252 NATURAL SCIENCE. Oct., 



slope of Panachaion, most nearly allied to Lewi ice Altaica from the 

 Altai mountains, and probably representing a new genus. On Mt. 

 Olenos Dr. Halacsy found above the fir region a girdle of large 

 trees of Junipcvus fcetidissima. The high mountain flora at the edge 

 of the snow-fields made a gorgeous display, especially in the heights 

 of Chelmos, where Ficavia Peloponnesiaca, Anemone olanda, Crocuses, 

 Scillas, the endemic violet {Viola Chelmiani), and others, formed 

 brilliant carpets, but nowhere were the species found which charac- 

 terise the Austrian alpine flora. 



Biologists, as a rule, are apt to overlook the physical aspect 

 of the facts and phenomena with which they deal, and it is 

 therefore gratifying to observe the occasional incursion of the 

 Physicist into the Biologist's domain, such as has just been made 

 by Professor Johnstone Stoney. The Professor asks (Set. Proc. Roy. 

 Dublin Soc, n.s., vol. viii., pp. 154-156) : whence comes the vital 

 energy of the innumerable bacilli which are excluded from the direct 

 influence of sunlight, and why are these organisms all extremely 

 minute? There are some bacilli, e.g., the nitrifying bacilli of the 

 soil, which seem to thrive entirely upon mineral food, and, not only 

 so, but perform their functions while completely removed from the 

 influence of the sun's rays. The manufacture of protoplasm and 

 other complex compounds from inorganic materials involves a 

 considerable amount of energy, and the bacilli must somehow obtain 

 this from the surrounding gases and liquids. Professor Stoney 

 regards it as conceivable that the energy may be imparted to the 

 organisms directly by the impact of the more swiftly moving 

 molecules of these gases and liquids ; and if that be the case, then 

 the necessity for the excessive minuteness of the bacilli — scarcely 

 more than molecules — is explained. 





Our knowledge of the more minute structure of the Protozoa has 

 considerably increased of late, as the result of improved methods and 

 apparatus for study ; and the protoplasm of an Amoeba, for example, 

 now appears as something far more than mere jelly and granules. It 

 is now possible even to cut sections of these minute organisms and to 

 stain them in such various ways as to distinguish a most elaborate 

 arrangement of parts in many cases. Last year Dr. F. Schtitt pub- 

 lished in Berlin the result of some studies of Peridinia, in which he 

 not only demonstrated the existence of remarkable spaces in the 

 protoplasm, but a true excretory system in connection with them ; 

 and another investigator (Professor Greef) supposes that in sections 

 of Amoeba he can see striations denoting the arrangement to which the 

 contractility of the animal is due. Mr. J. E. S. Moore is now following 

 up these investigations in the Huxley Research Laboratory at South 

 Kensington, and the last number of the Linnean Society's Journal 



