MESEMBRTANTHEMUM MAHONI, N.E.BR. 195 



To these three the vernacular names, " Moer " and " Moola," 

 or " Mula" (i.e., yeast), are applied, while the Mesembrianthe- 

 mum is also called" " Koerri "- or " Kiri "-moer. Dr. Juritz con- 

 cludes : — 



" The term " mula " or " moola " is without doubt a corruption of 

 the Dutch "moer" (signifying yeast); the r of the Dutch word being 

 convertible into 1 in Kaffir (cfr. sugar = swekile, and koerri or kiri = 

 <|ilik;i : hence also Kiri moer = moola ye qilika). In default of the mould, 

 the root alone is powerless to start fermentation. The means for trans- 

 porting the ferment is clearly the sediment invariably found wherever a 

 sugary or starchy liquid ferments ; in this case the root materials amongst 

 which organisms of various kinds lie entangled." 



The flora of certain Kaffir-beers has been studied by Miss 

 E. M. Doidge, : who finds that in the beers, " leting " and " joala " 

 or " utshawala," the fermentation is due to three organisms : 

 (i) A lactic acid bacterium belonging to the group Bacterium 

 Guntheri, Leh. and Neu., and resembling in its action the Bacillus 

 bulgaricus described by Metchnikoff, and to the results of which 

 action the beneficial effects of "leting" are due; (2) Mucor 

 Rouxii, the mucor of Chinese yeast; (3) A yeast which is 

 responsible for the formation of the greater part of the alcohol. 



A New Cape Buchu- It is recorded in the Kew 

 Bulletin that specimens of a buchu from the grassy slopes at the 

 Qolora Mouth, Kentani, Cape Province, prove to belong to a 

 species previously undescribed. They had been sent to Kew by 

 Miss Alice Pegler, and the species has accordingly been named 

 Barosma Peglcrcc Dummer. The new species exhibits an affinity 

 to forms of Barosma lanccolata Sonder, but has broader elliptic 

 leaves. It is a perennial, and develops annual leafy and flower- 

 ing shoots from a woody root-stock. Whether the leaves of the 

 newly described species possess any particular pharmaceutical 

 value still remains to be ascertained. 



PROTO-HYDROGEN — In 1896 Prof. Pickering, of Har- 

 vard, discovered in the spectrum of the star t Puppis a system 

 of lines not previously recognised, and at first believed to belong 

 to a new element. These lines were afterwards attributed to a 

 new form of hydrogen existing at an exceptionally high tempera- 

 ture, to which Sir Norman Lockyer gave the name of proto- 

 hydrogen. Hitherto these lines have not been found in terres- 

 trial hydrogen, but Mr. A. Fowler announced at a recent meeting 

 of the Royal Astronomical Society that he had produced some 

 lines of the series by passing a condensed discharge through a 

 mixture of hydrogen and helium. From hydrogen alone he 

 failed to obtain them. 



* The Flora of Certain Kaffir Beers ; Transvaal Department of Agri- 

 culture, Agricultural Science Bulletin No. 5, 1910. 



