named by the late Prince Charles Bonaparte Nectarinia osea. The latter is stated to be "a lovely bird, often seen. glancing in the sunlight in pursuit of his mate from bush to bush," and is, moreover, quite an ornithological prize, as specimens of it have never yet reached this country.

Among the cold-blooded vertebrates (reptiles, batrachians, and fishes) little had been yet done, but more attention to these would be paid when the season was further advanced.

Mr. Lowne, the botanical collector, had already amassed some 220 species of plants in flower, and those of the party who turned their attention to Insects and Shells had likewise been tolerably successful.

The expedition proposes to pass the summer in the highlands of the Lebanon and surrounding district, and to return home in the autumn.

It is with great satisfaction we hear that the Government Grant Committee of the Royal Society have resolved to recommend a grant of £50 to Mr. Tristram in aid of the large expenses he had been put to in equipping and carrying out this expedition, which promises brilliant results in every department of science.

P. L. S.

3. THE COMMON HEATH IN NEWFOUNDLAND.

Specimens of Calluna vulgaris from Newfoundland have very recently come into my hands, under circumstances which seem to warrant its reception henceforth as a true native of that island. At the late sale of the Linnean Society's Collections in London, in November, 1863, I bought a parcel of specimens, which was endorsed outside, "A collection of dried plants from Newfoundland, collected by McCormack, Esq., and presented to Mr. David Don." The specimens were old, and greatly damaged by insects. Apparently, they had been left in the rough, as originally received from the collector; being in mingled layers between a scanty supply of paper, and almost all of them unlabelled. Among these specimens were two flowerless branches of the true Calluna vulgaris, about six inches long, quite identical with the common heath of our British moors. Fortunately, a label did accompany these two specimens, which runs thus:-" Head of St. Mary's Bay-Trepassey Bay, also very abundant-S. E. of Newfoundland considerable tracts of it." The name "Erica vulgaris" has been added on the label in a different hand

writing. All the other species in the parcel (or nearly all) have been recorded from Newfoundland, so that there appeared no cause for doubt respecting the Calluna itself. And, moreover, the Collector had seemingly some idea that an especial interest would attach to the Calluna, since in this instance he gave its special locality, and also added two other localities on the label. But there is very likely some mistake in the name of the donor to Mr. Don. It is believed by Sir William Hooker that he was the same Mr. W. E. Cormack, whose name is frequently cited for Newfoundland plants in the "Flora Boreali-Americana." This gentleman was a merchant in Newfoundland, to which he made several voyages. We should recollect that the Calluna advances to the extreme western limits (or out-liers) of Europe, in Iceland, Ireland, and the Azores. The step thence to Newfoundland and Massachusetts, though wide, is not an incredible

one.

H. C. WATSON.

4. A NATIONAL AMERICAN HERBARIUM.

Two years ago Professor Asa Gray made the munificent offer to the University of Cambridge, Massachusetts, of his valuable Herbarium and Library, upon the condition that a suitable fire-proof building should be erected for their reception, and a fund invested for their adequate maintenance. The subject has been in abeyance until recently, when a banker of Boston liberally offered to defray the cost of the required building, provided others raised a fund to meet the current expenses of the establishment.

We rejoice to find that this truly national collection, of the greatest importance to American Botany, is in a fair way of being disposed of in accordance with Dr. Gray's views. We understand, moreover, that this Herbarium is likely to prove a nucleus, around which other collections of much importance will probably acumulate.

We sincerely hope that, through the well-known liberality of American citizens, this Herbarium and Library may be put upon such a footing that Professor Gray may be so far relieved of its management as to be able to devote himself to the object which we know to be very near his heart,-the completion of a "Flora of the North American Continent." For this great work Professor Gray has accumulated a very large amount of material, and no botanist is more thoroughly qualified in every way to carry out such an undertaking.

5.

IS THE SO-CALLED RADICLE THE FIRST INTERNODE OF THE
STEM?

Professor Asa Gray, in a notice of Dr. Hooker's memoir on Welwitschia, in the American Journal of Science (xxxvi. 435), refers to a note appended to this memoir, in which "Dr. Hooker assents "to the proposition that the radicle is rightly regarded as an axis,' "i.e., an ascending axis and not a root, but does not agree that it is "an internode. To us (Dr. Gray continues) the one implies the "other. Conceiving, as we do, the fundamental idea of the morphology of the phænogamous plant to be that the ascending axis "consists of a series of superposed internodes, each crowned by a "leaf-bearing point or ring (the node), the first internode must "needs be that which is crowned by the first leaf or pair of leaves"the cotyledons, and its whole development, confirms this view."

