156 NATURAL SCIENCE. March, 



and DipsacecE, where the flowers are crowded into a head, and where 

 alone there seems any chance of profit to the plant. On a warm 

 sunny afternoon humble-bees may be found in large numbers drunk 

 and incapable on tobacco plants ; and we remember once counting as 

 many as thirteen on one plant in the Botanic Garden at Cambridge. 



^ East African Lepidoptera. 



Dr. W. J. Holland has lately issued {Pvoc. U.S. Nat. Mas., vol. 

 xviii., pp. 741-767) a list of Lepidoptera collected by Messrs. Chanler 

 and von Hohnel in the neighbourhood of Mount Kenia. While 

 some of the species have a wide range over the whole Ethiopian 

 Region, a much larger proportion show South African affinities, though 

 there is no special relationship with the fauna of West Africa. So 

 far as regards Lepidoptera, Dr. Holland is inclined to unite the South 

 and East African sub-regions suggested for birds by Dr. Bowdler 

 Sharpe (Natural Science, August, 1893.) 



The Great Carcinologist of Norway. 



To praise too much is invidious ; in appreciating the carcino- 

 logical work of G. O. Sars, it would also be difficult. In the amazing 

 abundance and variety of his work, the clearness and accuracy of his 

 descriptions, the dexterity and fulness of the accompanying illustra- 

 tions, whoever may compete with him on one head or another, in all 

 combined it may safely be said that he stands unrivalled. Within 

 the tolerably well-marked confines of the crustacean group there is 

 room for so much diversity of form that men who are recognised as 

 specialists in regard to one division may be almost absolutely 

 ignorant in regard to others. There is probably not a single one on 

 which Professor Sars could not speak with authority ; there are very 

 few which he has not already handled with a master's touch. Though 

 the Cumacea have in a sense been known for a century and a quarter, 

 and even brought under the light of science more than half a century 

 ago by the sagacious Kroyer, still it is to Sars that we owe the chief 

 expansion of this still limited and curious order, and the clear under- 

 standing of its morphology. What he has done with pen and pencil 

 would fully account for the time of an ordinary man, but Sars seeks 

 his specimens not only in the cabinets of museums, but also in the 

 depths and shallows of the ocean itself, securing thereby the advan- 

 tage of seeing the creatures in the postures and colours of life. In 

 many instances he has successfully studied the remarkable changes of 

 form which some crustaceans undergo between leaving the egg and 

 attaining to maturity. Not content with searching the fresh waters 

 of his own country, we find him further engaged at home in raising 

 Crustacea from the dried mud of other lands, and by this means able 

 to comment on the life-history, and give figures and descriptions, 



