SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
523 
from a specimen in the Botanic Gardens of Rochester, New York. ' Near 
the upper part of the stem seeds were found, which on being planted, ger- 
minated, and in a short time produced three young and healthy individuals 
of this species. The head of the old plant slowly decayed, a part of the 
leaves fell off, and by another summer it will have ceased to exist. It 
is now known, therefore, that the seeds of this plant will ripen in a 
warmed conservatory. — Vide SillimarCs American Journal of Science, 2nd 
series, 109. 
Spiral-growing Fucoid Fossils. — Professor Hall, of New York, contributes 
to the last “ Report of the Regents of the U niversity ” a paper on the 
above subject. He has found a series of these organisms in the palaeozoic 
rocks of New York, and he proposes uniting the different genera under 
one, which he terms Spirophyton. From the fact that these forms have 
occurred solely in Devonian rocks, he thinks they may henceforth be 
regarded as indicating strata of that period. 
The Fossil Flora of the Bohemian Rothliegenden is given in a most 
instructive tabular scheme which appeared in the Geologist for June, 
and to it we must refer those of our readers who are interested in the 
subject. 
Plants producing Double Flowers have received the attention of Dr. 
Seemann, the well-known editor of the Journal of Botany. He considers that 
the bulk of plants producing double flowers is undoubtedly indigenous to the 
northern hemisphere. In Polynesia and the whole of Australasia not a single 
species with double flowers has turned up ; but there are in South Africa 
and South America at least a few plants, the stamens of which are con- 
verted into petals. It is impossible to say whether the absence of double 
flowers from Polynesia and Australia, is owing to the fact that there are 
no observers in those parts who at once seize and transplant them into a 
garden, or whether they really never occur. Civilized men having taken 
a peculiar fancy to double flowers ; they are safely lodged in garden and 
greenhouse 'whenever they spring up ; and hence all countries, longest or 
most highly-civilized, have, as the case now stands, supplied the greatest 
number of these products, China and Japan boasting of the most perfect of 
all, the camellias. Dr. Seemann’s list embraces the names of 279 species, 
of which 234 are exogens, and the remainder belong to the Monocotyledon 
division. Two of the plants are apetalous. 
CHEMISTRY. 
A new Mode of producing Aldehyde has been described by M. Carstanjin. 
It is known to chemists that very many methods of preparing these com- 
pounds are already employed ; for example, they may be obtained by 
the oxidation of either albumen or alcohol, in the distillation of salts from 
fatty acids, and of albuminoid substances, and by dehydrating glycols. 
The modus operandi adopted by the chemist w T e allude to is as follows : — 
Ethylamine is poured on crystallized permanganate of potash, and the 
liquid, which is at first violet, turns green, and on being shaken becomes 
