Gill on the gurnard commonly known as Prionotus stearnsi, which is made the type of a new genus.

THE structure of the squamoso-parietal crest in the skulls of the horned dinosaurs of the Cretaceous of Alberta is deemed by Mr. L. M. Lambe of sufficient interest to merit a paper by itself, and he has accordingly described this part of the skeleton in a recent issue of the Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada (vol. x., sect. iv.).

OUR weekly budget includes copies of Nos. 3 and 4 of the Sitzungsberichte of the Vienna Academy for the current year. Among the notes is one by Prof. Molisch on phosphorescence in eggs and potatoes after cooking, and a second by Dr. F. Werner on the Orthoptera of the Egyptian

Sudan.

IN the January number of the American Naturalist, Mr. J. Stafford discusses the larva and spat of the Canadian oyster, the latter of which is extremely minute and very difficult to discover. Unlike the later stages, the very young spat presents a dark metallic lustre. When once recognised, the young spat is, however, by no means difficult to discover, and the sailors soon became adepts in the search. Although found on many kinds of shells, and sometimes on stones, the spat displays a preference for the young of Crepidula fornicata and colonies of Ralfsia verrucosa.

66

To the Biologisches Centralblatt of February 15, Mr. J. P. Lotsy contributes an article on X-generation and 2X-generation," in which he proposes a theory to explain certain features connected with cell-development and heredity. In the second article in the same issue Mr. E. Wasmann seeks to explain the origin and development of slavery among ants, showing the manner in which a colony of Formica truncicola may have been gradually modified from a type in which a certain number of stranger ants were received as guests, to one in which a host of captives are maintained.

THE Otago Daily Times of January 6 contains an article on the marine fish-hatchery at Portobello and the progress recently made there. The institution was nominally opened a year ago last January, but it was by no means in good working order, having to contend with such difficulties as leaky tanks. Work during the past year has been to a great extent confined to observing the behaviour of a few kinds of food-fishes in captivity. Many of these died off quickly when introduced into the tanks, some, apparently, on account of having been injured in their capture, and others owing to a difference in the temperature of the water. cod, however, thrive well, although the endeavours to rear the fry were unsuccessful. The introduction of the European lobster is contemplated.

Blue

MR. L. FREDERICO, director of the class of science in the Belgian Royal Academy, sends us a copy of an essay (from the Bulletin of the Academy for December last) on the Glacial fauna and flora of the plateau of Baraque-Michel, the culminating point of the Ardennes. The boreal conditions of climate have, it appears, preserved on this exposed plateau a small colony of animals and plants of an essentially arctic type, the nearest relatives of which are to be met with only in the extreme north, and on certain much higher mountains in central Europe. This assemblage seems to be at the critical stage as regards temperature, a very slight elevation of which would lead to its disappearance. We thus have a definite refutation of the prevailing idea that the temperature of this part of Europe has been higher at some date since the Glacial epoch than it is at the present day.

THE February number of the Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin (vol. xvi., No. 167) is mainly devoted to anatomy. The teaching of anatomy is discussed by Mr. Mall, who also writes on the working of the Anatomy Act (U.S.A.) and preservation of material, and the anatomical department of the University of California is described by Dr. Flint. Three papers dealing with points in the development of the kidney, a review of Flechsig's researches on the brain, and an article on body-snatching in England complete the contents of an excellent number.

On the subject of the mandrake or mandragora, Mr. C. B. Randolph has collated, in the Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (vol. xl.. No. 12),

a number of references from the classics, from which he concludes that, on account of its narcotic qualities, it was employed as an anæsthetic about the first century of the Christian era.

EXPERIMENTS by Mr. E. S. Salmon showing that " biologic forms" of Erysiphe graminis can be identified according to their power of infecting different species of cereals have been previously referred to. Pursuing his investigations on the subject, Mr. Salmon states, in the Annals of Botany (January, 1905), that portions of a host plant which is normally immune, become susceptible to infection by the fungal conidia if they are injured or subjected to heat or the action of anæsthetics, but the conidia produced as a result of such infection cannot attack a healthy plant of the same species. The practical application of this fact is far reaching, as a wheat-rust can in this way spread to barley leaves which have been injured by animals or storms,

WITH the object of arousing interest in the subject of the giant trees of Victoria-all species of Eucalyptus-Mr. N. J. Caire has collected data as to size, height, and localities of specimens known to him in a paper published in the Victorian Naturalist (January, 1905). Big Ben, a specimen of Eucalyptus amygdalinus, possessing a trunk of 57 feet girth, was destroyed by a bush fire in 1902, and Billy Barlow, a blackbutt of the same circumference, was sacrificed for the Paris Exhibition; both these veterans were probably more than a thousand years old. Most of these trees of enormous girth present signs of senile decay, as shown by broken tops or later by hollow stems.

THE results of recent experiments have proved conclusively, says the Pioneer Mail, that silk of excellent quality can be raised in Ceylon, and samples of cocoons raised at Peradeniya from European seed have been classed by a European expert as second only to the best Italian silk. Hitherto all experiments have been on a small scale, limited partly by the comparative scarcity of mulberry trees. The time seems now to have arrived when more extensive operations might be undertaken with advantage; and, with this object, it is proposed that an experimental silkworm rearing establishment be created. A scheme is under consideration by the Ceylon Board of Agriculture.

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