November 9, 191 1] 



NATURE 



51 



Dr. F. Nansen, G.C.V.O., lectured before the Royal 

 Geographical Society on the Norsemen in America on 

 November 6. The preparation of a short account of Arctic 

 exploration had led him to review the whole of the evidence 

 for the early voyages of the Norsemen, and resulted in 

 views which differ considerably from those that are current. 

 He agrees that the attainment of the shore of America 

 by the Norsemen is certain, but maintains that the 

 accounts of their voyages as we find them in the Icelandic 

 sagas is at least in part legendary. Though Greenland, 

 Helluland, Markland, and Wineland were discovered at 

 the end of the tenth and the beginning of the eleventh 

 centuries, the earliest written saga treating with these 

 voyages was written between 1270 and 1300. He attributes 

 the details of the self-grown vine and the unsown corn 

 (or wheat) to interpolations and additions taken from 

 earlier writings, such as those of Isidor Hispalensis from 

 the seventh century, when writing of the Fortunate Islands 

 in the Atlantic west of Africa. The same ideas in very 

 similar words are seen to occur in the early Irish writings. 

 His conclusion is that the whole narrative of the Wine- 

 land voyages is a mosaic of one feature after another 

 gathered from east and west, among which we find many 

 features, however, which indicate a certain knowledge of 

 the real conditions on the north-east coast of America. 



At the conclusion of an article on the habits of the 

 Amazonian ant Polyergus rttfescens, published in vol. xxxi., 

 p. 695 (October), of Biologisches Centralblatt, Prof. C. 

 Emery states that the foundation of a new colony of this 

 species is doubtless due to one or more fertilised females 

 effecting an entrance into a nest of Formica fusca or one 

 of its subspecies. The intruding female, unless she be 

 stopped by hostile workers, immediately makes her way to 

 the domicile of the reigning queen, whom, when found, she 

 attacks and eventually kills with her powerful mandibles. 

 During the contest the attendant workers remain stupefied 

 with fright, but at the death of their legitimate queen 

 quickly receive the foreign female in her place. In the 

 second year the new queen lays eggs, from which emerge 

 polyergus-workers, and these eventually obtain the mastery 

 of the nest. 



That certain fishes, such as salmon, which ascend rivers 

 or streams for spawning assume two, or rarely three, 

 distinct phases has long been known ; and in a recent issue 

 (vol. vii., part v.) of Annotationes Zoologicae Japonenses 

 Prof. S. Hatta shows that the same thing occurs in the 

 lesser Japanese river-lampern (Lampetra mitsurikii). 

 Males and females of this species are readily distinguished 

 by the much greater development of the anal fin in the 

 latter than in the former ; and as representatives of each 

 sex are found in both a large phase, which attains a 

 length of about 8 inches, and in a small phase, in which the 

 length is less than half this, it is manifest that the species 

 is dimorphic, especially as the two phases are found in one 

 and the same stream, and do not intergrade. 



A SERIES of nine associated human teeth discovered in a 

 stratum of Mousterian age in a cave at St. Brelade's Bay, 

 Jersey, are referred by Messrs. Keith and Knowles, in the 

 October number of The Journal of Anatomy and Physio- 

 logy, to the Neanderthal race. In spite of the slight degree 

 in which the cusps are worn, the pulp-cavities of several 

 of the teeth were found to be filled with secondary dentine. 

 This and the size of the roots the authors regard as 

 characteristic of Neanderthal teeth. Other primitive 

 features are noticeable in the canine and first lower pre- 

 NO. 2193, VOL, 88] 



molar, which (in contrast to what obtains among modern 

 races) is larger than the second, in consequence of having 

 to serve as an opponent to the upper canine. 



With the view of illustrating normal variations in form 

 and size of chromosomes. Dr. C. E. Walker figures, in a 

 note received as a separate abstract from Archiv fUr 

 Zellforschung (vol. vi., part iv.), certain changes observed 

 during the meiotic division in cells of the generative organ 

 of Triton and Lepidosiren. Arising therefrom, the argu- 

 ment is formulated that if the chromosomes are the bearers 

 of individual variations, the differences in form and size 

 may be correlated with the fluctuating variations recog- 

 nised by Darwin. 



A REPORT on official investigations regarding " beech 

 coccus," Cryptococcus fagi, conducted by Mr. L. A. Boodle 

 and Mr. W. Dallimore, is published in the Kew Bulletin 

 (No. 8). Personal observations were made in woods in 

 Buckinghamshire and Berkshire. The evidence is not 

 thoroughly conclusive, but the investigators express a 

 definite opinion that the beech coccus is not the destructive 

 agent as generally supposed, and implicate the two fungi 

 Nectria ditissima and Melogramma spiniferum, both of 

 which were universally found on the unhealthy trees. 

 Another article in the Bulletin, of considerable interest to 

 gardeners, is the note on peat-moss litter manure, in which 

 it is stated that the material is neither true peat nor moss, 

 and is extremely undesirable in gardens, being injurious 

 unless it has been allowed to rot for two years at least ; 

 the injurious action is attributed to the excess of organic 

 acids contained. 



As a practicable study in the evolution of a land-form 

 and its plant covering. Dr. L. Cockayne describes, in a 

 contribution — of which a separate copy has been received — 

 to the Transactions and Proceedings of the Botanical 

 Society of Edinburgh (vol. xxiv., part iii.), the series of 

 events which have led to the colonisation of the sub- 

 alpine river-bed of the Rakaia, in the southern Alps of 

 New Zealand. The climatic conditions point to an excess 

 of rain, neutralised by insolation, frost, and high winds, 

 while controlling edaphic factors are supplied by the porous 

 soil and glacial water, so that the early colonists must be 

 able to endure severe ecological changes. The first stages 

 in colonisation are supplied by Epilohiujn melanocaulon, a 

 plant provided with light, rapidly germinating seed, and 

 the mat-forming Raoulia tenuicaulis. On situations raised 

 above floods these are reinforced by a crustaceous lichen 

 and other species of Raoulia, notably R. Haastii, which 

 serves as a nidus for various less hardy colonists. A 

 steppe association, distinguished by the presence of Raoulia 

 and tussock grasses, and scrub are subsequent stages. 



In all new countries it is necessary to discover new 

 crops in order that the system of agriculture should be 

 diversified as much as possible, and particularly is it 

 desirable to introduce leguminous crops. In a recent issue 

 of The Agricultural journal of the Union of South Africa 

 experiments are reported showing that the soya bean is 

 likely to prove advantageous wherever maize is of great 

 importance. The crop is not only valuable in itself, but it 

 leaves nitrogenous residues in the soil that add materially 

 to the fertility. The seeds are rich in oil, for which there 

 is a considerable demand by soap-makers and others, while 

 the residue left after partial extraction of the oil furnishes 

 useful cattle food. 



As a reply to the statement, formulated in a memor- 

 andum issued by the U.S. Weather Bureau, questioning 



