December 14, 191 1] 



NATURE 



22 



buck accordingly requires reinvestigation in order to ascer- 

 tain whether they too may be able to obtain moisture from 

 plants. 



The sponge fauna of the Kola-Fjord forms the subject 

 of a paper (with a summary in German) by Mr. L. L. 

 Breitfuss in Tvav. (Comptes reiidtis) Soc. Imp. Nat. St. 

 Petersboiirg, vol. xlii., part i. In the second fasciculus of 

 the same part Dr. Weltner describes (as the seventh instal- 

 ment of the account of the fauna of Turkestan) the sponges 

 of the Issyk Kul (Lake Issyk) and the neighbouring rivers 

 of the district north of the Tian Shan. These belong to 

 the almost cosmopolitan Ephydatia fliiviatilis, and from the 

 fact of its occurrence in the Issyk Kul, which is about 

 5300 feet above sea-level, at a depth of as much as 40 

 metres, the species is regarded by the author as a member 

 of the high-mountain and deep-lake fauna. At depths 

 between 15 and 30 metres there was found from the middle 

 of July to the end of August a form which produces sexual 

 buds. Since, however, only a few unripe gemmules with 

 misformed amphidiscs were then found, it is considered 

 that the development of normal sexual gemmules must 

 occur at some other season. 



A CATALOGUE of the periodicals. Transactions of societies, 

 and similar publications contained in the library of the 

 Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, has been compiled and 

 published as Nos. xxvi. and xxvii. of " Notes " from 

 the garden. With a view to the utilisation of the separate 

 items as index slips for public or private use, the printing 

 is limited to one side of the page. 



A CONTINUATION of garden notes on new trees and 

 shrubs, prepared by Mr. W. J. Bean, appears in The 

 Kew Bulletin (No. 8). Chinese introductions include a 

 distinct rough-stemmed bush, Berheris verructdosa ; a 

 l)eautiful hornbean, Carpintis polyneura ; and the new 

 conifer, Fokienia Ilodginsii. .Another interesting and rare 

 Chinese conifer, represented at Kew by several specimens, 

 is the lace-bark pine, Pinus Bungeana ; a peculiarity of 

 this tree is the white bark, but it is noted that this is a 

 very late development, and has not yet been attained by 

 the Kew specimens. Noteworthy, also, is the small 

 American tree Leitneria floridaua that by itself constitutes 

 the family Leitneriaceae ; the wood produced is perhaps the 

 lightest known, having a specific gravity about 02. 



The original homes of our cultivated plants is a matter 

 of considerable interest to gardeners, so that Mr. A. W. 

 Hill found an appropriate subject in the relation of South 

 America to horticulture for a lecture before the members 

 of the Royal Horticultural Society, that is published in the 

 Journal (vol. xxxvii., part i.). The " monkey puzzle," 

 Araucaria imbricata, emanates from Chile, and from that 

 State or Peru have come many hardy or half-hardy shrubs, 

 including Berheris Darwinii, Azara macrophylla, and 

 Drimys Winteri. Less hardy, and therefore requiring 

 greenhouse cultivation, are the climbers Stigmaphyllon and 

 Tacsonia, and the wall plants Slreptosolen Jamcsoni and 

 Lapageria rosea. Species of Begonia from South America 

 have contributed materially to the development of modern 

 garden varieties, while no less interesting are the species of 

 Calceolaria and Fuchsia that are strongly represented on 

 that continent, and several brilliant species of Tropaiolum. 



Prof. D. H Campbell is well known to botanists as 

 the author of many valuable and important memoirs on 

 tlie morphology of vascular cryptogams. A recent number 

 Xo. 140) of the Publications of the Carnegie Institution of 

 Washington embodies a connected account of the 

 ' usporangiate ferns, in which he has brought together in 



NO. 2198, VOL. 88] 



a very complete form the result of his researches on the 

 comparative morphology of the Ophioglossaceae and 

 Marattiaceae The memoir, which contains 224 pages of 

 text, and is amply illustrated by text figures and plates, is 

 fully worthy of the high reputation of Prof. Campbell, and 

 it will be indispensable to all students of this interesting 

 group of plants. After an extensive account of the struc- 

 ture and development of a considerable number of species 

 the author draws certain general conclusions as to the 

 phylogenetic significance of the structures he describes. 

 Thus, as a result of a discussion of the evolution of the 

 vascular structure, he regards the vascular system of the 

 stem of, e.g., Marattiaceae as a collocation of leaf bundles, 

 and discards the " stela*- " view, as it is generally held, on 

 the ground that it obscures a right interpretjition of the 

 facts. As might have been anticipated, the author deals 

 with the supposed origin of the eusporangiate ferns (which 

 he regards as a primitive group) from a bryophyte stock, 

 and the analogies and comparisons he draws between the 

 embryo of species of Ophioglossum and of Anthoceros are 

 striking. Naturally he does not suggest a derivation of 

 the ferns from Anthoceros as it now exists, but he points 

 out very cogently the remarkable features of resemblance 

 that actually exist. All who are interested in the evidence 

 on which the speculations respecting the ancestry of the 

 higher plants are founded will find matter of great interest 

 in Prof. Campbell's memoir, whilst as a repository of facts 

 which, whatever be the fate of theories and hypotheses, 

 will always retain their face values, the memoir forms a 

 considerable contribution to the permanent literature of 

 botany. 



That branch of the United States Department of -Agri- 

 culture concerned with the introduction of foreign seeds 

 and plants has achieved success largely owing to the 

 systematised methods of procedure and the activities of 

 the explorers in charge. One of the latter, Mr. D. G. 

 Fairchild, contributes to The National Geographic 

 Magazine (October) a popular illustrated article in which 

 a few of the important introductions are noted. Probably 

 the greatest undertaking has been the importation of date- 

 palm suckers, which have been planted in the States of 

 Arizona and California. From India, mangoes have been 

 imported in large variety, and are being grown in Florida, 

 Porto Rico, and Hawaii. The production of Oriental per- 

 simmons and the cultivation of bamboos on a commercial 

 scale are also notable enterprises, as well as the introduc- 

 tion of a new vegetable, " udo," Aralia cordata, from 

 Japan, comparable to and said to rival asparagus. 



The report on the permanent experiment field of the 

 Roseworthy Agricultural College, published in The Journal 

 of the Department of Agriculture of South Australia, con- 

 tains some very interesting results. Perhaps the most 

 remarkable is the great increase in the wheat crop obtained 

 by applying small dressings of superphosphates, the grain 

 rising from twenty-one to twenty-six bushels, and the 

 straw also showing a marked increase. Nitrate of soda 

 did not produce anything like the effect that would be 

 looked for in this country, a result probably to be attributed 

 to the lack of moisture, whicli would operate as a limit- 

 ing factor. In the same Journal it is also stated that the 

 broom millet {Sorghum vulgare, var. technicum) can be 

 grown profitably in certain parts of the State. Stress is 

 rightly laid on the value of any now crop likely to widen 

 the basis of the local agriculture. Mention is also made 

 of the fact that varieties of wheat which have proved 

 admirably suited to Australia were wholly unsatisfactory 

 in Great Brilam 



