THE  CALCUTTA  BOTANICAL  GARDENS. 
166" 
to  its  cellule,  it  nevertheless  continues  to  form  successively 
glucose  and.  alcohol  with  cane  sugar.  The  property  of  determin- 
ing  alcoholic  fermentation  must  not,  then,  be  attributed  to  the 
catalytic  action  of  some  chemical  compound  which  it  contains  ;  my 
researches  seem  to  prove  that  it  is  contained  in  the  properties  of 
the  living  cellule ;  it  is  a  consequence  of  the  act  of  nutrition  of 
this  cellule.* — Lond.  Chem.  News,  Dec.  8,  1865,  from  Compter 
Jtendus,  lxi.,  689. 
THE  CALCUTTA  BOTANICAL  GARDENS. 
Dr.  Anderson's  official  report  of  the  damages  caused  to  the 
Calcutta  Botanical  Gardens  by  the  cyclone  of  the  fifth  of  Oc- 
tober, 1864,  has  only  just  now  been  published,  owing  to  the 
mass  of  detail  it  was  necessary  to  collect.  The  document  may 
be  called  a  cry  of  despair.  The  gale  was  more  violent  at  the 
garden  than  at  Calcutta  itself,  owing  to  the  place  being  nearer 
the  centre  of  the  cyclone,  and  more  exposed  to  the  full  force 
of  it.  Few  trees  fell  before  11  o'clock  A.  m.,  and  none  after 
4.30  P.  M.,  yet  within  this  short  space  of  time  a  paradise  was 
converted  into  a  wilderness.  The  great  baobab-tree  of  Africa 
was  uprooted,  and  came  down  with  a  crash,  that  caused  vibra- 
tions in  the  earth  felt  at  a  distance  of  some  hundred  yards. 
Three  gigantic  specimens  of  iron- wood,  the  oldest  in  the  gar- 
den, none  less  than  150  feet  high,  were  levelled  to  the  ground. 
Many  of  the  most  picturesque  parts  of  the  garden,  resulting 
from  the  grouping  of  trees,  no  longer  exist.  Of  the  whole  fine 
teak  avenue  leading  to  Kyd's  monument  only  two  mutilated  trees 
*  These  conclusions  are  opposed  to  M.  Liebig's  assertion  (Traite  de 
Ghemie  Orgamque,  introduction  p.  27)  : — "  The  insoluble  body  called 
4  ferment '  does  not  provoke  fermentation."  The  proof  he  gives  of  this 
is,  that  the  yeast  washed  with  water,  deprived  of  air,  leaves  a  residue 
which  has  lost  the  power  of  fermenting  cane  sugar.  This  has  caused  it 
erroneously  to  be  supposed  that  the  phenomenon,  being  much  less  decided, 
had  ceased  to  exist  at  all.  On  the  other  hand  much  less  attention  is 
given  to  the  previous  inversion  of  the  cane  sugar,  and  it  is  well  known 
(notwithstanding  an  important  and  probably  unknown  experiment  of  M. 
Dubrunfant)  that  M.  Pasteur  has  admitted  that  sugar  cane  ferments 
directly,  the  formation  of  changed  cane  sugar  being  consecutive  to  the 
formation  of  succinic  acid. 
