May 4, 191 1] 



NATURE 



321 



. xccuted in Germany. Mr. C. Clifford Dobell contributes 

 a long memoir on the much-discussed question of the pres- 

 ence of a nucleus in bacteria. He concludes that " all 

 bacteria which have been adequately investigated are — like 

 all other protista— nucleate cells," but a good deal seems 

 to depend, in making this generalisation, upon how one 

 chooses to define the term nucleus. If, for example, we 

 are prepared to admit that " a discrete system of granules 

 (chromidia) " may legitimately be called a nucleus, well 

 and good, but probably many biologists will hesitate before 

 accepting this view. Mr. Dobell also contributes a memoir 

 on those remarkable unicellular organisms, the spirochicts, 

 with special reference to Cristispira veneris, a form occur- 

 ring in the crystalline style of a lamellibranchiate mollusc 

 (]'eiiits casta). Mr. Cresswell Shearer's paper on the 

 ii(H li(j|)h(iri- larva of Eupomatus will be welcomed by 

 embryologisls .i< .1 valuable contribution to our knowledge 

 of .Annelid d> v. loinm nt. The illustrations accompanying 

 this paper are particularly worthy of admiration. 



A SEQUEL to the information regarding precipitation and 



-orption of iron, submitted by Prof. H. Molisch in his 

 Dook on iron bacteria, is furnished by a note in the 

 Sit^ungsberichtc der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissen- 

 Siliaften, \'ienna (October, 19 10), in which he states that 

 various aquatic plants induce precipitation of iron from 



>n salts, and that Elodea readily absorbs and accumu- 

 s oxide of iron in its leaves, in the outer walls of the 



dermal cells. 



The elementary species obtained by Prof, de Vries as a 



lutak from Oenothera Lamar ckiana, and designated by 



im as (Fnothern )ia>irUn, forms the subject of a com- 



iiiiiatidii 1)\ Mr. 11. II. Zeijlstra in the Biologisches 



iitralblatl (.Manli 1). It is indicated that the type of 



original diagnosis is an abnormal plant deformed by 



internal growtii of bacterium colonies, presumably a 



cies of Micrococcus, and that similar characters and 



■ <>im are transmitted to the descendants of abnormal 



plants. In addition to this, the common form, there is 



I id to be an uncommon but normal form of the species, 



-linguished from the abnormal chiefly by certain stem 



l leaf characters, and resembling CE. Lamarckiana 



I -pt for its dwarf habit ; up to the present, seeds of the 



; mal form have not been obtained. 



It is apparent from the experiments on transpiration 

 and sap flow, recorded by Mr. J. B. Overton in The 

 Botanical Gazette (January and F"ebruary), that the 

 umbrella plant, Cyperus alternifolius, is a convenient plant 

 for ordinary transpiration experiments. It was particu- 

 larly suitable for the requirements of the author, whose 

 chief object was to study the effects of killing portions 

 of the stem b\ imiin r^ioii in steam or poisonous solutions, 

 as the apical Uift of li avts can be readily slipped through 

 a glass cylinder, which is then fixed at the desired f)osition 

 on the stem. So long as the portion of the stem killed 

 is short, the plant withers less rapidly than a cut piece, 

 but immersion in steam proved to be an unsatisfactory 

 method for killing, as the contents of the cells are dis- 

 organised. It was also found that the application of 

 certain poisonous .solutions, particularly of corrosive subli- 

 mate, causes increased transpiration. 



.'\n extensive and important investigation into thi- nature 

 of crown-gall of plants has been published by the United 

 Slates- Department of Agriculture as Bulletin No. 213 of 

 the Bureau of Plant Industry, in which is provided a 

 detailed account of experiments extending over six years. 

 A bacterial ori-in \v a^ suspected by Dr. K. F. Smith, one 



NO. 2 1 hh, VOL. 86] 



of the authors of the bulletin, in 1904, but definite proof 

 was not obtained until two years later, when a bacterium 

 was isolated, and infection resulting in gall-production was 

 transmitted from pure cultures ; to this organism, a short, 

 rod-like form, was given the name Bacterium tumefaciens. 

