were

to

of the summer half of the Celtic year, marking the quired every seven minutes to get rid of the extra carbon victorious close of the sun's contest with the powers of dioxide due to an increase of 0.03 per cent. in the atmodarkness . . . when

the crops

fast coming sphere. maturity," and he suggests that the great festival held on One is tempted to wonder, therefore, whether carbon the first of August “at Lyons (ancient Lugduna) super- dioxide per se in these small quantities can have any seded an older feast held on that day in honour of Lug, appreciable effect. Or, on the other hand, is it possible and was the Gallo-Roman continuation of the Celtic custom that this gas in the lungs is in some manner“ vitalised,” of old days." Gwyl Awst (the Yule of August) is the name as questioned by Prof. Meldola some time ago (see NATURE, by which this same August festival was known in ancient 1902, vol. Ixvi., p. 492), and that on reaching the outer Wales.

world it is in a short time changed into the ordinary and He remarks that “the Lugnassad was, so to speak, the more poisonous form?

F. SOUTHERDEN. Summer Solstice of the Celts, whereas the longest day was Royal Albert Memorial College, Exeter, April 25. then of no special account (Rhys, Hibbert lectures).

Very interesting accounts of an August festival are given by Mr. Frazer ("* Golden Bough ') as celebrated by the

AMERICAN PALEOBOTANY.1 Creek Indians and also by the Natchez tribe on the Lower Vississippi, when fires were lighted to destroy what was THESE two volumes form the second instalment, cd before the ceremonial renewal of new fire took place under the editorship and to some extent the by the priests by the friction of two pieces of wood, on authorship of Mr. Lester Ward, of a detailed report the appearance of the first ray of the rising sun.

on the Mesozoic floras of the United States, the first Among the special marks distinguishing the primitive part of which appeared in the twentieth annual report ritual of heathendom from later customs, Mr. Frazer remarks that there were no temples, but that the celebrations took place by brooks, in woods, barns, harvestfields, &c.

This interesting fair is clearly a survival from pre-Celtic days, but the interest in the place has unfortunately been much obscured by the alteration of the old name Tan to St. Anne's Hill on all modern maps.

It was a very common and well-known custom of the Church in late times to alter the name of a place to that of a saint, where, finding large gatherings assembled for religious ceremonies, their object

to substitute Christian for heathen ideas. Caer Anna in Brittany became St. Anne d'Auray, and Tan Hill became St. Anne's Hill. St. Anne's Day was not fixed for the whole Latin Church until 1584, when Gregory XIII. appointed the feast to be held on July 26 (August 6); the name of St. Anne loes not occur in the older church calendars, and her cult sa srs late one.

THEREZA STORY-MASKELYNE.

was

Carbon Dioxide in the Breath. The presence of 0.06 per cent. of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is held, I believe, to render the air unfit for breathing purposes, whereas 0.03 per cent. may be taken as normal. A consideration of the quantity of this gas which must be continually present in the lungs makes such sensitiveness on their part to appear rather extraordinary.

Taking an average expiration as 300 c.c. and the reserve "air" in the lungs as 2000 c.c., and assuming that the atmasphere contains 0.03 per cent. of carbon dioxide and expired air 4 per cent. of carbon dioxide, we have the following figures (a homogeneous mixture in the lungs is imaginrd for simplicity) :Jou refore Just after Just after spiration expiration inspiration

1920

2219 91 92 80 8009

CO,

2308

c.c. air

Hence before the next expiration 1191 c.c. of carbon dior de must accumulate to make up the original 92 c.c.,

Fig. 1.

- Jurassic Ginkgo leaves from Oregon. (From "Status of the the corresponding oxygen being absorbed.

