SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
209 
readers confirm his observation of the extraordinarily rapid growth of the 
flower-stalk of this plant? It was first observed in his aquarium about 
10 a.m. on July 19, and measured 26 inches, this being almost certainly 
the growth of the previous forty-eight hours. At 10 a.m. on July 20, it 
measured 38 inches, or had grown 12 inches in twenty-four hours. At 
4 p.m. on the same day the length was 41 inches j at 10 a.m. the next 
morning 42|;'and 10 a.m. on the 22nd, 43 inches, its ultimate length. 
From the time when first observed — the 19th — till the 31st, when he left 
home, the flower, a female one, remained open without any apparent change, 
not being fertilised during that time, as no male flower made its appearance. 
There was no coiling or uncoiling of the flower-stalk during the whole 
time ; only a slight waviness. Since he published this statement, observa- 
tions of a similar character have been made by Mr. W. Reeves, F.R.M.S., 
the Under-Secretary of the Royal Microscopical Society, and by various 
botanists, all showing the very rapid-growing powers of this plant. We 
do not know whether there is any male plant in this country. 
Colossal Redwood Trees: Sequoia sempervivens. — R. E. C. S., writing 
in the u American Naturalist,” says ( that, at a recent meeting of the 
California Academy of Sciences, Dr. A. W. Saxe made a preliminary 
report on a grove of colossal redwood trees that have been discovered on 
the course of the San Lorenzo, which takes its rise near Saratoga, in 
Santa Clara County, and debouches into the Bay of Monterey, at Santa 
Cruz. The trees are in a forest around the head-waters of the stream. One 
of them eclipses all that have been discovered on the Pacific Coast. Its 
circumference as high as a man can reach, standing and passing a tape line 
around, is a few inches less than 150 feet. This is beyond the measure- 
ment of any of the Sequoias ( gigantea ) in the Calaveras Grove. The height 
is estimated at 160 feet, and a part of the top lying on the ground riven off 
by lightning, or a tornado, is over 100 feet in lengch. The other trees in 
the vicinity are not as large, but all are of immense girth. Dr. Saxe pro- 
mised to get information more in detail from the President of a flume (?) 
company in that section. This region has but recently been explored, and 
what other marvels of vegetation it contains remains to be seen. The stumps 
of redwood trees, of immense proportions, have been reported, from time to 
time, to the Academy, by explorers in the Mt. Diable range along the hills 
back of Oaklands ; but now we are likely to have further discoveries of these 
majestic conifers in their glory, height, diameter, and foliage. 
CHEMISTRY. 
On Parabin , a new Carbohydrate. — Herr Reichardt has prepared from both 
the tissue of beets and of carrots, a new carbohydrate, which, on account of 
its close resemblance to Scheibler’s arabinic acid, he calls pararabyn. The 
root is rasped, the pulp pressed out, treated with water and alcohol to 
remove everything soluble, digested for several hours with a one-per-cent, 
solution of hydrochloric acid, heated to boiling, and the liquid strained off. 
Alcohol throws down a gelatinous precipitate, which after washing with 
YOL. XY. — NO. LIX. 
P 
