NOTES AND COMMENT 247 



their viability is superior to that of C'ahfornia seeds. Two or three 

 insects attack the younp; trees but their rav^ages are slight and fail to 

 check the rapid growth. In other words the tree succeeds somewhat 

 better in its new environment tiuin in its native one, and this fact raises 

 a host of questions as to the optimum requirements of the tree and the 

 history of its present restriction to the fog belt of the Pacific coast. 



It is encouraging to the forester to know of every success in finding 

 a tree which will grow in a region remote from its natural range and 

 will outclass the native trees of that region in rate of growth and in 

 resistance to disease. The Montere}^ pine will doubtless* be much more 

 extensively planted in New Zealand than will the chief native timber 

 trees, Agathis, Podocarpiis, and Dacrydium, which have magnificent 

 wood but are slow of growth. In the inland hills of British East Africa 

 e.xtensive plantings of Mexican highland conifers are being made, under 

 the direction of Mr. C. E. Hutchins, and there is little doubt that success- 

 ful species will be found for the replacing of the inferior native trees, 

 which are mostly softwoods of tropical lowland origin. 



Professor A. H. R. Buller has carried out some experiments on the 

 fruit-bodies of the fungus Schizophyllum similar to those performed by 

 Becquerel on various seeds, showing that the fungus is capable of 

 retaining vitality after being kept dry for nearly three years, being then 

 dried in vacuo and subjected to the temperature of liquid air for three 

 weeks. Professor Buller finds it difficult to imagine how any metabolism 

 can go on under these conditions and concludes that there must be a 

 temporary suspension of vitality in the fungus. He says, '^perhaps the 

 machinery of metabolism in the fruit-bodies ceases to work under the 

 conditions of our experiment but is uninjured and ready to resume its 

 normal course when allowed to do so by a rise in temperature and 

 access to moisture and air." It is altogether likely that there is no 

 qualitative difference and only a slight cjuantitative difference between 

 the behavior of SchizophjUum under the conditions of the experiment 

 and under ordinar}- conditions of desiccation at normal temperatures 

 and pressures. 