Mesozoic Floras of the United States.") Now if conditions remain the same, excepting that the atmospheric carbon dioxide reaches 0.06 per cent., we have of the U.S. Geological Survey published in 1900. Jux belars Just after Just after

The second paper deals with Triassic, Jurassic, and expiration expiration inspiration

! Lower Cretaceous floras, and includes observations on 2208 1920 2219-82

C.C. air

the stratigraphical relations of the plant-bearing 92 SO 80.18

CO2

strata. 2300

The excellent quality of the plates, many of which 2000 2300

in lungs.

consist of photographic reproductions of specimens, Before the next expiration 11.82 c.c. of carbon dioxide

is in welcome contrast to the unsatisfactory figures are required to make up the original 92 c.c.

1 " Status of the Mesozoic Floras of the l'nited States." Second Paper. Coraparing these numbers, 11-91 and 11-82, we find that

By Lester F. Ward, with the collaboration of William M. Fontaine. Arthur

Bibbins, and G. R. Wieland. Part i., Text. Part ii., Plates. Pp. 616; in the case of a person breathing at the rate of sixteen

Plates i-cxix. Monographs of the U.S. Geological Survey, vol. xlviii. times a minute, only one more respiration would be re- (Washington, 1905)

in some of the earlier monographs on American the Potomac beds of Maryland. Mr. Wieland gives fossil foras. Under the head of Triassic floras an a particularly interesting figure of a young frond of account is given of the results of an expedition into a species of Cycadella in which the rachis is traversed Arizona in 1901, which seems to have been more by a U-shaped vascular band bearing a much closer successful in discovering fossil vertebrates than the resemblance to the meristele of a fern petiole than to remains of vegetation. Reference is made to the the conducting strands in the rachis of a Cycad "inexhaustible quantity of silicified wood,” some (Fig. 2). The notes which Mr. Wieland has already specimens of which are included in the genus Arau- contributed on the morphology of Mesozoic Cycads carites, a type widely distributed in Mesozoic strata have raised a keen desire for further information, and in many parts of the world. By far the most im- embolden us, who wait with envy and impatience, portant part of the report is that by Mr. Fontaine, to urge hini to publish with all speed an instalment which deals with the rich Jurassic Hora of Oregon. of his promised monograph. An inspection of the photographs and drawings re- By the publication of these volumes Mr. Lester veals the interesting but not unexpected fact that the Ward has laid his fellow-workers in palæobotany general facies of the vegetation exhibits a striking

under a

further obligation. Although there are agreement with that which has been described from various matters of detail which we should venture to the Oolite rocks of East Yorkshire, Siberia, and other criticise if space permitted, there can be no doubt as Old-world localities. A few species occur which appear to the value of this latest contribution from the veteran to be identical with Wealden plants, while others are author and editor.

A. C, SEWARD. reminiscent of the older Rhætic floras. We welcome this exceedingly valuable addition to palæobotanical literature, but it is unfortunate that the author has RECREATIONS OF A NATURALIST.

THE "Enaturalisina. Om the present occasione is have

J. E. , from whose we welcomed during the past forty years (eheu! fugaces) many volumes on many aspects of sport and natural history. Among his recreations are outings on the moor, the hill, and into the quiet byways of the

FIG. 2.-Unexpanded Frond of Cycadella utopiensis, Ward, showing the rachis with two rows of young pinnæ and a mass of ramental

country, with gun or rifle (in their proper season), scales. (From “Status of the Mesozoic Floras of the United or with neither with equal enjoyment to him, and, as States.")

frequently as fortune favoured, with what it is easy

to see he perhaps loves best of all, “a cast of hawks." not exercised more self-restraint in his use of recent Another form of “recreation ” has been-metaphori. generic names in cases where there is no proof of cally speaking—“ finding a hare in the library and close relationship between the Jurassic and existing hunting it through the preserves of ancient authors plants. Fragments of fern fronds are designated species until the hunt had a happy termination, or the literary of Dicksonia and Thyrsopteris on wholly insufficient hare escaped to give sport another day." grounds. So long as palæobotanists continue the

