41 6 NATURAL SCIENCE. august. 



Mr. Halkyard continues his researches into the Foraminifera 

 of tlie Channel Islands in the Transactions of the Manchester 

 Microscopical Society for 1891. In the present paper, the distribu- 

 tion of the various forms around Guernsey, Herm, and Jersey is 

 attended to, and lists showing their comparative abundance are given. 

 Carterina spiculolesta, an interesting find, is recorded from Guernsey 

 and Jersey. Rhizopoda appear a second time in the same publica- 

 tion, for Mr. James Cash has an illustrated paper on the freshwater 

 forms of the Manchester district. M. Fornasini has just published, 

 in Mem. Accad. Sci. Bologna, a note on Nudosaria obliqua (Linn,), 

 showing the variations of this form. The paper is accompanied by 

 an excellent plate. 



Dr. Beneche, the director of the experimental station at Klaten, 

 Java, has, according to N attire, offered a prize of 1,000 marks for the 

 best essay on the causes of the red colour in the fibro-vascular 

 bundles oi Sorghum which accompanies the disease known as " sereh." 

 A similar disease has recently become very destructive to the sugar- 

 cane crop in Java. Dr. Beneche had already published some results 

 of experiments for combating the disease in 1891 (" Proefnemingen 

 ter bestrijding der 'Sereh,' 80, Semarang"), and in De Indische Gids 

 for December, i8gi. Attention is now called to a second paper, 

 published in the " Medederling," of the Middle-Java Experimental 

 Station, entitled " De bestrijding des onder den naam ' sereh ' samen- 

 »evatte ziekteverschijnselen van het suikerriet," dealing more fully 

 with this serious trouble. Further information on this and many 

 other plant diseases and pests will be found in the Zeitschrift fiir 

 Pfianzenhvankheiten (Stuttgart), a journal edited by Dr. Paul Soraner, 

 and which, besides supplying many original articles, collects those 

 published in little-known serials. 



Botanists will be glad to hear that Mr. Daydon Jackson's Index to 

 Flowering Plants is in progress of printing by the Oxford University 

 Press. Nearly the whole of the letter B is in type. The passing of 

 the proofs of such a monumental work as this through the Press is 

 extremely arduous, as collation with the whole of the rest of the 

 manuscript is needful for completion. It is difficult to realise the 

 labour involved in such a book of reference. 



The library founded by M. Adrien Dollfus for the benefit of the 

 readers of La Fenille des Je.unes NatHvalists, grows apace. In fascicule 

 15 of the Catalogue, just issued, the additions received between 

 January 21 and April 20, 1890, are recorded under numbers 19,233 

 to 20,519, a total of 1,286 books and pamphlets. The Catalogue is 

 classified under subjects, and the books are available to all subscribers 



