432 
THE LIFE OF A PLANT. 
tive organs, o£ the male generative organs, of the circulatory- 
apparatus, of the urinary system, of the organs of locomotion, 
of the apparatus of vision, of the nervous system. These afford 
a good basis for study of the pathology of Aves, and are supple¬ 
mented by several other papers. Among teratological subjects 
we note two papers on the anomalies of the external ear, and 
single papers on the following subjects:—Malformations of the 
beak of birds ; pygomelia in birds ; congenital malformations of 
the heart in animals; median fissure of the inferior maxillary 
arch in domestic mammals. 
Some conditions in the horse are noticed in special papers, as 
those on melanosis of the liver, and spontaneous rupture of the 
primitive aorta. 
We have said enough to show the scope and line of this useful 
collection of papers, and hope our readers will avail themselves 
of the information it conveys. J. H. S. 
Extracts from British and Foreign Journals. 
THE LITE OF A PLANT. 
Professor Bentley, before a very fair audience, of which 
his students formed a part, delivered his lecture, which had 
been for some time announced, on the " Life of a Plant/’ 
The Professor kept strictly to his subject, with an occasional 
digression about the value of the science of botany, and the 
pleasure involved in its cultivation. He considered the plant 
as a human being, and showed how it was born, how it grew, 
and how its existence was maintained. After a rapid sketch 
of elementary structure, he described the organs of nutrition 
— the stem or ascending axis, the root, and the general 
characters of the leaf. The food required for plants was 
taken up either from the earth—but always dissolved in water 
—or from the air as gas or vapour, through the medium of the 
leaves. Epiphytes, as the Orchids, derived their food entirely 
from the surrounding air, while parasites depended for their 
nutrition on the plants upon which they grew. The food 
supplied was organic and inorganic; of the former carbon 
existed in the largest proportion, then oxygen, hydrogen, and 
nitrogen. These are common to all plant life ; the nitrogen is 
chiefly absorbed as ammonia, and the rest as carbonic acid 
and water, which last is a food in itself, besides being the 
vehicle for other aliment. One of the most interesting points 