No doubt the writing of the essays that describe practice of labelling fossil species with the names these recreations formed a supplementary one, not of recent genera merely because of superficial re- improbably combined with “ business " as an enhance. semblances presented by vegetative organs, their lists ment to the diversion; for most of the forty essays of species cannot be accepted as trustworthy con- in the present volume have previously appeared else. tributions towards a fuller knowledge of the plant- where, chiefly in the columns of The Field. Mr. distribution of former ages. Ferns and Cycads are Harting's library hunts are fewer in number and well represented, and the abundance and variety of less engaging than those pursued by him out of doors. leaves referred to the genus Ginkgo—that striking of these one here and there might, perhaps, have embodiment of the “past in the present \-con- been omitted, as somewhat belated, such as the acstitutes a notable feature of the Oregon flora (Fig. 1). count of “Swan-upping." in which the information The volume also contains an account of Lower Cre

is eleven years old, while the “ Horse and its His. taceous floras, together with much information on torians” is a review of a work published in 1888, the plants of the older Potomac formation, and descriptions of additional specimens of silicified Cycad

1 “Recreations of a Naturalist." By James Edmund Harting, author

of a "Handbook of British Birds," &c. With 81 illustrations. Pp. xviean stems from the Jurassic rocks of Wyoming and 433. (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1906.) Price 155, net.

we

though since then has not the" Thoroughbred Horse" and Prof. Sadler (on behalf of the Modern Language been written by Prof. Ridgeway?

Association); informal receptions of French and The majority of the other essays are, however, worth English specialists. Wednesday, June 6, visits to issuing in collected form. In reading them Westminster Abbey, to Westminster School, and to recognise the spirit of the genuine sportsman some of the London County Council educational innaturalist-the best combination in a human being for stitutions, followed by a luncheon to be given by the full enjoyment of the external world-and follow | Mr. Evan Spicer, chairman of the County Council, with deep satisfaction his excellent companionship out at Belair, Dulwich; in the evening dinner at Uniinto the open in his “ Marsh Walk in May," “ On versity College, and various private dinners, followed the Hill," and “ Bird Life on the Broads.' An by a reception by his Excellency the French Ambasinteresting chapter on “ Small Birds on Migration | sádor at the French Embassy. Thursday, June 7, carried by Large Ones" leaves the question as un- addresses by the Deans of the Faculties of Arts and decided as before. It may be worth recording, how- Science of the Universities of London and Paris, by ever, that many years ago the present writer listened

Sir William Ramsay, K.C.B., and by representatives with intense interest to his vis-à-vis, at a Lisbon hotel of the Collège de France, the French provincial Unitable d'hote, relating how he had seen in Egypt small versities, and the French Modern Language Associabirds landing from the shoulders of an immigrant tion; and in the evening a conversazione at the crane. The writer on inquiry learned that the name University. It is understood that a number of the of his co-resident was von Heuglin."

French guests will, on Friday, June 8, visit the In his essay on the “ Fascination of Light,” Mr. Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Harting records some circumstantial evidence for The guests will include the following representbelieving that the powder-down patches of certain atives of science in France :herons are phosphorescent, and probably provide a " living light" for alluring fishes to the surface of the versite; Profs." Appell, G. Bertrand, Léon Bertrand, Vidal

University of Paris : M. Liard, Vice-Recteur de l'Uniwater, and within sight of the foraging bird during de la Blache, Borel, Boutroux, Bouty, Bouveault, Dastre, the darkness. It is suggested also in regard to the common kingfisher that its orange-coloured breast Leduc, Lippmann, Matignon, Matruchot, Painlevé, Pellat,

Delage, Fernbach, Hérouard, Houssay, Joannis, Lapicque, may serve the same purpose when the bird is hover: Perrin, Pruvot, and Puiseux. ing (during daylight) over water the feed.'

