106 THE FLORIST AND 
it is so rare as to have been hitherto unobserved, would appear to prove 
much rather that the two plants had a common origin, than that they are 
really distinct species. 
Another point much relied on by M. Godron is, that the first start from 
M. ovata to M. triticoides is very great, and that there are no intermediates 
between two plants so distinct as to be universally admitted as species. 
That such should be the case with M. Godron's artificial crops would naturally 
be expected, but that it is so in the wild plant remains to be proved. Most 
of the supposed species of ^gilops, in the south of Europe, are very 
variable, and run so much one into another, that few botanists can agree as 
to what are or are not species amongst them. 
With regard to the rarity of JE. triticoides in a wild state, we may observe 
as a well-known fact, that when aberrant forms of natural species are pro- 
duced from causes unknown to us, and therefore termed accidental varieties, 
various circumstances tend in a wild state to restrict the number of individuals, 
or cause the varieties to disappear altogether, whilst they may be rendered 
permanent by cultivation. 
In our opinion, therefore, all that M. Godron has proved is, that Triticum 
sativum and ^gilops ovata are species so nearly allied that they hybridize 
with a facility very unusual amongst grasses ; but we re-assert that this is 
no proof that the two plants are distinct species. B. 
To this Ave would add that neither M. Godron nor M. Alexis Jordon, who 
has filled one hundred pages of the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences of 
Lyons with speculations upon the origin of domesticated plants, have 
attempted to explain what the origin of wheat has been, if it is not a domesti- 
cated condition of ^gilops, as M. Fabre's experiments, in our opinion, prove 
it to be. — G-ardeners Chronicle. 
A simple way, according to De Candolle, of estimating the age of a 
tree, is to make two notches on opposite sides of a tree, and ascertain the 
mean of the number of the annual layers. Suppose two inches in depth 
thus extracted, and that the one has 10 annual rings, while the other has 
16, it is evident that the average rate of growth will be 13 rings per inch. 
If we then ascertain the diameter of the tree, deduct the thickness of the 
bark, and multiply one half the remaining diameter by 13, we shall have a 
close approach to the true age of the tree. Balfour. 
