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property, and no improvement. All was hopeless stagnation. But if, under these unfavourable conditions, man has existed in Australia, at least as far as we historically know, for several centuries, we may conclude that he could exist in Europe, even during the Eocene period, when the same, or a closely similar climate, vegetation, and perhaps fauna, prevailed there. We may also be sure that, with such surroundings, whatever his race may have been, he could not have arrived at a much higher degree of civilization than the miserable aborigines who are now disappearing in Australia.

Bearing in mind that, at one period of the earth's history, there flourished in Europe a vegetation very similar, not to say identical, to that still beheld in Australia; but that the whole of it has been swept away, to make room for other vegetable forms, leaving no trace behind except what is recorded in the great stone-book of nature, New Holland is highly instructive. It is a faithful picture of what the aspect of our flora must have been ages ago; and on paying a visit to Australia we are, as it were, transporting ourselves back to antehistorical periods. The effect which such an inspection produces on the mind is very singular. It kindles in us (and I speak from personal experience) feelings of curiosity, but no sympathy. We delight in bright green foliage, sweet-smelling flowers, and fruits with some kind of taste in them. But we have here none of all these. The leaves are of a dull, often brownish, green, and without any lustre, the flowers do not smell, and the fruits, without any exception, are tasteless and insipid. Is the whole of this vegetation, and the animals depending upon it for support, to disappear before the continent becomes a fit abode for the white man ?-B. SEEMANN, in Popular Science Review,' 1866, p. 26.

ERICA TETRALIX IN AMERICA.

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Professor Reichenbach calls attention, in the Gardeners' Chronicle, to Erica Tetralia, as indicated in his father's Flora Germanica Excursoria,' p. 143, sub n. 2774, having been collected in Dutch Guiana by Weigelt. He states that he possesses himself one of Weigelt's specimens. Now that we have dispelled every doubt about Calluna vulgaris being indigenous to the New World, the question is worth re-examining.

VARIEGATED FOLIAGE AND DOUBLE FLOWERS NOT OCCURRING TOGETHER.

Professor E. Morren maintains that variegated foliage and double flowers never occur together on the same plant. He explains the fact that variegated leaves (the partial disappearance of chlorophyll) is a proof of weakness, whilst doubling of flowers is a proof of strength, and as both these conditions cannot possibly occur at the same time, variegated leaves and double flowers on one and the same plant are an impossibility. Bull's variegated Camellia Japonica, figured in our last number (tab. 42), is a case in point. Whilst all other Camellia Japonicas of our gardens have green leaves, and either double or semidouble, but never single flowers, this variegated kind has flowers with the five normal petals only. An apparent exception to Prof. Morren's hypothesis is presented by Kerria Japonica. Of this plant two varieties have recently been introduced into our gardens, but it is suspected that plate 336 of the Illustr. Horticole, on which they are figured, was made up by the artist taking the varieties with variegated leaves, and sticking on to them the double flowers of the ordinary green-leaved variety.— B. SEEMANN.

NEW PUBLICATIONS.

Neue Untersuchungen über Uredineen, insbesondere die Entwickelung der Puccinia graminis. Von A. de Bary. (Reprinted from the Proceedings of the Berlin Academy for 1865.)

Dr. de Bary commences with a recapitulation of his former observations (Ann. des Sc. Nat. xx. p. 1), which were directed to show that certain species of Uromyces and Puccinia exhibit five different sorts of reproductive organs. These organs are, first, spores, or as the author proposes to call them, teleutospores, which germinate and produce what has been called a promycelium, upon which the second kind of reproductive organ, viz. the sporidia, are borne. The sporidia germinate and produce the Ecidia, with their constant companions (or forerunners) the spermogonia, the functions of which are not as yet ascertained. The spores of the Ecidia germinate, and the filaments pass through the stomata, and only through the stomata, into the tissue of the nutrient plant, where they form a new mycelium. This produces at

once the fifth form of fruit, the uredo. Lastly, the same mycelium which produces the uredo ultimately yields the teleutospores, which in some species of Uredinea are found on the same fruit-layer with the uredo-spores, in others in special fruit-layers.

Acidium and Uredo (as is well known) have been hitherto considered genera. De Bary observes that the names may be retained as descriptive of the organs, but that the genera must bear the names hitherto applied to the teleutospores.

The author remarks that it is hardly to be doubted that the cycle of development, commencing with the germination of the teleutospores, exhibiting the stages of promycelium, sporidia, Ecidia, with spermogonia, and uredo, and thus returning to the teleutospores, is probably the same, or nearly so, in all the Uredineæ,

But many species of Puccinia and Uromyces seem never to produce an Ecidium, and inhabit plants upon which Æcidia are never seen. The question thus arises whether the Ecidium stage is suppressed, or is it to be sought for elsewhere.

Dr. de Bary selected Puccinia graminis, P., for special study, with the view of determining this question, and he has carried out a series of careful experiments (for the details of which we must refer to the paper itself) which have satisfied him that the sporidia of Puccinia graminis germinate on the leaves of Berberis, and that the Ecidium of the Berberis is a stage in the cycle of development of that Puccinia.