Collège de France : Profs. Henneguy and Pierre Janet. While it would be very difficult to prove the latter University of Bordeaux : Prof. Lorin. suggestion experimentally, it seems that the former University of Caen : Prof. Guinchant. might be investigated with much chance of success University of Lille : Prof. Ponsot. by a couple of unprejudiced, enthusiastic and properly University of Nancy : Prof. Cuénot. equipped ornithologists spending a few dark nights in a punt in the quiet haunts of the heron. These “ Recreations” may be cordially recom

NOTES. mended to the lover of nature as a companion on his

Great surprise and regret have been caused in German summer holidays. The book is full of delightful

chemical circles by the announcement that Prof. W. illustrations—those especially by Joseph Wolf and George Lodge—and, as a specimen, the beautiful Ostwald has requested the Saxony Minister of Education hovering kingfisher, by the latter artist, is reproduced to allow him to give up the position which he has held here.

F. in the University of Leipzig for so many years. German

scientific journals and papers are unanimous in saying that

of living chemists not one has exercised so great an inFORTHCOMING VISIT OF REPRESENT. fluence on the progress of modern chemistry as Prof.

ATITES OF UNIVERSITY EDUCATION | Ostwald in his almost twenty years of academic teaching. IN FRANCE.

But Prof. Ostwald finds the direction of a large university

on

vited representatives of the University of Paris his carrying out the amount of original and private work (Faculty of Letters and Faculty of Sciences) and of which he would like, with the result that he has decided the Collège de France to visit London at Whitsuntide. These representatives will be accompanied by where a small private laboratory has been arranged, and

to retire to his country house at Grossbothen (Saxony), the highest officials of the French Ministry of Public Instruction and by a number of representatives of the

devote himself to literary and experimental work, dealing

in the first instance with the technology of painting. French provincial Universities. The Société des Professeurs de Langues vivantes and of the Guilde Inter- At the invitation of the Anglo-German Friendship Comnationale will be simultaneously entertained by the mittee a number of editors of German newspapers will visit Modern Language Association, and the University London shortly. According to present arrangements, the has arranged for the representation of all these bodies visitors will arrive in London on June 20. Among the many at the various ceremonies. The French delegations entertainments provided is a visit to the Natural History will be headed by M. Liard, the Vice-Rector of the

Museum on Sunday, June 24, under the guidance of Lord University of Paris.

Avebury and Prof. Ray Lankester. On Wednesday, The King has graciously expressed his desire to receive a number of the French visitors at Windsor June 27, the party will go to Cambridge to be entertained on Thursday afternoon, June 7.

at one of the colleges and taken over the l'niversity. The general programme will include the following The President of the Board of Trade has appointed items :-Monday, June 4, an informal dinner at the Major P. A. MacMahon, F.R.S., to be Deputy Warden Royal Palace Hotel, Kensington, at which the guests of the Standards, to succeed the late superintendent of of the l'niversity will stay. Tuesday, June 5, a reception at the Foreign Office by Lord Fitzmaurice weights and measures, Mr. H. J. Chaney. and by Mr. Lough, Parliamentary Secretary of the

The Friday evening discourse at the Royal Institution Board of Education, at noon; luncheon at the l'ni- on June 1 will be delivered by Prof. H. Moissan, on versity; addresses at the University by Sir Edward “ L'Ébullition des Métaux," and on June 8 by Sir James Busk, Vice-Chancellor, M. Liard, Sir Arthur Rücker, Dewar, on “ Studies on Charcoal and Liquid Air."

on

The anniversary meeting of the Royal Geographical a period of five years, the experience gained has proved Society was held on Monday, May 21, when the medals that the task of restoring and conserving the antiquities and other awards announced in NATURE of April 5 (p. 541) of India will always require trained ability for its adequate were presented.

discharge. The present Director-General of Archäology is

confirmed in his appointment. In lieu of the present A FEATURE of the “ Country in Town" Exhibition which

Government epigraphist for Madras, the scheme provides will be held on July 5-19 in the Whitechapel Art Gallery will be photographs illustrating what can be done to

for the appointment of a Government epigraphist for the beautify urban gardens, streets, and parks. Photographic

whole of India, whose duty it will be to organise and

collate the results of the epigraphical work of the proprints for the exhibition will be gladly received by the

vincial surveys.