 The inquiry started with galls upon hot-house plants of 

 Chrysanthemum frutescens, but subsequently similar mal- 

 formations were examined on apple, peach, grape, sugar- 

 beet, and other plants ; there are probably different physio- 

 logical races of the bacterium, but cross-inoculation was 

 generally possible. Dr. Smith suggests that the manner 

 of i^rowth resembles certain malignant animal tumours. 



Two short papers on seismograms of the great Turkistan 

 earthquake of January 4 are contained in the Journal of 

 the Meteorological Society of Japan for last February. Prof. 

 Omori estimates that the epicentre was situated at about 

 5230 km. in the direction of N. 65° W. from Tokio, or in 

 the Kashgar province of Turkestan, and that the earthquake 

 occurred at iih. i6m. 42s. p.m. on January 3 (Greenwich 

 mean time). Two maxima of the principal portion of the 

 movement were recorded, the second 2h. 8m. 27s. after 

 the first, and due to surface-waves travelling over the longer 

 portion of the great circle through Tokio and the epicentre 

 giving the usual mean velocity of 3-1 km. per second for 

 the surface-waves. 'The total duration of the disturbance 

 was more than four hours at Tokio and 2h. 20m. at 

 Osaka. 



In a recent number of the valuably publication Ans dem 

 Archiv der Deutschen Seewarte (No. 4, 1010), Dr. O. 

 Steffens gives an account of new meteoroloj^iral a])j)aratus 

 constructed or improved by himself. li iiK liuiis an 

 arraiij^finrnf, beautifully illustrated, fm- ixhihiiir,^ the 

 indications of the aneroid-barometer, llninKniT 1. r, and 

 hygrometer, either separately or on one cylindtr, with 

 rectilinear instead of the more usual curvid ordinales. 

 N'arious anemometers registering direction and velocity 

 separately or on the same cylinder, with damping arrange- 

 ments for eliminating the small oscillations of the wind- 

 vane, are also described and clearly illustrated. 



Some of the results of the international balloon ascents 

 specially arranged for the week July 27 to .Vugust i, 1908, 

 are summarised by Mr. W. H. Dines in Symons's Meteor- 

 ological Magazine for .April. He states that the figures 

 show several points of interest, and would repay a careful 

 analjsis ; we can only quote here a few facts relating to 

 the ])nrtiriilar ascent for each day in which th'^ i^n airst 

 hiii^hi ol trustworthy record in miles was aiiainid. with 

 the temperature (F.) at the greatest height, ili' It i;.:iii in 

 miles of the commencem-int of the isothermal rcilunir,, ih.' 

 temperature at the bottom of the column, .and direction of 

 falling point of the balloon. 



ni. , m. 



July 27 Pavia 143 -58 7*5 -78 S. by W. 



July 28 Cnnan(N.B.)... 107 -58 6*4 -76 E.S.E. 



July 29 Pyrton Hill (Oxon) i4"3 -62 8*5 -ga S. 



luly 30 Zurich 11 a —72 8"i -69 \V,S.W. 



July3< „ II-3 -6s 8-3 -89 S S.W. 



Aug. I Strassbiirg ifo —53 7*5 —80 S, t". 



No large changes of pressure occurred during the week. 

 On July 27 it was high over the Azores and Lapland ; by 

 July 29 it had disappeared over Lapland, but increased 

 over the Azores and moved to the south of Ireland. On 

 July 30 and 31 it had again decreased, but still lay over 

 England, with low pressure on July 31 in the Gulf of 

 Bothnia. On August i there was little change. 



I III: .\|)iil number of the Journal of the I i.mklin Insti- 

 tiiii- rnniains ;i well-illustrated article on iln imipt v-- - -t 

 ihf n<\v niriallic filaments used in im .mdrs, . m i.m 