Thus, whilst in most Uredinea the entire development is carried out upon one and the same nutrient plant, the alternations of generation in Puccinia graminis require a change of host.

This (Dr. de Bary observes) is a peculiarity to be especially remarked, and he proposes to call those parasites whose metamorphosis and alternations of generation require a change of host, heterocious, and those whose whole development is carried out upon the same host, autœcious. This heterociousness (so to speak) is well known in the animal kingdom in the Tania and Trematoda, but Puccinia graminis is the first of the parasitic fungi in which it has been certainly ascertained. The author indicates several of the Uredinea (Melampsora, Phragmidium, etc.) which, although yielding sporidia, uredo, and teleutospores, exhibit no Ecidia, but on the other hand several Æcidia of which the other stages are quite unknown.

We may add that the paper contains a somewhat full account of the

different opinions which have been promulgated from time to time upon the much-disputed question as to the supposed injurious effect of the proximity of Berberis to corn, a notion very prevalent amongst agriculturists, and hitherto somewhat laughed at by scientific men. If Dr. de Bary's observations are confirmed, it will be impossible to deny that the agriculturists have been in the right,

The Treasury of Botany, a Popular Dictionary of the Vegetable Kingdom, with which is incorporated a Glossary of Botanical Terms. Edited by John Lindley, Ph.D., F.R.S., F.L.S., and Thomas Moore, F.L.S., assisted by numerous contributors. In two parts. Loudon : Longmans.

This companion volume to Maunder's Treasuries' must be welcomed as a useful book of reference on popular matters relating to the vegetable kingdom, and supplies a long-felt desideratum. Its object is to give a familiar and concise account of every genus of plants, with special reference to those species, useful, ornamental, or curious, on which information is likely to be sought by the general public; and it is but just to acknowledge that this object has been fully attained. The work is arranged alphabetically, and illustrated by numerous woodcuts and twenty beautiful steel engravings. A glossary of botanical terms is also embodied, and some notion of the geography and physiognomy of plants may be gathered from the introduction, written by Dr. Seemann, and intended as a commentary of Mr. Adlard's truly exquisite steel-engravings. The plan of the work was sketched out by the late Dr. Lindley, who, in conjunction with Mr. Thomas Moore, became the editor. But he was not able to exercise his functions further than the letter C, and long ere the printing of the whole work was completed, he died, leaving the task of revising the sheets through the press, verifying names and references, and supplying innumerable gaps, to his able coadjutor, Mr. T. Moore; and we are happy to be able to add that the latter has acquitted himself of his gigantic task in a manner deserving of the greatest praise. The proofs have been read with the utmost care, though the type employed is very small, and thousands upon thousands of strange names of plants, places, and people occur throughout. True, Mr. Moore had eighteen able contributors, but most of them were men so busily engaged in other

studies that we wonder how they could possibly manage to throw off so many valuable articles, and we suppose the editor had to write no end of polite notes requesting additional supplies of manuscript at their earliest possible convenience. All the articles, with the exception of the editorial ones, are signed, and they are contributed by the following botanists, viz. Professor Balfour, Rev. M. J. Berkeley, Mr. A. A. Black, Mr. W. B. Booth, Professor Buckman, Mr. W. Carruthers, Mr. B. Clarke, Professor Dickie, Mr. W. B. Hemsley, Mr. R. Heward, Rev. C. A. Johns, Dr. Masters, Dr. Moore, Mr. T. Moore, Dr. Seemann, the late Mr, Alexander Smith, Mr. J. T. Syme, Mr. R. Thompson, and Mr. W. Thompson.

Annotationes Critica in Cupuliferas nonnullas Javanicas.

Auctore

C. A. J. A. Oudemans. Amstelodami. 1865. 4to, pp. 29. Cum Tab. XII.

The Oaks of which Professor Oudemans here makes mention, were for the most collected by Junghuhn in Java, and the detailed comparison he has been able to make of them with other specimens in the Royal Herbarium, in that of the University of Leyden, and in that of Professor Miquel, have enabled him to correct the synonymy and give more accurate and copious details of some of these puzzling plants. Two new species are described, viz. Q. conocarpa and Lithocarpus scutigera. Twelve lithographed plates accompany the descriptions, to which is also added an analytical table of the Oaks of Java arranged chiefly according to the peculiarities of their fruits.

BOTANICAL NEWS.

"The Natural History Review,' one of the most ably-conducted journals of this country, advocating Darwinian views, has been discontinued.

Mr. Baker, of Thirsk, has been appointed first assistant of the Kew Herbarium.

The Ray Society announces for immediate publication the first volume of Robert Brown's collected writings, edited by Mr. J. J. Bennett, F.R.S.

Count Hermann of Solms-Laubach is now staying in London, preparatory to a botanical journey to Portugal, undertaken chiefly with the view of studying the nature of parasitical plants, in which he is interested, and about which he has published some valuable papers.

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