The New York Tribune is reported as giving its readers "the novel discovery of Professor Bessey, who has demonstrated that the evaporation from a moist piece of dead wood was exactly like that from a living leaf. Now, when a dead branch is large enough to keep continually moist in the interio", it will in dry air constantly lose water by evaporation from its surface.' This water so lost is taken from the tree, and must have been supplied directly or indirectly by the living portions. Moreover, it must be remembered that a living branch is well protected against loss of water through evaporation, by the epidermis which covers all its surface when young, or the impervious corky bark which is always found on it when older. When a branch dies, these protecting devices soon fall into decay, and the water, so carefully guarded by the living parts of the plant, is wasted by evaporation."

If the Tribune had read the Gardeners' Monthly, it might have given that news to its readers long, long ago.