SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 389 
the crystals which it contains are not true rapliides. — Vide Magazine of 
Natural History , January. 
The Kilkee Fucus. — It would appear that this is no longer to he styled 
F. distichus. The following is sufficient reason for this statement 
“ Notwithstanding all that has been said pro and con. I have now to inform 
you that the Kilkee fucus is neither F. distichus , nor yet F. fuscatus , nor 
yet any species known to Professor Agardli, from whom I have just 
received a specimen of the true F. distichus of the elder Agardh ; and so 
being constrained to give it a name, I propose to call it Fucus anceps , Ward 
and Harvey ; and I request you to make known this alias to all to whom 
you have (on my authority) given the wrong name. This Fucus seems 
to combine the characters of the ribbed and ribless species, and therefore 
it may with propriety be named F. anceps ” (Letter from Professor J. H. 
Harvey to Dr. J. E. Gray). — See Annals of Natural History for February, 
1864. 
Respiration of Plants. — M. Felix de Faucoupret follows in the suite of 
M. Corenwinder and others, and gives us the annexed conclusions as the 
only ones to be drawn from the investigations which he has made : — 
(1) The quantity of carbonic acid absorbed or exhaled b}^ the same plant 
varies with the temperature, the mode of respiration remaining the same. 
(2) At the same temperature, the quantity of carbonic acid absorbed or 
exhaled varies according to the nature of the plant. (3) The law 
explaining the relation of the quantities to the different temperatures 
is expressed by a parabolic formula, no matter what be the mode of respi- 
ration, or the family to which the plant belongs. (4) The coefficient of 
the square of the temperature is constant for all plants whose temperature 
is the same. (5) This coefficient varies for the same plant according to 
the mode of respiration. It will, no doubt, be interesting to our readers 
to see that even so essentially inductive a science as botany may be found 
possessing mathematical laws, such as those above stated.— Vide Comptes 
Rendus , February 15th. 
Spontaneous Generation.— We have much pleasure in stating that there 
is at last a prospect of the question of equivocal generation being settled. 
We learn, from the Comptes Rendus , that the Academy has appointed a 
commission to inquire into the evidence on both sides, and that M. Pasteur 
and Messrs. Pouchet, J oly, and Musset have been invited to repeat their 
experiments in the presence of the commissioners. The invitation has 
been accepted by both parties, the advocates of spontaneous generation 
appearing to be quite sanguine of success, and reposing the most perfect 
confidence in the impartiality of the commission. — See Comptes Rendus , 
January 25th. 
CHEMISTRY. 
Spectral Ray of Thallium Paralysed by that of Sodium . — It appears that 
if thallium be present in small proportions in a compound containing 
chloride of sodium, the action of the ray characteristic of the latter is so 
powerful that the tliallic ray remains unperceived. Hence, although the 
thallic ray be not observed in the solar spectrum, it by no means follows 
VOL. III.— -NO. XI. 2 D 
