NOTES. 



719 



Dr. J. Walter Fewkes has described in 

 The American Naturalist some specimens of 

 excavations made in rocks by sea-urchins, 

 which he observed at Grand Manan, New 

 Brunswick. Other places where such exca- 

 vations have been found are Florida, the 

 West Indies, Panama, California, the Medi- 

 terranean, coasts of the British Isles and 

 France, and Australia. The holes, which are 

 occupied by the animals, are never deeper 

 than the thickness of the urchins' bodies, 

 and are very smooth. It has been suggested 

 that the holes are worn by the spines of the 

 animal, or perhaps chiseled out by its teeth, 

 and Dr. Fewkes adds that perhaps motions 

 of the animals caused by waves aid the pro- 

 cess of erosion. Another recent paper by 

 Dr. Fewkes describes some Californian Me- 

 dusa, with plates. 



A writer in the North China Herald of 

 Shanghai asserts that the climate of Asia is 

 growing colder, and its tropical animals are 

 slowly retreating southward. In proof of 

 this he quotes evidences, historical and ref- 

 erential, of the former existence of ele- 

 phants, tigers, and leopards in China. Tigers 

 and leopards are, however, not yet extinct 

 in China, and are common enough in Corea. 

 The bamboo, it is said, formerly grew natu- 

 rally in parts of the country where it now 

 has to be taken care of. 



The Central Park Menagerie had 907 an- 

 imals on exhibition during 1889, represent- 

 ing 242 species, 164 genera, and 71 families. 

 The most notable additions to the collection 

 were, by gift or exchange, a three-toed sloth, 

 an American civet-cat, very seldom seen alive 

 in zoological collections, and a pair of young 

 elks ; and by birth a sea-lion, two nylghaie 

 antelopes, and one hippopotamus. The last 

 died four days after birth. The principal 

 cause of death among the animals was con- 

 gestion of the lungs. 



" To get rid of the timber," the answer 

 given to an inquiry from the Michigan State 

 Forestry Commission respecting the timber 

 policy of the State of Arkansas, is made by 

 Mr. William Little the text of a letter to the 

 Montreal Board of Trade on the importance 

 of preserving the timber. The interests of 

 the United States and Canada in this mat- 

 ter are substantially the same. Having 

 shown that the forests of the continent are 

 on the verge of extinction, and having 

 pointed out the lesson that the people of 

 the United States will shortly be taught, if 

 our political bosses impose a restrictive duty 

 on Canadian lumber, the author warns his 

 countrymen that if they continue stocking 

 our saw-mills with logs taken from this al- 

 ready too scanty supply, and keep warring 

 on their forests, they will soon be able to 

 " get rid of their timber," and to get rid at 

 the same time of the most valuable property 

 they ever had or may ever expect to have in 

 their country. 



A group of papers from the Journal of 

 Mycology on The Treatment of Plant Dis- 

 ease is published in a separate pamphlet 

 by Jhe Section of Vegetable Pathology of 

 the United States Department of Agricult- 

 ure. The relation of Mr. A. A. Crozicr's 

 experiments on the effects of certain fungi- 

 cides upon the vitality of seeds shows that 

 soaking in blue vitriol and in copperas tends 

 to retard germination. Prof. Byron D. Hal- 

 sted contributes an investigation of the scald 

 and gall fungus of the cranberry. Other 

 papers, by different authors, relate chiefly 

 to other fungoid diseases and to the qualities 

 of fungicides. 



Six scholarships have been established 

 in the Missouri Botanic Garden to provide 

 six years' courses of theoretical and practi- 

 cal instruction for young men desirous of 

 becoming gardeners. 



Although there is a wide enough field 

 for platinum-plating in the making of vari- 

 ous kinds of instruments and apparatus, 

 such great difficulties attend the process 

 that it has never been made a commercial 

 success. In the first place, the metal tends 

 to separate from its salts in the spongy 

 form instead of forming a firm, hard coat- 

 ing. Then, too, platinum is so insoluble 

 that plates of it can not be used for keep- 

 ing up the strength of the bath. Mr. Will- 

 iam H. Wahl has communicated to the Frank- 

 lin Institute a method of depositing platinum 

 by which these difficulties are largely avoid- 

 ed. For keeping up the strength of the bath 

 he uses platinum hydrate, which dissolves 

 freely in aqueous solutions of the alkaline 

 hydrates, forming platinates. These plati- 

 nate solutions conduct electricity freely and 

 yield bright, reguline, and adherent deposits 

 of the metal. 



On the French coast of Croisic may be 

 seen thousands of little sea-urchins ensconced 

 in cavities in the granite rock, the openings 

 of which are too small to permit their in- 

 gress or exit. The animals, it is not doubted, 

 make and widen the holes for themselves, 

 but the question how has not been answered. 

 Chemical solution of the rock does not seem 

 possible, as no sufficiently strong acid is 

 found in the animal. M. John has recently 

 explained it by mechanical action. With 

 the so-called lantern of Aristotle, a curious 

 formation with which the animal breaks 

 up the hard substances on which it feed?, 

 it probably bites the rock ; the sucker-feet 

 are attached, and a rotary motion is im- 

 parted to the body, the spines and the lan- 

 tern slowly wearing down the surface of the 

 rock. 



A report of the first systematic attempt 

 to determine whether beets can be raised 

 successfully for sugar in Nebraska is given 

 in Bulletin No. 13 of the State Agricultural 

 Experiment Station. Beets had been raised 



