SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
205 
the augmentation of the diameter from the effects of irradiation being — 0' /# 546. 
It follows, therefore, that each contact is affected by one-half this quantity. 
Mr. Plummer has substituted these values in the equations, and on the 
whole the agreement is generally very good, and it is believed that in the 
cases where the difference is sensibly above the average, that it arises from 
a variation in the amount of irradiation, depending upon the transparency 
of the atmosphere. The observations were all made in full daylight, when 
the planet was not far from the meridian. 
BOTANY AND VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. 
The Composition of Fungi. — The “ Academy,” in a recent number, says 
that the Russian Agricultural Commission for the Vienna Exhibition has 
published some analyses of edible fungi made under the superintendence of 
Professor Nicolas Socoloff. They may be compared with that given by 
Professor Church for Lycopei don giganteum , which is also edible when 
young (see the “ Academy,” September 15, 1873). The following are the 
results for three species of Boletus : — 
B. edulis. 
B. edulis. 
B. cinnulatus. 
B. scdber. 
W ater 
. 11-52 
11-50 
12-34 
13-49 
Ash ... 
. 7-36 
6-52 
7-56 
7-90 
The composition of the ash 
was : 
B. edulis. 
B. edulis. 
B. annulatus. 
B. aurantiacus. 
Phosphoric acid 
. 25-06 
26-08 
21-74 
20-27 
Sulphuric acid 
. 12-97 
8-42 
— 
— 
Iron sesquioxide 
. 1-63 
•98 
•53 
1-1 
Manganese proto-sesquioxide 2*22 
2-41 
— 
— 
Lime 
. 1-00 
5-95 
— 
— 
Soda 
. 3-60 
•87 
3-99 
1-65 
Potash 
. 50-37 
57-76 
58-10 
56-09 
Sodium chloride 
. 3-11 
3-55 
— 
— 
The proportion of nitrogen varied in dried specimens from 6*63 to 7*56 per 
cent. ; the average percentage of phosphoric acid was 1*7 per cent. 
Insect Labour in the Fertilization of Lathyrus. — Mr. Francis Darwin, who 
appears to have made a very special study of this subject — which, by the way, 
is calculated to throw so much light upon his father’s views — has recently con- 
tributed an important paper on the above subject to the pages of a contem- 
porary. He says that in many Papilionacese, Lathyrus for instance, the insect 
visiting the flower rests on a platform which is formed of the carina and the 
expanded alse, but in the scarlet runner this platform is made up by the 
alse alone, the carina being tightly coiled into a spiral close up to the en- 
trance to the tube to the corolla. The alse are attached, one on each side, 
to the proximal part of the carina; so that when an insect rests on them, 
its weight bears on the carina, and causes the pistil — which is contained in 
it as in a sheath — to be forced out. The direction of movement of the pistil 
