May i8, 1911] 



NATURE 



almost as high. Fuchsias of the types of globosa and 

 Riccartonii attain large proportions, and a plant of the 

 nohleanum variet}- of Rhododendron caucasicum was 

 "istimated to cover an area 30 feet in diameter. 



A DOUBLE number of The Indian Forester (January and 

 February) contains an article on forest railways for the 

 extraction of timber, communicated by Mr. F. A. Leete, 

 in which he describes an original type of monorail experi- 

 mentally tried in Burma ; a note on wood-pulp testing, by 

 Mr. W. Raitt ; and a report on the system of afforestation 

 with field crops in Berar. Mr. Raitt states that four 

 Indian conifers, Picea Morinda, Abies Pindroxv, Finns 

 excelsa, and Finns longifolia, yielded long-fibred, strong 

 pulps of good colour and quality, while weaker but useful 

 pulps were obtained from six hard-wood trees, including 

 Bowhax viahibitriciiin, Populus ciliata, and Ficiis briigal- 

 cnsis. 



A THICK volume, issued as vol. xiv., part i., of " Contri- 

 butions from the United States Herbarium." is devoted to 

 a compilation dealing with the lichens of Minnesota, in 

 which Mr. Bruce Fink presents the data collected and 

 conclusions formulated by several years' field work and 

 study. Under the only American order of Ascolichenes, 

 four suborders, Coniocarpineae, Graphidine<TE, Disco- 

 carpine*, and Pyrenocarpincae are delimited. The largest 

 family, the Lecidea:, contains eight genera, of which 

 I.ecidea. Bacidia, and Buellia are the more important ; 

 Cladonia and Lecanora are also large genera. Artificial 

 ys are provided for genera and species, and illustrations 

 •r one species of each important genus. Further, to add 

 ■ its value as a practical handbook, the author has given 

 I introductory account of lichen structures and modes of 

 production. Since the lichen flora of Minnesota is fairly 

 . presentative of a large portion of the northern area of 

 North America, the volume should be useful to British 

 lichenologists for purposes of comparison. 



The agricultural <'xperiment station atlachcd in thf 



Purdue University, Indiana, has succeeded in coming into 



ery close contact with the farmers by means of educational 



ains, field trials, and illustrated circulars dealing with 



arious practical questions. The educational train is almost 



nknown in this country ; it consists of a coach for the 



, two " audience coaches," and a " palace-horse " car, 



which are kept the animals used fo< the demonstrations. 



e train stops at convenient centres, and is met bv the 



al farmers ; the staff then g^ive lectures and denion- 



t.ations dealing with matters of local interest. Of the 



t popular circulars recently to hand, we need only mention 



I one on wheat, in which stress is laid on the fact that the 



\ average yield in Indiana is only 133 bushels per acre, 



hilst on the college farm it is 28 bushels per acre. The 



: iner is advised how he may make up the deficiency and 



; [jrove his own crops. 



With the union of the South African colonics, the issue 

 separate agricultural journals has become superfluous, 

 i they are now all merged into a new Agricultural 

 nrnal of the Union of South Africa, issued monthly in 

 ftglish and Dutch by the Department of Agriculture. The 

 ^t numbej- contains articles on the cultivation of recentlv 

 roducid crops, cotton, bananas, citrus fruits, and others, 

 records expt^riments on partial sterilisation of soil for 

 sacco seed beds. Dr. Theiler describes " stiff-sickness " 

 cattle, a disease very similar to laminitis in horses, 

 ich he traces to Crotalaria burUeana, a plant occurring 

 the pastures. Altogether the new journal reflects very 

 eat credit on all concerned in its production. 

 NO. 2168, VOL. 86] 



Three diseases of groundnut have been studied by Mr. 

 F. W. South in the West Indies. A rust fungus, Uredo 

 arachidis, is of very general distribution both on imported 

 and on local varieties throughout all the islands. The 

 amount of damage it is capable of causing appears to vary 

 in different islands, as does the success of the control 

 measures employed. A leaf-spot fungus, Cercospora 

 personata, is more local and not as yet very serious. A 

 root disease caused by a fungus not identified occurs 

 in a number of the islands ; its host plants are numerous 

 and of a very general nature. No adequate method of 

 control is known. Mr. South 's observations are published 

 in the West Indian Bulletin, vol. xi.. No. 3. 



We have received the first report of the Mine Rescue 

 Station Commission of the State of Illinois, which contains 

 some interesting information. Illinois has taken the lead 

 in the United States, and has been the first State to provide 

 a rescue service for its coal mines. Three stations have 

 been built, namely, at Benton, Springfield, and La Salle. 

 In general design and equipment they appear not to differ 

 greatly from those already erected in Great Britain, con- 

 taining a lecture room, a training chamber, store rooms. 

 &c. Unlike most European rescue stations, they also con- 

 tain dormitories, which are probably rendered necessary 

 by the conditions of tht case ; the intention appears to be 

 that men being trained in rescue work should give up their 

 whole time to the training, and should live at the rescue 

 station during their period of training ; it seems to be con- 

 sidered that a fortnight should suffice for this purpose. A 

 novel feature here is the provision of a travelling rescue 

 station in the form of an old Pullman car, which has been 

 re-fitted so as to carry rescue appliances, oxygen cylinders, 

 and other requisites ; one of these will be attached to each 

 rescue station, where it will stand on a siding ready, so 

 that a locomotive can be coupled up to it and it can at once 

 be taken to the scene of any accident. This idea is well 

 worthy of adoption in other places. Of course, each of the 

 Illinois rescue stations has also its motor-car for road work. 

 The Commission does not express its preference as 5'et for 

 any one of the numerous forms of rescue appliances that 

 have been designed during the iast few years, and rather 

 implies that it has not yet come across any thoroughly 

 satisfactory pattern. Finally, and as perhaps the most 

 important point of all, let it be noted that this is a State 

 enterprise, and that the State pays all expenses, which 

 already amount to some 15,000/. 



The Journal of Genetics, tlie first number of the first 

 volume of which appeared in November, k)io, is, as stated 

 in that issue, " a periodical for the publication of records 

 of original research in Heredity, Variation and allied sub- 

 jects. The Journal," so the announcement continues. 

 " will al.so, from time to time, contain articles summaris- 

 ing the existing state of knowledge in the various branches 

 of Cienetics, but reviews and abstracts of work published 

 elsewhere will not, as a rule, be included." The number 

 before us contains a detailed and copiously illustrated 

 account, by Dr. R. N. Salaman, of his hybridisation 

 experiments with the potato. The characters dealt with 

 pertain to certain morphological features of the leaf and 

 tuber, and also to the colour of the latter. The same laws 

 of dominance do not hold with the wild Solamitn 

 etuberosuin as with the domestic varieties of potatoes. 

 In .S, ctuherosum it was .shown that immunity to the 

 attacks of Phytophthora infestans is inherited as a 

 recessive character. There is a very intere.sting paper by 

 F. Keeble and Miss C. Pellew, in which it is shown that 

 the charnct'^r tnllness. treated hv Mendel as a singl" 



