6o 



NA TURE 



[November i8. 1897 



and Salhburia, will attract great attention. In Zamia integri- 

 folia Mr. Webber states that there are formed, within the pollen- 

 tube, near its basal end, two cells, one in advance of the other. 

 From each of the cells thus formed is developed a motile 

 antherozoid, two to each pollen-tube. They are of a much 

 Barger size than any known in vascular cryptogams, quite visible 

 to the naked eye, and resemble in general structure those of ferns. 

 The mature antherozoid passes into the archegone through an 

 opening at the apex of the pollen-tube, and the fluid in which it 

 swims about is supplied by the watery contents of the pollen- 

 tube. The nucleus of the antherozoid is very large, and is 

 surrounded on all sides by a thin layer of cytoplasm. The 

 antherozoids rotate, the cilia continuing to oscillate for a 

 considerable period after the rotation has ceased. 



The American Naturalist for October contains a short 

 memoir and a photograph of Mr. J. E. Humphrey, the botanist, 

 whose untimely death from malarial fever while on a scientific 

 expedition to Jamaica we recently recorded. Born in 1861. at 

 "Weymouth, Mass., he took up the study of botany from his 

 student-days. Immediately after graduation he was appointed 

 assistant in the botanical laboratory at Harvard, under Prof. 

 Goodale. In 1887 he was selected as instructor in botany in 

 the University of Indiana, and in 1888 botanist to the State 

 Agricultural Experiment Station at Amherst, Mass. From 1892 

 to 1894 he studied under Prof. Strasburger at Bonn, and on his 

 return was appointed lecturer on botany to the Johns Hopkins 

 University at Baltimore. His best-known work was in con- 

 nection with the diseases caused in plants by parasitic fungi. 



A MONUMENT to the great anatomist Malpighi was unveiled 

 on September 8, in his native town of Crevalcore. 



The last number of the Proceedings of the Zoological Society 

 includes two papers which form important additions to the know- 

 ledge of the land fauna of Spitsbergen. The collections de- 

 scribed were formed during Sir Martin Conway's expedition by 

 Dr. J. W. Gregory. The first paper is by Mr. D. J. Scourfield. 

 and describes the Rhizopoda, Tardigrada and Entomostra ca 

 The Rhizopoda include twenty-one species, all of which have a 

 wide distribution in space, but are all new to the Spitsbergen 

 fauna. In several species, especially Etiglypha ciliata and 

 Nebela collaris, the shells are abnormal in shape, which Mr. 

 Scourfield suggests may be due to the severity of the climate 

 ■under which they live, for the specimens of Cyclops collected are 

 also abnormal. Among the Tardigrada four species are de- 

 scribed, of which one, Echiniscus spitshergensis, is new. Only 

 ■one Water-bear has been previously recorded from Spitsbergen ; 

 it was described by Goes in 1862 as an ally of Macrobiottis 

 diijardini. Two species of Acarina are recorded, both additions 

 to the Spitsbergen fauna, as are also the two species of 

 Copepoda. 



A^ECOND paper, by Mr. David Bryce, deals with the Rotifera 

 Previously the only records of members of this group from 

 Spitsbergen were the mention of two indeterminable species by 

 Goes in 1862, and the identification of one species [Callidina 

 ■alpiuin) by Ehrenberg in 1869. Mr. Bryce's paper adds twenty- 

 five more species belonging to ten genera. Two of the species 

 {Stephattops tenelliis Rnd Callidina vennsfa) are new. The com- 

 monest species collected was Callidina plicata. The previously 

 known species are North European in range : some of them are 

 very rare ; one Callidina cornigera has been previously known 

 only by two single specimens. Bergendal has recorded eighty- 

 two species of Rotifera from Greenland, but from a latitude 

 about 700 miles further south than the Spitsbergen specimens 

 were collected ; and of the Greenland species only three were 

 collected in Spitsbergen. 



NO. 1464, VOL. 57] 



The number of investigations in physiology and the allied 

 sciences now made in the United States of America having 

 become so numerous, it has been thought that the present means 

 of publication need supplementing ; hence it has been decided to 

 start in January next a special journal, entitled The American 

 journal of Physiolagy, to meet the needs of investigators in 

 physiology, physiological chemistry, physiological pharmacology, 

 and certain other branches of biology. Each volume, which 

 will be edited for the American Physiological Society by an 

 influential board of seven doctors, will contain about five hundred 

 pages, divided into parts or numbers, to be issued whenever 

 enough material has been received. The promoters are not 

 very sanguine as to the financial success of their enterprise — at 

 any rate, for some time to come ; and they, therefore, solicit the 

 aid of all friends of learning until the journal shall be established 

 on a self-supporting basis. The yearly subscription price for 

 the British Isles is a guinea, and subscriptions should be sent 

 to Dr. W. T. Porter, 688 Boylston Street, Boston, Mass., 

 U.S.A. 



We offer our congratulations to our contemporary the 

 Electrical Review, which, with its current issue, completes the 

 twenty-fifth year of its existence. This event is celebrated in a 

 fitting manner by the publication of a number of articles by 

 specialists dealing with the progress made in the various depart- 

 ments of physical science during the time the Electrical Review 

 has been in circulation. Our space is too limited to enumerate 

 even the titles of the special contributions to this number ; it 

 must suffice for us to say that a vast amount of information is 

 given in a very condensed form, the perusal of which is certain to 

 interest all physicists. 



Dr. Donald MacAlister, of Cambridge, has, with the / 

 assistance of Prof. Cattell, of the University of Pennsylvania, 

 just completed a thorough revision of the second pirt (Sections 

 ix.-xv.) of his English translation of Ziegler's "Text-book of 

 Special Pathological Anatomy." This announcement will be wel- 

 come to many students of the subject, as the book has been in- 

 accessible for some time past. The new part will be published 

 in the course of a few weeks by Messrs. Macmillan and Co. , Ltd. 



Wf, have received from Messrs. George Newnes, Ltd. , the 

 first part of the serial issue of Nahsen's "Farthest North," 

 which is being brought out in this popular form by arrangement 

 with the original publishers of the work. The book will be 

 completed in twenty fortnightly parts. — From the same publishers 

 also comes the November number of the Sti-and Magazine, 

 which, as usual, contains one or two articles treating of science 

 in a popular manner. In the number before us Mr. Grant 

 Allen writes pleasantly on " Marriage among the Clovers," and 

 certain " Pests" are written about by Mr. Warren Cooper. Two 

 of the pests in question, viz. " The Jack Rabbits of the United 

 States," and " The Water Hyacinth of the St. John's River, 

 Florida," have already received notice in the columns of 

 Nature (vol. liii. p. 586, and vol. hi. p. 332). 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Whooper Swan {Cygnus musicus), a Night 

 Heron {Nycticorax griseus), European, presented by Mr. W* 

 H. St. Quintin ; a Californian Quail [Callipepla calif ornica) 

 from California, presented by Mr. Walter Robertson ; a Gannet 

 {Snla bassana), British, presented by the Rev. G. H. Thomp- 

 son ; a Dwarf Chameleon {Chamieleon pumilus) from South 

 Africa, presented by Mrs. Wolterbuk ; a Common Seal (Phoca 

 vitulind), British, deposited ; a Rosy-billed Duck {Metopiana 

 peposaca), three Anomalous Snakes {Rhadincea anomald) from 

 South America,, two Golden Plovers (Charadrius phcvialis), 

 two Dunlins [Trittga alpina), four Common Gulls {Lams 

 canus), British, purchased ; three Himalayan Monauls {Lopho- 

 phorus impeyanus), bred in the Gardens. 



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