of the Geological 
Society of London, Mr. Carruthers, who has the field of Fossil Botany 
almost exclusively to himself in this country, read a paper 11 On the Structure 
of a Fern-stem from the Lower Eocene of Herne Bay, and on its allies, 
recent and fossil ” The author described the characters of the fossil-stem 
of a fern obtained by George Dowker, Esq., F.G.S., from the beach at 
Herne Bay, and stated that in its structure it agreed most closely with the 
living Osmunda regalis, and certainly belonged to the Osmundacece. The 
broken petioles show a single crescentic vascular bundle. The section of the 
true stem shows a white parenchymatous medulla, a narrow vascular cylinder 
interrupted by long slender meshes from which the vascular bundles of the 
petioles spring, and a parenchymatous cortical layer. The author described 
the arrangement of these parts in detail, and indicated their agreement with 
the same parts in Osmunda regalis. He did not venture to refer the fern, to 
which this stem had belonged, positively to the genus Osmunda. , but pre- 
ferred describing it as an Osmundites, under the name of O. Dowheri. The 
specimen was silicified, and the author stated that even the starch-grains 
contained in its cells and the mycelium of a parasitic fungus traversing some 
of them were perfectly represented. Its precise origin was unknown : it was 
said to be probably derived from the London clay, or from the beds immedi- 
ately below. 
A Giant Fir. — Cosmo? of March 5 states that there has been just cut 
down, at Arwa, in Hungary, a fir tree, 139 ft. high, and 71 inches in 
diameter at 2 ft. from the soil. This tree, as regards size, is a specimen now 
very rarelv met with in Europe, though more common to America. 
heath of Mr. Soiverby. — Since our last issue, science has had to record 
the decease of Mr. F. J. E. Sowerby, whose beautiful illustrations of British 
plants, and especially those which have appeared in the English Botany , 
which Mr. Ilardwicke is now publishing, are so well known to lovers of 
plants. It was fortunate, for the sake of the handsome and valuable work 
which Mr. Ilardwicke is publishing, that all the drawings were completed 
before Mr. Sowerby ’s decease. 
Professor Unger, whose papers on the relation between the existing Flora 
of New Holland and the Eocene Flora of Europe, were so ably epitomised 
some years ago in these pages by Dr. B. Seemann, has quite recently died. 
I le appears to have died suddenly, and under suspicious circumstances. It is 
