June 22, 191 1] 



NATURE 



56. 



An explanation of the differences observable in speci- 

 mens of the common garden shrub, Osmanthus Aquifolium, 

 is offered by Dr. O. Stapf in The Kew Bulletin (No. 4), 

 as he is able to identify two plants, distinct both in foliage 

 and flowers. The type of the original species has a leaf 

 like the holly, and bears both hermaphrodite and 

 staminate flowers. Another type, having leaves with 

 shallower indentations, and for which only staminate 

 flowers are known, fits in with a species segregated long 

 ago as Osmanthus Fortunet. It has been suggested that 

 the latter represents a hybrid between O. Aquifolium and 

 O. fragrans ; this opinion is supported by the characters, 

 including the less hardy constitution, of O. Fortunei. 

 Another item of horticultural interest is supplied by the 

 note acknowledging the receipt of seeds of trees and 

 shrubs collected in south-west China by Mr. Forrest. 

 They include a number of rhododendrons, in connection 

 with which the question arises whether any of them will 

 supply a yellow-flowered hardy shrub so long desired. 



The s\'stems of training and pruning fruit trees followed 

 by the Japanese, as is the case with so many of their 

 methods, are essentially different from those prevailing in 

 European countries. According to the account by Prof. 

 T. Ikeda, published in the Journal of the Royal Horti- 

 cultural Society (vol. xxxvi., part iii.), a system^ — known 

 as " tana " — of training the branches on overhead trellis- 

 work is generally adopted for pears and vines, less often 

 for plum and apple trees. The trellis is made of bam- 

 boos or wire fitted on wooden posts at a height of 55 feet 

 and one to two feet apart ; the pruning is very light, and 

 is generally done in winter. Tana-training is said to offer 

 advantages, notably in the matter of early fruit prod)-,ction 

 and of protection from wind and rain storms. A more 

 vigorous system of pruning is adopted in the case of Kaki 

 trees, Diospyros Kaki, that appears to have arisen out of 

 the practice of pulling the fruit with a portion of branch 

 suitable for hanging it up to dry. The fruiting shoots are 

 broken at the base, while the sterile shoots are left intact 

 to produce spurs the next year. 



What is popularly known as " blackhead " in turkeys 

 covers several different diseases, but one has been studied 

 in some detail by Hadley and Amison, of the Rhode Island 

 Agricultural Experiment Station, and traced to flagellated 

 protozoa occurring in the caecum. The organisms are 

 identical with some previously described by Smith as 

 Amoeba meleagridis ; their development was studied, and 

 found to resemble that of other parasitic flagellates which, 

 at certain stages, have the habit of losing their flagella 

 and becoming amoeboid. They occur also in the English 

 sparrow and other wild birds, several of which can act ai 

 hosts, and further they are found in game birds. So 

 much damage is done that, in some districts, they con- 

 stitute a severe menace to the poultry-raising industry. 



Some years ago Whitney and Means investigated the 

 connection between the conductivity of a soil and the 

 amount of saline matter present, and as a result of their 

 experiments a method was elaborated whereby the per- 

 centage of soluble salts in " alkali " soils could be esti- 

 mated in the field with sufficient accuracy for ordinary 

 purposes and in a very short space of time. Thus a survey 

 of a whole district could be made, and it was possible to 

 ascertain the effects of irrigation, cultivation, &c., on the 

 soluble salts of the soil. A bulletin has recently been 

 issued by the United States Department of Agriculture 

 giving the results of accumulated experience with the 

 method. The writers, Messrs. R. O. E. Davis and 



NO. 2173, VOL. 86] 



H. Bryan, state that the method works well provided thers 

 is not too much organic matter present, and provided also 

 carbonates are practically absent. In the former case it is 

 better to drop the electrical method altogether, in the latter 

 case the method can still be used, but a special set of 

 tables is needed. 



The Canadian Department of Mines has sent us a 

 volume, by Mr. F. Cirkel, entitled " Chrysotile-Asbestos, 

 its Occurrenre, Exploitation, Milling and Uses," which 

 gives a very complete account of this extremely important 

 Canadian industrj-. Asbestos is obtained from a relatively 

 restricted area in the province of Quebec, but it has 

 attained in a short time a most prominent position amongst 

 the mineral products of Canada. The Canadian output at 

 present is about 60,000 tons, forming about 80 per cent, 

 of the total production of the whole world ; it has prac- 

 tically doubled since 1904. The account now published, 

 which is essentially a new edition of a previous report on 

 the same subject and by the same author, issued in 1905, 

 is a most exhaustive one, and deals very fully with all 

 aspects of the asbestos industry, with the occurrence and 

 distribution of the mineral, its mining and dressing, and 

 with the subsequent manufacture ,of the prepared mineral 

 into a large number of articles. Whilst, perhaps, more 

 especially written from the commercial rather than the 

 scientific point of view, it contains a quantity of valuable 

 information not otherwise accessible, and should be of 

 decided assistance to all who have to deal with asbestos 

 either in the crude or in the manufactured state. 



On Monday, June 12, Dr. Arthur Neve, who has spent 

 thirty years in Kashmir, lectured before the Royal Geo- 

 graphical Society on his journeys in the Himalayas and 

 on some factors of Himalayan erosion. In Ladak erosion 

 is at the present time not especially active, and the valleys 

 are of easy gradient, but in Lower Baltistan and Gilgit 

 rivers flow in deep gorges and have cut their way recently 

 through immense accumulations of detritus. The rainfall 

 is slight, and the dry, loose deposits, by their instability, 

 are a source of considerable danger, which is greatly 

 increased in the wet season, when vast landslips are 

 common and rapidly alter the contour of the hillsides. 

 Accounts were given of the damage caused by glaciers 

 blocking up lines of drainage in such a way as occurred 

 some years ago in the Saru valley. The lecturer's travels 

 in the Karakorum range and the Nun Kun group in the 

 Central Himalayas were referred to, and several points of 

 doubtful topography were discussed. The subject of 

 Himalayan erosion and topography were treated descrip- 

 tively rather than analytically from experience gained in a 

 long acquaintance with the region. 



Le Radium for May contains a paper by M. de Broglie 

 and L. Brizard in which their observations on the apparent 

 radio-activity of sulphate of quinine are described. They 

 find that the phenomena show neither of the characteristics 

 of radio-activity — i.e. they are not atomic and are not 

 independent of external influences. They have succeeded 

 in tracing them to a thin layer of strongly ionised gas 

 which surrounds the salt during hydration or dehydration, 

 and they find that sulphate of chinchonine, which possesses 

 the same phosphorescent properties as sulphate of quinine, 

 shows the same effects. The search for onier salts has 

 not been successful. The mobility of the ions formed is 

 of the order i centimetre per second in a field of i volt 

 per centimetre, which shows that the ions are small. 

 They may either diffuse slowly outwards from the layer 

 in which thev are formed or mav be driven out more 



