May 



II. 



1911] 



NATURE 



357 



members of which must be regarded as strains, without the 

 stability of a species, and liable to modification in any 

 direction by environmental influence. Hence he thinks it 

 " evident that the passage from the bacterial to the cellular 

 grade was perhaps the most important advance in the 

 evolution of living beings. The acquisition of the cellular 

 type of structure was the starting-point for the evolution, 

 not only of the higher groups of the Protista, such as 

 the Protozoa and unicellar plants, but through them of 

 the whole visible everyday world of animals and plants, in 

 all of which the cell is the unit of structure, and which 

 consist primarily of aggregates of cells." 



Mr. a. R. Nichols records (Fisheries Ireland Sci. 

 Invest., igio, i.) loi species of Polyzoa from the coast of 

 Ireland, twenty-three of which have not been recorded 

 previously from that coast, and six are apparently new to 

 the British list. Mr. W. M. Tattersall (ii.) describes and 

 figures, from the north-east Atlantic slope, six species of 

 Mysidas, of which a preliminary diagnosis only had been 

 published, and also defines two new species and two new 

 genera. Four bottom-living species are added to the 

 British and Irish list, two of which were known previously 

 only from the west coast of Greenland. Mr. R. Southern 

 (iii.) contributes observations on certain pelagic Polychaeta 

 of the coasts of Ireland, and records Vanadis formosa, 

 Greefia celox, Callizona (three species), Tomopteris (four 

 species), Travisiopsis (two species), and Sagitella (two 

 species), all of which, except two of the species of 

 Tomopteris, do not appear to have been previously re- 

 corded from the British marine area. All these pelagic 

 species live in warm and comparatively highly saline 

 waters of the European branch of the Gulf Stream drift, 

 and are carried therein towards the west coast of Ireland, 

 but only rarely do they cross the 200-fathom line. 



The proces-verbaux of the council and sections of the 

 International Marine Investigations, the meetings of which 

 were held in Copenhagen at the end of September last, 

 contain interesting references to observations completed and 

 in progress. Prof. D'Arcy Thompson criticised the investi- 

 gations on the age and growth of herring as determined 

 from the scales, holding that the number of rings exhibited 

 was subject to individual variation, and did not necessarily 

 fjive a correct determination of the age of the fish. Prof. 

 [I'^incke maintained that the method of age-determination 

 by the scale-rings was scientifically sound, and Dr. Hjort 

 stated the reasons for his belief in the trustworthiness of 

 this method, remarking that herring examined in all 

 months of the year showed rings which varied exactly 

 according to the time of the year. Dr. Heincke con- 

 tributed a summary of the present condition of certain 

 aspects of the investigations on plaice. The spawning 

 conditions of plaice are now well known, various more or 

 less separated spawning places having been found in the 

 southern and northern North Sea, the Kattegat, the Belt, 

 and the Baltic, closely correlated with which are different 

 local races, of which six or seven are distinguished, namely, 

 those associated with the regions just mentioned and 

 others with Iceland and the Barents Sea. Those of the 

 Baltic and Barents Sea are slow-growing races, while those 

 of the North Sea and Iceland are quick-growing races. 

 The recognition of these differences i=; of great importance 

 in connection with the question fishing and th« 



plaice-production of different regio spa. 



Presenting in the Bulletin du Jardin Impcrialc 

 Botanique, St. Petersburg (vol. xi., part i.), a list of fungi 

 collected within the government of Samara, Mr. N. N. 

 Woronichin comments upon a new species of Physalospoja 



NO. 2167, VOL. 86] 



taken on fruits of Caragana and certain allied species that 

 grow parasitically on species of Astragalus. 



On account of the marked sensitivity of the apex of 

 the coleoptile or first green leaf, oat seedlings are fre- 

 quently employed for heliotropic experiments, and it has 

 been stated that an incision made in the coleoptile, what- 

 ever its orientation, does not prevent the transmission of 

 a stimulus. While offering evidence modifying this state- 

 ment to the extent that an incision on the posterior side 

 may inhibit the transmission, Mr. P. B. Jensen describes 

 experiments in the Bulletin de I'Acaddmie Royale des 

 Sciences et les Lettres de Danemark (No. i) in which he 

 cut right through the coleoptile, replaced it, and then 

 obtained proof of transmission in the case of stimuli 

 induced by light and also by gravity. 



Forest Bulletin No. i of 19 11, issued by the Govern- 

 ment of India, gives an account of tests of the calorific 

 values of fifty-six specimens of Indian woods carried out 

 by Mr. Puran Singh, Forest Chemist to the Government. 

 The Lewis Thomson calorimeter was used, one kilogram 

 of the wood being burnt in oxygen. The results for thor- 

 oughly dried woods lie between 4000 and 5000 kilogram 

 calories per kilogram of wood for the whole of the samples 

 tested. For air-dried wood, which contains about 15 per 

 cent, of water, the calorific power lies between 3500 and 

 4300 kilogram calorics per kilogram of wood. Charcoal 

 prepared from the woods has an average power of 7000 

 kilogram calories per kilogram. 



Systematic articles in the Kew Bulletin (No. 3) consist 

 of a long series of diagnoses of new tropical African 

 species of Loranthus already enumerated in the " Flora 

 of Tropical Africa," a note on Spatholirion by Mr. S. T. 

 Dunn, and a critical opinion by Mr. T. A. Sprague on 

 the exact status of two saxifrages known as lingulata and 

 lantoscana, according to which the latter should be re- 

 garded merely as a variety of the former. A notable 

 instance of invasion of our southern shores by an alien- 

 brown alga, Colpomenia sinuosa, is described by Mr. 

 A. D. Cotton. The alga thrives best in sheltered situa- 

 tions, and makes its growth principally in the autumn ; 

 persisting through the winter, it produces spores 

 in spring and disappears in summer. On the authority 

 of Lieut.-Colonel A. F. Appleton, a discrimination of the 

 ordinary Transvaal grasses is provided ; outside the species 

 of Eragrostis, Panicum, and others well known, 

 Anthistiria imberbis and Chloris virgaia are recommended 

 as fodder plants. 



A GENERAL index has been issued for the Journal of the 

 Board of Agriculture in two volumes, dealing with the two 

 periods 1894-1004 and 1904-11. Since the Journ.nl started 

 in 1894, it has maintained a high standard, and has pub- 

 lished many articles of permanent value. AH these are 

 rendered much more available, now that the general index 

 has appeared, than they were before. 



We are in receipt of the Madras Agricultural Calendar, 

 April, 191 1, to March, 1912, issued by the Agricultural 

 College and Research Institute, Coimbatore, containing a 

 number of articles intended for the large and the small agri- 

 culturist. In the nature of things, the college is able to 

 play a much more paternal part in the life of the com- 

 munity than would be possible elsewhere, and this publica- 

 tion shows clearly how very extensive are the ramifications 

 of an Indian agricultural department. 



The seasonal distribution of egg production has formed 

 the subject of a biometrical study by Drs. Pearl and 

 Surface, the rfsults of v^'hich are published in Bulletin no 



