84 
rorULAR SCIENCE REVIE-W. 
and four miles further west at Llandwrog. Elachisia stellaris is laiown 
from all the species of the genus by the lilaments being nearly simple, 
radiating from a small, dense, hemispherical tubercle ; the threads are 
rather narrowed below, and very much attenuated and produced into a long 
slender tip above; the joints of the lower part of the thread are as wide as long, 
and of the upper part two or three times as long as wide ; the spore is oval 
shortly pedicelled. — Dr. Gray in Annals of Natural History for December. 
The Adulteration of Tobacco. — The Journal of the Quekett Club for October 
contains a paper on this subject by Mr. J. A. Archer. There is little that 
is new pointed out by the author, but the paper is, nevertheless, an inter- 
esting and useful summary of our knowledge of the varieties of adulteration 
and of the modes of detecting them. 
Germination of the Sjmres of Varicellaria. — Dr. W. Nylander’s obser- 
vations on this point have been translated for the Annals of Natural History 
(December) by the Rev. W. A. Leighton, and are of interest. The spores of 
'\’’aricelhiria, which are the largest spores of all lichens, were placed by him 
in a humid atmosphere, and— as seen by De Bary and others— were soon 
covered with slender circumradiant filaments. In the course of a month or 
so these filaments acquired a mucedinous character, and produced monili- 
form hyaline penicillate acrospores, and thus constituted a slender penicillium. 
This subsequently disappears under culture. But before it disappears, he 
has observed in the endospore a hyaline protoplasm turbid in the middle, 
composed of very minute white granulations, which as it were by coagu- 
lation formed a solid white corpuscle in the cavity of each cell of the spore, 
;ind that this afterwards gradually increased after the fashion of an embryo, 
and at length in the tliird month filled the entire cavities of both cells of the 
endospore. At the same time, the wall of the two cells showed the con- 
centric strata to have become sensibly looser, and was fissured by several 
fine transvei'se rimuloe preparing for its future dissolution, which a parasitic 
mucedinous vegetation would also promote. Dr. Nylander has noticed 
these phenomena from March till June. Then the spores denuded of 
penicillium, sliow a white corpuscle in each cell which distends the spiral 
wall, and ultimately expels an oblong corpuscle which, when free, enlarges, 
and is most probably the commencement of the thallus of the lichen. 
The Morpholoay of Malvales. — We have received from Dr. Masters a copy 
of his paper on tliis subject intlie Lhinean Society's Journal (vol. x. Botany). 
Having examined very carefully the relation of tlio families Malmcecc, 
Stercidiacea:, and Tiliacece of Bentham and Hooker’s Cohors VI., he has 
arrived at tlie conclusion that though it may be desirable for convenience 
sake to separate the two former from each otlier, yet that tiiey are so 
closely related in morphological construction that it is hardly possible to 
comprehend the peculiar structural relations of tlie one witliout comparing 
them with the corresponding parts of the others. Dr. Masters looks on the 
stamens as being the organs of greatest importance in cl a.ssiti cation. Not 
c»nly, he says, does the connection of the stamens furnish one of the best 
characters of the entire group, but even in the discrimination of the 
tanaller sub-divisions (genera) the appearances presented by the column are 
of the greatest value. 
A Synopsis of the South African Rcstiacea; is tlie title of another excellent 
