SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
89 
The Starchy Matter of Plants. — A paper, laid quite recently before the 
French Academy by M. Arthur Gris, states as a conclusion that the amy- 
laceous matter contained in plants is partly resorbed during the development 
of the flowers, but that this process is not continued during the develop- 
ment of the fruit. 
The Fecundation of the Floridece. — There are few subj ects of higher inte- 
rest to the student of vegetable physiology than that of the mode of repro- 
duction of plants. The processes which occur among the Algse generally 
have been of late years very clearly made out ; but it would seem, from a 
memoir published by MM. Bornet and Thuret, that the fecundation of 
some of the Algae is different from what is generally thought to be the pro- 
cess. These authors have written a very long paper, describing the structure 
and fimctions of the antherozoids, &c. of the Florideae, and have given a 
number of details which we cannot lay before our readers. Their general 
conclusion, however, shows the view they take, and is as follows : — u It 
appears from the preceding observations that the phenomena of fecundation 
in the Florideae are very different from those which occur in the other Algae. 
The structure of the organs, their mode of action, the period when their 
fimctions are discharged, and the effects which they produce, distinguish 
them from the other Algae. There is no direct action of the antherozoids on 
the reproductive bodies in these plants. The operation is less simple, and 
in some respects resembles that which occurs in the higher plants. Here we 
find fecundation produced by motionless corpuscles on an external organ, the 
result of which is the complete development of the organ of fructification.” 
—Vide Comptes Rendns , Sept. 24. 
Chinese Soap Seeds. — M. Payen, in a memoir on the Leguminosae, whose 
seeds are used as soap by the Chinese, has supplied botanists with the fol- 
lowing interesting facts : These seeds are of two species, which differ slightly 
in chemical and microscopical characters. The first series, which has been 
more extensively examined than the other, is considered by M. Decaisne to 
belong to the genus Dyalhim. In the seed one finds, first, a stratum of about 
two or three millimetres thick, composed of cells, containing grains of 
starch, a substance analogous to saponine, and a nitrogenous oil. Within 
this envelope is the embryo, surrounded by a compact perisperm, whose 
structure and composition are quite peculiar. In this M. Payen has found 
cells with thin walls, containing grains of starch, coloured yellow by iodine, 
and contracted by sulphuric acid, and a special amorphous secretion, which 
absorbs thirty times its weight of water. This absorption gives rise to a 
sort of jelly, which, when separated, precipitated by alcohol, and evaporated 
to dryness, gives colourless tablets, like layers of gelatine. This, says M.. 
Payen, is not to be confounded with pectine and bodies of the pectine group. 
It is allied to cellulose, but is not coloured blue by iodine. M. Payen pro- 
poses to term it Dyallose. — Vide L'Institut , No. 1707. 
Deceased Botanists. — We. regret to have to record the deaths of two most 
distinguished continental botanists, Dr. Kotschy, of Vienna, and Dr. Met- 
tenius, of Leipzig. The former was for some time assistant in the Vienna 
Herbarium, and was author of several books of travel and of a monograph 
on Oaks. Dr. Mettenius was Professor of Botany and director of the Botanic 
Garden at Leipzig. 