66

We are not aware that there is any difference of opinion as to facts in the case in dispute, so that any one may form his own judgment on the matter, with a piece of string to represent the plant, tied with several knots, separated by intervals, long or short. Suppose the string, 12 inches long, with but 3 knots; one knot (node) at 4 inches, a second at 8 inches, and a third at the end, 12 inches from the same extremity. Here it is 1, 2, 3. The figures 1, 2, and 3 represent knots. Professor Gray holds that a, b, and c are each of them internodes. Dr. Hooker holds that b and c only are internodes. In the example given 1, 2, and 3 being the only nodes, b and c are of necessity the only spaces between nodes, consequently the only internodes. The portion a might be prolonged indefinitely, it might be modified in any conceivable or inconceivable way, it might increase in length interstitially, or by additions to its end, but so long as no node (knot) is formed in it, there can still be but two internodes.

In the plant, a grows out at its extremity, developing a root, which often branches over and over again, but it does not normally form a single node, and thus no part of it ever becomes an internode.

While we admit that the radicle' must be regarded as a part of the axis, we cannot speak of it as part of the ascending axis or stem; nor do we perceive that Dr. Hooker in his note above referred to, expresses, either directly or indirectly, the opinion attributed to him that the radicle is to be regarded as an 'ascending axis.' Stem and ascending axis we regard as synonymous, and the first inter

node of the stem develops with the unfolding of the plumule, which is the bud of the primary stem. The position of the cotyledon or cotyledons, indicates the primary node of the plant, and, also, according to our view, the zero from which the ascending or descending portions respectively, of the axis may be reckoned. The extent to which the radicular and plumular portions of the axis are developed before germination varies much; usually the former is considerably in excess, and partly in consequence, it may be, of this comparatively advanced development of the radicular portion before germination, we find that in some respects the behaviour of the two opposed portions, above and below the primary node, during germination, is dissimilar, apart, of course, from the circumstance that the one develops a succession of leaves, the other a root.

But whether the radicular portion of the embryo increase in length interstitially, or whether the cotyledons be raised above, or remain below the surface of the ground in germination, has not necessarily anything to do with the question-Is the 'radicle' the first internode of the stem? And this is the only question we endeavour to dispose of here. On the ground, therefore, given above, we hold that the 'radicle' is not an internode, and that it is not to be regarded as part of the stem or ascending axis in the same sense as the other internodes of the plant may be so regarded.

D. O.

6. POISON-ORGANS IN A FISH.

Amongst a large collection of fishes from Panama transmitted to the British Museum by Messrs. Salvin and Godman, Dr. Günther has discovered a new species of the genus Thalassophryne (T. reticulata), which appears to possess special organs for inflicting poisonous wounds. This discovery is of great interest, as although many fishes have long had the reputation of being considered poisonous, no trace of any poisonous organ has been detected in them, and their poisonous faculties have been doubted. In the Thalassophryne reticulata, which belongs to the family of Batrachide, the poisonous organs consist of four hollow spines, two of them being dorsal, and the others formed by the acute termination of the operculum posteriorly. The canal in the interior of the spines terminates in each case in a sac, in which

the poisonous fluid is collected-the sac in question being connected by a small tube with the muciferous system of the cutis. In the specimen examined by Dr. Günther, which had been preserved in spirits nine months, the slightest pressure on the sac situated on the operculum caused a whitish fluid contained in it to flow freely from the hollow extremity of the opercular spine. Dr. Günther is of opinion that this organization cannot be construed otherwise than as a poisonous organ, though it still remains by actual experiment upon the fish in a living state to ascertain that this is really the case. P. L. S.

7. LIST OF PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.
[Continued from p. 156.]

(14.) Phosphorescence; or the Emission of Light from Plants and Animals. By T. L. Phipson, Ph.D. London: L. Reeve and Co. 1862.

(15.) On the Negro's Place in Nature. By James Hunt, Ph.D., &c. London, 1853: Trübner and Co.

(16.) Bulletin de l'Academie Imperiale des Sciences de St. Petersburg. T. iv. f. 26-36 et vol. v. 1–8.

(17.) Remarks upon the Present Condition of Geological Science. By George E. Roberts. London: Van Voorst. 1864. (18.) Functional Diseases of Women: cases illustrative of a new method of treating them through the agency of the nervous system, by means of heat and cold. By John Chapman, M.D. London: Trübner and Co. 1863.

(19.) The Popular Science Review.

Edited by Henry Lawson,

M.D. No. 10, January, 1864. London: Hardwicke.

(20.) The Anthropological Review, and Journal of the Anthropological Society of London. No. 4, February 1864. London: Trübner and Co.

(21.) Homes without Hands; being an account of the habitations constructed by various animals, classed according to their principle and construction. By the Rev. J. G. Wood, M.A, Part 2. London: Longman and Co. 1864. (22.) Appendix to the Third Edition of the Sir Charles Lyell. December, 1863.

Antiquity of Man. By
Murray.