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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
fitting candidate could have been chosen. In these pages we have fre- 
quently had to chronicle Dr. Trimen’s discoveries, and we trust that his new 
appointment will only add vigour to his well-known spirit of botanical 
inquiry. 
The Vascular System of the Araliacice , which has hitherto received hardly 
any attention from physiological botanists, forms the subject of a fine me- 
moir which has been presented to the French Academy by M. Trecul, who 
states that its vessels are most closely allied to those of the umbelliferm. 
The proper juice, or fluid, of the vessel appears to be oleo-resinous in some 
of the species, and gummy in others, whilst in Panax Lessonii this liquid 
is oleo-resinous in the fruit, and is gummy in the stem. The canals 
which contain the juice-proper are distinguished from the others by the 
absence of any particular membrane, and by the presence of a boundary 
envelope of cells, whose constituents, though not always differing in form 
from their neighbours, may be at once distinguished by their contents. In 
the roots M. Trecul has only met these canals in the bark. As in the Umbel- 
liferae, those of the periphery are often narrower than the others, and are 
situate more or less near the suberous layer, and unite with each other by 
oblique or horizontal branches. The details of M. Trecul’s paper are too 
numerous for further notice. Our readers should consult the original com- 
munication for themselves. — Vide Comptes-Rendus, May 6th. 
The Hybridization of Plants. — A paper on this interesting operation was 
lately presented to the Botanical Society of Edinburgh by Mr. J. Anderson- 
Henry. The author of the paper commenced his experiments nearly thirty 
years ago, being fully convinced of the accuracy of M. Lamarck’s views. 
Among other interesting facts adduced in this paper is the following, 
relative to the intercrossing of the species of different countries. We give the 
author’s own account : — u I may here notice a fact I have found of almost 
universal occurrence among my experiments, that when I had to cross an 
American with an Asiatic species, it took much more kindly than crossing 
either of these, especially the former, with European species ; and, lest I 
shall not have another opportunity of recurring to this subject, I may here 
observe also the decided preference of plants of the southern hemisphere 
to intercross among themselves, however remote their original homes may 
be — e.g. I found how much easier it was to cross Australian and New 
Zealand plants with their allies of South America, than with European or 
kindred species in the northern hemisphere. I have also observed that true 
American species have greater aversion to cross with European than with 
Asiatic species, and that Asiatic species have no less aversion to intermix 
with European kinds. There is only one instance, I remember, of effecting 
a successful cross between an Asiatic and a European species, and that was 
in crossing a small species of Rhododendron with yellow ITelianthemum- 
like flowers, being a form of Rhododendron lepidotum called R. elceagnoides , 
of the Sikkim ranges, with R. ferrugineum, a European kind. Of this cross 
I raised two plants ; one died, and I kept the other for years ; it flowered 
with me, the blooms being dirty red, splashed with a pale yellow tint. It 
was an odd-looking thing, and I afterwards sent it to Kew as a botanical 
curiosity.” * 
Strength of the Stalks of Cet'eals not dependent on Silica. — M. Velter has 