At the same time, the importance of honorary secretary, Mr. Wilfred Mark Webb, at Toynbee

Madras for this form of research and its special linguistic Hall, Whitechapel, E.

conditions necessitate the retention of a special epigraphical The death of Mr. Charles Eugene De Rance occurred expert in that presidency. on May 9, after eleven days’ illness, the result of an unfortunate accident. Although Mr. De Rance began and

The chief annual meeting of the Verein Deutscher ended his professional career as a civil engineer, he was

Chemiker will be held this year at Nurnberg on June 0-4. for thirty years an officer of the Geological Survey of

Prof. C. Duisberg, of Elberfeld, will report on the work England and Wales. During this period he was engaged

of the commission appointed by the Gesellschaft Deutscher in the south of England and upon the Coal-measures of

Naturforscher und Aertze to consider the science teaching Flintshire and elsewhere, but most of his work was among

in German schools; Herr A. von Baeyer will lecture on the Triassic rocks of Lancashire and Cheshire, and the

the anilin dyes; Dr. Lehner, of Zürich, on artificial silk ; Glacial deposits of the same districts. He contributed to

Prof. Stockmeier, of Nurnberg, on explosions in the several memoirs of the Geological Survey, but his principal aluminium bronze colour industries: Prof. F. Haber, of published work was the “ Water Supply of England and

Karlsruhe, on the optical analysis of coal gas; Prof. Wales (1882). For sixteen years he acted as secretary

4. Werner, of Zürich, on valency; Dr. F. Raschig, of of a committee of the British Association on the circulation

Ludwigshafen, on catalysis; Prof. M. Busch, of Erlangen, of underground waters ; he was associated also with a com- new methods of determining the amount of nitrogen mittee on coast erosion. Problems of water supply always

in nitrocellulose ; Dr. Ed. Jordis, of Erlangen, on the enlisted his attention; one of his last acts was an appeal chemistry of silicates ; Dr. L. Eger, of Munich, on the for information as to the influence of the recent earth

examination and evaluation of railway materials ; Dr. O. quakes on the flow of water in wells.

Röhm, on the manufacture of illuminating gas; and Dr.

M. Neumann, of Cronberg, on the theory of the Glover We notice with regret the announcement of the death process and the manufacture of sulphuric acid in towers. on May 1 of Prof. I. C. Russell, head of the Department | Visits will be paid to several chemical works and large of Geology at the University of Michigan. He was for a engineering works in the neighbourhood, including Messrs. short time assistant professor of geology at Columbia Uni- Siemens and Schuckert's, while excursions to Erlangen versity, and became geologist in the U.S. Geological Survey on June 8, to Rothenburg a.T. (Württemberg) on June 10, in 1880. In 1892 he became professor of geology in the and to the Jubilee exhibition on June o are to be arranged. University of Michigan. Prof. Russell was vice-president of the American Association in 1904, and was president of

The Connecticut Agricultural College has been authorised the American Geological Association at the time of his

to accept the Edwin Gilbert bequest consisting of a farm death.

