424 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
eludes, from numerous investigations, that all these substances constitute the 
nitrogenous food of plants which gTOw in aqueous solutions. As to the 
chiuiges which they may undergo in the soil, he thinks that a new series of 
researches must be made to determine this. 
The Botanical A 2 )pointments in the British Museum . — The Gardeners' 
Chronicle makes the following remarks on this point, and we concur in them 
thoroughly : —Some time since, when an appointment was made in the 
Botanical Department of the British Museum, we were not a little sur- 
prised, not to say disgusted, to find that one of the conditions imposed upon 
the candidate for the office was that he should be subjected to an examina- 
tion by the Civil Service Commissioners. If this examination had had 
reference to botanical subjects or museum duties there would have been no 
reason for surprise j but to subject a well-educated gentleman, a graduate 
of the University of London, whose examinations are known to be the most 
searching of all similar ordeals, to a test such as is properly enough imposed 
on unknown men, or on those whose qualifications have not been tested, 
was to degrade the candidate and to offer an insult to the University. W e 
are glad to find that Mr. James Britten, who has recently been appointed 
to an office in the Koyal Herbarium at Kew, has not had to undergo such 
a degradation. 
Gases exhaled hy Fruit . — At a meeting of the Academy of Sciences 
(Baris) on August 6, MM. Bellamy and Lechartier read a paper in which 
they stated that various kinds of fruit, after having been plucked from the 
trees — for instance, apples, cherries, gooseberries, and currants — begin to 
absorb oxygen and give off carbonic acid. 
How Light affects the Decomposition of Carbonic Acid hy Plants . — In the 
Comptes-Rendas of August 9, a paper is published by M. Prillieux detailing 
the results of experiments made on plants witli gaslight, electric light, 
and magnesium light. The experiments were conducted on aquatic plants ; 
the stem of the plant being cut across, and thus allowing the escape of 
bubbles of oxygen to the surface, these could then be readily counted. He 
found that whilst in a given time sunlight caused the disengagement of 
twenty-two bubbles, in the same time under the influence of electric light 
only eleven bubbles were disengaged. Other lights furnished less. But 
still, as all the lights caused the disengagement of oxygen, it shows — 
the author thought — that these sources of light contain the same elements 
as sunlight. 
Alkalies in the Ash of Plants. — M. Cloez calls attention to the fact, already 
pointed out by others, that the same plants grown near the sea and at 
remote distances therefrom alter their saline constituents, so that while 
growing near the sea soda prevails, as a rule, over potassa, the reverse is 
tlio case while the same plant vegetates at a distance more or less remote 
from the sea ; of this fact some instances are given in this paper. The relation 
of the soda to the potassa of the ash of Crambe maritima when grown near 
the sea was as 900 to 1,000; when grown at Baris, as 89 to 1,000. The 
r* lation of soda to potassa in the ash of black mustard-seed grown near the 
was as 200 to 1,000, while when grown at Paris it was as 96 to 1,000. 
Vieie Bulletin mensuel dcla Bociite rhimiqnc de Pari.H, July. 
Artificial Selection in improving Com . — One of the most wonderful 
