170 NOTES AND COMMENTS [SEPTEMBER 
of the Somme, but wanting the characteristic flaking, were 
found in the soils of the higher areas of the lower Tay 
valley, but were entirely absent from those of the 50-feet 
and lower terraces.” 
(2) “Similar stones found in Kaims and the most ancient river 
deposits, but more or less rolled or water-worn.” 
(5) “These stones entirely absent, under ordinary circumstances, 
in recent river deposits; if present, so completely water- 
worn as to be practically unrecoguisable.” 
There exists, no doubt, a borderland, in which it would be difticult 
to distinguish natural productions from the ruder works of man; but 
so long as this indefiniteness characterises Mr. Smith’s specimens, no 
archaeologist would be justified in concluding from them as to the 
presence or absence of man in the district. Until this problem is 
settled we need not inquire into the merits of the subsidiary one. 
For the clear, methodical, and terse manner in which Mr. Smith has 
laid the facts before the public he deserves a word of encouragement, 
but we cannot say that he has proved his case. 
Insects and Tobacco. 
THE Year-Book of the U.S. Department of Agriculture for 1898 con- 
tains an interesting paper by Dr. L. O. Howard on insects injurious to 
the tobacco plant. It is remarkable that this plant, though native in 
North America, is less subject to insect ravages than are cereals and 
other imported crops. The most destructive of the enemies mentioned 
here is a small “ flea-beetle,” EHpitriz parvula, which eats holes in the 
leaves, and renders them liable to further damage through the entrance 
of fungus-spores. The caterpillars of two large hawk-moths and of 
several noctuids, including species so familiar to British entomologists 
as Agrotis saucia and Heliothis armigera, are also noticed. Even when 
prepared for consumption in another way by vertebrate admirers, 
tobacco is still sought after by hungry arthropods; the “ cigarette 
beetle,” Lusioderma serricorne, bores into all kinds of stored tobaceo. 
“An entomological acquaintance,” writes Dr. Howard, “insists that 
he buys infested ‘short cut’ by preference, both because he can 
get it cheaper, and because the bodies of the insects impart a distinct 
and not disagreeable flavour to the tobacco. He admits, however, 
that it is a cultivated taste.” 