of 350 acres at Georgetown, Conn., together with a fund

of 12,000l. for the maintenance of the farm. The tract Messrs. C. VENKATARAMAN AND V. APPARAN, of the Presi- of land is, according to Science, to be used for experimental dency College, Madras, write to describe a modification of purposes in connection with the work of the agricultural Melde's experiment with a weighted string attached to the college, but it is not intended to establish a branch of the prong of a tuning-fork. When the string to which the college at Georgetown. From the same source

we learn pulley is attached is held so as to be neither parallel nor that the additional appropriation of 1000l. for the agri. perpendicular to the vibration of the tuning-fork, then, if cultural experiment stations, provided by the Adams Bill, the tension is properly adjusted, the string takes up a has now been paid. This Bill increased the present stationary form of vibration capable of simple explanation. appropriation of the agricultural stations under the Hatch

and Morrill Acts by 1000l. for the year ending next June, REFERRING to the correspondence on Sounding Stores

and by an additional 4ool. annually above the amount of published in our issue for January 4 (vol. lxxii., p. 222),

the preceding year for the next five years. At the end of Mr. E. M. Buchanan, writing from Henzada, Burma,

the five years this will amount to an increase of zoool.. directs attention to the resonant properties of fossilised

bringing the total appropriation to cach experiment station wood and a long established custom in ('pper Burma,

to 6000l. annually. The funds are to be applied only to where such wood is common. The natives collect pieces original researches or experiments bearing directly on the of a kind with even grain, obtainable in lengths of feet

agricultural industry of the United States, with due regard to 6 feet, and convert them into gongs by polishing them

to the varying conditions and needs of the States in which slightly. In the monasteries or shrines the monks accom

the stations are located. pany their recitations at matins and vespers with the music of their stone gongs, which are usually well attuned and Tue contents of the May number of Naturen include give a pleasing effect.

articles on mosquitoes and gnats, on the Vangese-kiang

district and its products, and on dogs-prehistoric and WE learn from the Times that the Government has

modern—the last of these being by Dr. Reinhardt. given its sanction to a scheme for the organisation of the Archæological Department of India on a permanent and Owing to the advent of abnormally high temperatures improved footing. Although much has been done since a an unusually early period, which rendered collecting Director-General of Archäology was appointed in 1902 for 1 in the desert practically impossible, Dr. C. W. Andrews,

4

at

as

root

crops in

name

of the Satural History Museum, has returned from his THE Para rubber tree and its cultivation, also the cultiEgrotian trip. We understand that he has obtained some vation of other American rubber trees, have attracted a important specimens from the Fayum deposit, but that great deal of attention lately, but Ficus elastica, the source tip was unable to visit the zeuglodon-beds of the Mokattum of india-rubber, is seldom mentioned, and its cultivation

is by no means fully understood. A small brochure written The greatrt portion of the April issue of the Museums

by Mr. C. Bald contains much information on the subject Joumal is taken up by an illustrated article by Colonel

that will be useful to rubber planters in the north of India

and elsewhere. Plunkett, director of the Dublin Museum, on the methods

Wild plants generally begin life • mployed at that institution in circulating objects of art,

epiphytes, but the writer describes how seedlings can be 15 reproductions therefrom, among schools and other local readily germinated and transplanted, or a branch may be establishments. A special endeavour has been made to

specially prepared for layering, whereas artificial attempts reduce so far as possible the labour and expense con

at epiphytic germination have mostly failed. necord with handling, packing, receiving, and dispatching the circulation sets, and although the scheme has only

The third number of the Kew Bulletin for this year been in operation for a couple of years, it appears to be a

contains a series of identifications of new plants by workers

in the herbarium. Dr. Stapf contributes a decade of conspicuous success.

African plants and a selection from various countries, inAx important paper by Mr. F. W. Thyng appears in the cluding four species of Icacineæ from Borneo. Among the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History

new orchids named by Mr. Rolfe are a Catasetum from rrol. sxxii., No. 11) on the squamosal bone of the skull

Colombia and a Pteroglossaspis that is interesting as the in four-footed vertebrates. After maintaining, in opposition first American record of a genus hitherto known only from to the views of Gadow, Broom, and others, that the mam

Africa. Mr. G. Massee concludes an account of animal mulian incus corresponds to the reptilian quadrate, the

and plant parasites destructive to beets and mangolds by author proceeds to demonstrate that, of the two bones pointing out the risk of growing two Iring between the parietal and the quadrato-jugal in the

succession. lahyrinthodont skull, the lower one, as not overlying the otic capsule, represents the squamosal of mammals, while

