Miscellaneous. 4G1 FORMATION OF CELLS IN THE APICES OF ROOTS. Niigeli in the ' Linnsea,' vol. xvi. p. 252, says, " If exceedingly fine sections be made at the punctum vegetationis, where the different layers of the root meet as in one focus, and if some cells be then iso-lated by laceration, there will be found among them : 1 . cells with one cytoblast; 2. cells with two cytoblasts ; 3. cells with two cytoblasts and a septum between them. This I usually saw when examining the actually growing apex of a radicle of Lilium, Tulipa, or Iris. Once I saw a large, longish nucleus which appeared just in the act of di-vision ; another time, within one cell, two young cells each with a nucleus, which had not yet grown broad enough to form a septum by the union of their membranes. I feel justified by these facts in saying quite decidedly, that, in the apex of the roots of these plants, the growth takes place in such a manner that two cell-nuclei originate in each mother-cell, and around each of these nuclei a new cell. Unger maintains that the usual mode of origin in elementary organs is the formation of septa in the cells, i. e. self-division ; the formation of new cells in those already existing is limited to a few cases ; of the deve-lopment of cell-nuclei into cells, I could observe nothing." Nor I either. I also saw light-coloured corpuscules in those root-cells, sometimes surrounded by a bright circle, but am inclined to affirm decidedly that no true cells originate from them. — Link in his Report on Physiological Botany for 1842 and 43. On the Demerara Pink-root, or Spigelia Anthelmia*. By Dr. George R. BoNYUNf. The indigenous species of pink-root, which is in great repute among the labourers of British Guiana, particularly those residing on the banks of the rivers, has not as yet, I believe, in this colony been sufficiently brought to the notice of medical men, nor its rela-tion to the Spigelia marilandica, or officinal pink-root, determined. This herb, which grows in great abundance on the west and Arabian coasts, and on the banks of the rivers, is identical with that described by Patrick Browne, anno 1756, p. 156, in his 'Civil and Natural History of Jamaica,' as " Anthelmintia or wormwood." He there says, " This vegetable has been long in use among the Negroes and Indians, who were the first acquainted with its virtues, and takes its present denomination from its peculiar efficacy in destroying worms, which I dare affirm, from a great number of successful experiments, it does in so extraordinary a manner, that no other simple can be of equal efficacy in any other disease, as this is in those which proceed from these insects, especially when attended with fever or convul-* S. Caule hevbaceo ramoso, foliis oblon^is utrinque altenuatis, summis quaternis, racemis spicatis staminibus corolla brevioribus. — Sprengel, vol. i. p. 584. f Read before the Agricultural and Commercial Society of British Guiana, 9th Sept. 1814.
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