r 
T 
TRANSACTI0X8 OF TUE SECTIONS. 
83 
li ie room, did not upon the wliole tend to confirm the theory of the excretory 
faocdoD of the roots which had been espoused by Prof. P. Decandolle and Mons. 
Hitaire of Geneva, but showed that the deficiency in the soil of organic matter, 
tod for sapplving plants with carbonic acid and ammonia, caused by continued 
contributed to that fallmir off in tlic amount of produce which waa e«ta- 
»ed m both instances, but especially where the crop was permanent 5 and that so 
feiithe same was dependent upon a diminution in the pliosphatic and alkaline 
agents origtoally present in the soil, the deficiency iKinsistod sokdv in that ]>ur- 
noftheir amountwhich bad been in a state to he taken up readily \>y the vs'secla 
dthe plant, or in what h« would call an available coudlticm, tbo quality of the same 
bctedup wilbia the soil, or in aslate of aggr^atinn such os enabled them to resist 
QK^ibary ageata of deeompositiuo. being to the last amply sufficient for many sue* 
•tore crops of the most cxiiatuling kind. 
■hAer theae explanatiua^ the ptoty proceeded to the Experimental Garden, where 
'•hr Profbaor points oqt the apparatus and the plots which he had employed, and 
showed in a contiguoas building the depfll of seeds kept for the British As- 
■dfiioti, intended tu serve towards the elucidation «if the relative degree of vitality 
*hid) different species or geoeru may possess, deduced front determining the utmost 
htooftirae to which they severally retain their power of gemiination. 
On ihe Amlomy of Monocotyledonoits Stenn. Arthur Henfrey. 
Hitherto he had not been enabled to fallow out the structure in exotic forms, and 
** paper was almost wholly confint’d to the description of the principal 
®^cBtion8 found in natives of thin country. 
Joe result ot his inquiries is the confirmation of ScUleiden's opinion, that the 
wackr foiinjetj on the nature of the fibvo-vasculor bundle* ia the only univmal 
of distinction between the stems of dicolylifduns and monocotyledons, 
distinction between the two classes of forma having developed or non-dcvcloped 
miDdM, as established ulso by Schleideu. was Hubstantiated. Among the second 
nmdificatiom! 5 the firat where, a* In the tulip, crocus, &c., the liaves 
f**" olifrom the base of the stem; the accnnil where, as in tho lily, &c., the upper 
the fibro-vasculiirbundles going to the leaves reiuniti united together more 
^■*»i forming ail ascending .stem giving off the leaves at ititervala. 'I*he asparagus 
^^only by giving off branches. In thesR cases the ascending stem is to be 
^' *1^ ’’'‘^her as a flowering brunch. The stems at the bases of the bulbs are 
v«}i*i these modifications. Of those forms having the iuternodes developed 
V the grasses, with which Tradescantia is alniost identical, differing chiefly in 
Wlw. The points where the leaves pass off arc true nudes, and these nodes 
• aL t® bulbs. In Sparg/iHinm ramoitam, the branching rhizome affords 
form, in which the uod (*9 become completely like bulbs. This view is 
production of roots at the nodes and the capability of being grafted, 
yij Have lately been shown to iu>»se 9 a. 
^•chW bulbs and rhizomes were shown to pussess the three regions de- 
^ in the Palm, namely, the cortical, the central, and the interme- 
in which the bundles of the stem lose themselves, and from 
^ io arise. Drawings were exhibited uf the dcvelopineot of the 
4 e pm^^”"****” rowosum, which fully confirmed the now generally-received view 
the^ ’'Mcular bundles, that they all lie above and outside those pre- 
*^hs*K^*)'*'^*i**^ Tamus and Smilax was alluded to ; and the author stated that 
^toi ru./ 1 - Hke other monocotyledons, and that the woody ring was 
•'Wr* in 1 -^ development of the cellular tissues of the central region, which alM 
degree in the lily, crown imperials, fitc. Fibrous bundl^ exactly 
5 iber were described os existing in the cortical layer of Sparganium. 
Oh the Dintomaceous l Wcfaif/V>rt AiUnrclic Ocean, 
J-D. ilooKEU, 
^on D ^ summary of a paper which had been prepared for reading before 
• the Association. 
G 2 
