NOTES. 



575 



Force of Mushroom Growth. Dr. A. S. 



Hudson informs us that several mushrooms 

 have been found growing in the concrete 

 floor of a livery stable in Stockton, Cal. 

 The floor had been laid a little over a year, 

 and consisted of a layer of cement, three or 

 four inches thick, with a top coating of 

 asphalt and gravel. The mushrooms had 

 started in the concrete ; one specimen that 

 was examined came from an inch and a 

 quarter below the surface, and had broken 

 through the cement above this point. It 

 grew to about an inch and a half in height, 

 and its stem was three fourths of an inch 

 thick. The mushroom was white, and its 

 texture was as firm as that of a turnip. 

 Where another one had broken through, the 

 fragment of cement forced up was found a 

 foot away. The most probable way of ac- 

 counting for the presence of the fungi in 

 this very unfavorable situation is that the 

 spawn became mixed with the cement when 

 the floor was laid. 



NOTES. 



The Royal Society of Canada met in Mont- 

 real, May 27th to June 1st, Principal Grant, of 

 Queen's College, Kingston, presiding. The 

 society was founded by Lord Lome in 1881, 

 on the lines of the Royal Society of England, 

 combining, however, literary with its scien- 

 tific sections. Sixty-three papers were read, 

 several of them of high interest. Reports 

 were presented by a score of societies scat- 

 tered throughout the Dominion, each at work 

 on some branch of natural science, historical 

 research, or literary production. Several dele- 

 gates from the United States were cordially 

 welcomed ; General F. A. Walker, Vice Presi- 

 dent of the National Academy of Sciences, 

 representing that body, and Major J. W. 

 Powell, Director of the United States Geologi- 

 cal Survey, the learned societies at the na- 

 tional capital. 



A new arctic expedition has been fitted 

 out at this port, and sailed hence on the 6th 

 of June. It is called the Peary Expedition, 

 from Lieutenant Peary, its commander, and 

 its object is the determination of the north- 

 ern limit of Greenland, which its leader hopes 

 to reach about the middle of July, 1892. 



The third meeting of the Australasian 

 Association was held in Christchurch, New 

 Zealand, beginning January 15th. Sir James 

 Hector presided. The American Association 

 was represented by Prof. Goodale, of Har- 

 vard University, but no representative of the 

 British Association was present. Recom- 

 mendations were adopted that the sea be- 



tween Australia and New Zealand be named 

 the Tasman Sea ; asking the appointment of 

 a committee by the British and American 

 Associations to define terms of general im- 

 portance in biology ; and that the Little Bar- 

 rier Island, north of New Zealand, and Reso- 

 lution Island, on Dusky Sound, be set apart 

 as reserves, where the native fauna and flora 

 of New Zealand may be preserved from de- 

 struction. The next meeting of the Associa- 

 tion will be held at Hobart, Tasmania, with 

 Sir Robert Hamilton as president. 



Discrepancies in the names or in the 

 spelling of them occurring in the surveys of 

 the different departments of the national ad- 

 ministration, and the absence of any author- 

 ity on the subject, have prompted the organi- 

 zation of the United States Board of Geo- 

 graphic Names. Questions which are brought 

 before this board are submitted to its exec- 

 utive committee, which examines the matter, 

 consults authorities, and uses whatever as- 

 sistance may be available. It then reports 

 to the board, which decides the matter by 

 vote. The first bulletin of the board relates 

 to names in Alaska. The co-operation of all 

 geographers, historians, and other scholars 

 interested in geographical nomenclature is 

 invited in its work. 



While local farmers and butchers in the 

 United States are pretending to adduce sani- 

 tary reasons for discouraging the use of meat 

 that comes in refrigerating apparatus from 

 a distance, the Lancet uses them in support 

 of the transportation of all meat to the mar- 

 ket in that way instead of bringing the cattle 

 alive. It assumes that it would be much 

 fairer to consumers to interdict the impor- 

 tation of living animals as food, and to insist 

 upon receiving carcasses only. This would 

 certainly lead to the abolition of the hard- 

 ships and sufferings the poor brutes now 

 undergo, would insure better meat, and would 

 avert the introduction of contagious diseases 

 which have already impoverished British ag- 

 riculture, and which require the maintenance 

 of an expensive system of inspection at ports 

 all round the coast of the country. " The 

 middle-man might perhaps complain ; but as 

 he is, so far as we can see, the only one who 

 profits from this stupid and cruel business, 

 we need not consider him in the matter." 



Mr. Stanley, in his Darkest Africa, gives 

 Emin Pasha as authority for the statement 

 that the chimpanzees, which visit the plan- 

 tations of Mswa station at night to steal the 

 fruit, use torches to light the way. " Had 

 I not witnessed this extraordinary spectacle 

 personally," said Emin, " 1 should never have 

 credited that any of the simians understood 

 the art of making fire. One of these same 

 chimpanzees stole a native drum from the 

 station, and went away pounding merrily on 

 it. They evidently delight in that drum, for 

 I have frequently heard them rattling away 

 at it in the silence of the night." 