IN the Bulletin of the Department of Agriculture, the upper one should be called the supratemporal. According

Jamaica, vol. iv., part ii., an article by Mr. H. Q. Levy to the generally accepted scheme of cranial osteology, these

is published on the cultivation and marketing of oranges are transposed. The author's re-determination is

and grape fruit. Mr. Levy treats the subject from the largely based on the evidence afforded by the larval skull point of view of the small grower, and gives advice on of the hmbless amphibians, or cæcilians, which appear to

the laying out of the plantation, suitable catch crops, and come the nearest of all living groups to the labyrintho

the diseases of citrus fruits ; the varieties of orange redonts

commended are the seedless Petersfield navel and the

seeded Pineapple. The hints on grading and packing the The articles in the combined second and third parts of fruit are pertinent and practical. The part also contains vol. lxxxi. of the Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Zoologie a list compiled by Mr. Wm. Harris of the seasons and are only three in number, but each is of unusual length. prices in Kingston for fruits, vegetables, and other products. In the first Mr. Hans Dunker discusses the homology of the cirri and the elytra in the

(Aphrodite); MR. E. P. STEBBING writes a short note in the Indian The srcond is a continuation of Dr. L. Böhmig's studies of Forester (March) on Termes gestroi, a termite that attacks the planarian worms of the Tricladida group; while the

Para rubber trees. This parasite has been reported third, by Mr. C. von Janicki, of Basle, is devoted to certain previously from Borneo, Singapore, and the Straits Settlenea or little-known cestode parasites infesting marsupials, ments, and now from the Mergui plantations in Burma. bars, insertivores, rodents, and edentates. In the case of Little appears to be known of the habits of these white the last paper, especial interest, from a geographical point ants except that they hollow out their galleries in the of view, attaches to the discovery in a Brazilian opossum

crown of the root, where they collect and store the latex, new species of tape-worm belonging to the genus and that they have increased greatly owing to the favourLinstowia, which was established by Zschokke in 1898 for able conditions they find in the plantations of this exotic the species L. semoni infesting one of the Australian

tree. Further information with regard to their life-history handichors, but included another species found in the is required before satisfactory methods of treatment Echidna or spiny anteater of the same region. The new be suggested. evidence is of the highest importance in confirming the npinion as to the close affinity of the South American to

ALTHOUGH an exhaustive investigation into the methods the Australasian marsupials, and also as to the relatively

of cultivating and manufacturing natural indigo in India lair date at which the two groups were sundered. Whether

was carried out by Mr. Rawson a few years ago, and the common habitat of the ancestral type was, as has been

valuable suggestions were made by him for effecting suggesteri, in south-eastern Asia or in a sunken southern improvements, the importance of the subject warranted land remains to be determined.

further experiments that have been undertaken by Mr.

C. Bergtheil, the agricultural bacteriologist to the GovernSone cultural notes by Mr. H. Drion on hardy bam- ment of India. In the recent report of the Indigo Rebros, continued from the previous number, are published search Station at Sirsiah the superiority of the Natal in the April number of Le Bambou. Prof. E. de Wilde- plant, Indigofera arrecta, as improved by cultivation in man eintributes a the bamboo-hat industry in Java,

the ordinary Bengal plant, Indigofera Java, that gives employment to a large number of natives. sumatrana, is clearly established, except under certain conThe hats are made double and in various qualities depend- ditions. Mr. Bergtheil also enphasises the importance of ing upon the degree of fineness of the woven strips. Their seed selection. In the manufacturing processes the chief Oust varies from four pence to eighteen pence; the chief point inculcated is the necessity for maintaining the steepdefect is their tendency to become discoloured.

ing vats at a temperature of 90° F.

sea-mouse

can

note

on

over