The Express.
London, England, 1866-05-24 00:00:00

THE INTERNATIONAL BOTANICAL
CONGRIM.

The Botanical Congress, in connexion with the
International Horticultural Show, was opened at
11 o'clock yesterday morning in the Raphael Car-
toon Room of the South Kensington Museum.
Pro".eacor de Candolle, of Geneva, presided, and
the apartment was well filled with professional
and amateur horticulturists and botanists, among

whom there was a fair sprinkling of ladies. The
President delivered an opening address, which was
devoted to an exposition of the advantages which
horticulture and botany each derive from the cul-
tivation of the sister science. He pointed

out that gardens might be made even more useful
than they had already proved in advancing the
progress of physiological botany, and especially
mentioned, as a subject which required further
investigation, the mode of action of heat, light,
and electricity upon vegetation. He referred to
the deaths of Sir Joseph Paxton, Dr. Lindley, Sir
W. J. Hooker, and Professor W. H. Harvey, of
Dublin ; and, in the name of the foreigners who
I were present, expressed their warm appre-
ciation of the services which bad been ren-

dered to botany and horticulture by those
eminent men, and their deep regret at the
serious loss which the two sciences had sustained by
their decease. At the conclusion of his address,
Sir W. Dilke proposed a vote of thanks to the
president, which was seconded by Sir Roderick
Murchison, supported by Mr. Bennett, of the
British Museum, and adopted by acclamation by
the meeting. M. de Condone, having briefly
acknowledged the compliment which had been paid
to him, the business of the meeting was proceeded
with, and a number of papers were read treating
upon a variety of subjects interesting to. both
I horticulturists and botanists. Professor Cas-

pary, of Konigsberg, read a paper upon " The
change in the direction of the branches of woody
plants caused by low degrees of temperature," in
which he gave, with much elaboration, the result of
his observations on the motion observed in the
branches of trees in frosty weather. Mr. J. E.
Howard, of London, made some " Observations on
the present state of our knowledge of the species of
Cinchona," in the course of which he attributed
the chief cause of the confusion in our knowledge
of the Cinchonas to a tendency to systematise
without a full acquaintance with details. Mr.
Howard said he had cultivated the Cinchona
Of cins.lis in a stove, and had produced from its bark
nearly aa muchquinineaa isyielded by the plant when
grown in its native country. This, he believed, was
the first time that quinine had been extracted from
bark grown in Europe. Professor Karl Koek, of
Berlin, offered to the meeting some propositions
with regard to systematic botany. He proposed
to obviate the confused eponymy at present exist-
ing by retaining the specific name first given, but
as to the generic name, placing first that which had
been adopted after recent investigation, and after-
wards in a parenthesis that by which the plant was
first known, Other papers were read by Dr. Fred.
Mueller, Melbourne ; Professor Pa.latore,
Florence ; and Mr. Rivers, Sawbridgeworth,
the last named of whom in the course of
some remarks upon " The culture of fruit
in unheated glass atuctures," particularly recom-
mended the cultivation of the finer kinds of
American apples in orchard houses. Ono or two of
the papers gave rise to some slight discussion, but
upon the whole there was less debating than is
usual at scientific congresses. During the morning
Dr. Moore, Glasnevin, exhibited flowers of
Me Polyandra, and Mr. Clements Mark-
ham, London, some specimens of Cinchona,
which attracted a good deal of attention.
The international flower-show was well attended
yesterday, and much admiration was expressed by
the visitors at the arrangement of the flowers
(which we omitted to state yesterday had been
carried out under the direction of Mr. Eyles and
Mr. Hudson) and at the great beauty of many of
the specimens exhibited. Last night a eon-
versazione in connexion with the exhibition and
congress was held at the South Kensington
Museum, all the principal apartments of which
were filled with a numerous company of British
and foreign horticulturists and botanists.
A special meeting of the executive committee
with the leading exhibitors was held yesterday, at
which it was unanimously determined that, in con-
sequence of the success which has attended the
opening of the exhibition, and upon the urgent
representations which have been made it is un-
desirable a scene of such beauty and magnifi-
cence should be of such limited duration as the
period of four days which was originally deter-
mined on, and the consent of the leading exhibitors
having been obtained, it has therefore been de-
cided that the show shall remain open until Thurs-
day, the 31st inst. The charge for admission on
and after Friday, the 25th inst., has been tired at
one shilling.