4i8 



NATURE 



\March 23, 1876 



border of the New Haven region, by J. D. Dana. — A new 

 Tertiary lake basin, by G. B. Grinnell and E. S. Dana. 

 During recent explorations a new series of Tertiary deposits has 

 been found at Camp Baker, Montana ; they indicate the exist- 

 ence in this region of a Miocene lake basin, which was succeeded by 

 another Jake basin in Pliocene time. — The remaining papers are : 

 The product of the action of potassium on ethyl succinate, by 

 Ira Remsen. — The action of ozone on carbon monoxide, by the 

 same. — The appendix contains an article on the Dinocerata, by 

 O. C. Marsh, with five plates. 



Journal de Physique, Dec. 1875. — We simply name the prin- 

 cipal papers in this number, which are mostly of a mathematical 

 nature : — Application of the laws of Coulomb to electrolytes, by 

 M. G. Lippniann. — On the determination of condensing power, 

 by M. Terquem. — On the magnetisation of steel by currents, and 

 on the situation of the poles in long needles, by M. Bouty. — On 

 an experiment relative to the transformation of forces (we refer 

 to this more fully elsewhere). — Criticising a paper of Mr. Tomlin- 

 son's on the action of solids in liberating gas from solution, M. 

 Gemez disputes that observer's result in the experiment in which 

 a small metallic cage with very close meshes is introduced into 

 seltzer water. M. Gemez says that, varying the experiment in 

 many ways, he has always found that the gaseous mass im- 

 prisoned in the cage increases at expense of the dissolved gas. 

 In a few minutes it increases sufficiently for bubbles to be formed 

 in the larger meshes, and one may even determine beforehand 

 the points where gaseous liberation will take place, by enlarging 

 certain meshes with the point of a needle. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 



Royal Society, Feb. 17. — " On Experimental Contributions 

 to the Theory of Electrolysis," by Alfred Tribe, Lecturer on 

 Chemistry in Dulwich College. Communicated by J. H. Glad- 

 stone, Ph.D., Fullerian Professor of Chemistry in the Royal 

 Institution. 



Linnean Society, March 2.— Prof. G. J. AUman, president, 

 in the chair. — Sir Victor A. Brooke, Bart., Mr. R. B. Croft, 

 Dr. Ralph Gooding, Mr. F. J. Horniman, and Mr. W. Percy 

 Sladen were elected Fellows of the Society.— Preceding the 

 business routine, it was the paintul duty of the President to 

 announce the demise of John J. Bennett, F.R.S,, who f-rmerly, 

 and for twenty years most creditably acted as secretary to the 

 Linnean Society. Among his scientific labours the " Plantse 

 Javanicse " worked out a then imperfectly-trodden field ; his col- 

 league in the said volume being Robt. Brown, facile princeps 

 botanicorum. Mr. Bennett afterwards, and for years, was chief 

 of the botanical department of the British Museum, retiring to 

 Sussex, where he died. As a man he worked well, wisely, and 

 energetically, and his name will always be remembered among 

 botanists and friends as ripe in science, humanity, and fulness of 

 heart. Another Foreign Member who has lately died, M. 

 Adolphe T. Brongniart was among the most distinguished 

 botanists of our age and a Fellow of the Society for upwards of 

 forty years. His fame will rest on his " Vegetaux Fossiles," 

 wherein he may be said to have laid the foundation of fossil 

 botany. He, moreover, wrote a vast number of other original 

 and independent memoirs, and still found time for years to con- 

 duct as editor the botanical section of the Annates des Science, 

 enriching the same with his great erudition.— J. Gwyn Jeffreys, 

 r.R.S., exhibited on behalf of Sir James Anderson, a fine and 

 interesting specimen of the so-called felt or blanket sponge, 

 Askonema setubalense, Kent. This was picked up Aug. 24, 

 1875 along with the telegraph cable from a depth of 550 fathoms 

 off Cape Finisterre.— Mr. C. Stewart called attention to peculiari- 

 ties of the large rossette spicules found in its fluffy structure.— A 

 mould of the upper surface of the cranium of the fossil Ornitho- 

 cheirus and various fragments of the skeleton were exhibited and 

 commented on by Prof. Seeley ; these illustrating points raised in 

 a former paper of his "On the Organisation of the Ormtho- 

 sauria "—A paper was read on a new genus of Turneracese from 

 Rodriguez, by I. B. Balfour, F.L.S. The tree in question is 

 known to the inhabitants under the name of Bois Gaudme, and 

 grows on the hilly parts of the island. It possesses a fine- 

 grained, light-coloured wood, which, however, is not much used. 

 The tree itself is handsome though small, being very erect m 

 habit ; its terminal branches are clothed with a light-green 

 foliage. This new genus Mathurina, has close relationship to 



Erblichia, but differs manifestly from Turnera and Wormskioldia, 

 its circumscribed habitat, moreover, lending additional interest. 

 Mr. J. G. Baker, of Kew. in addition, stated that the botanical 

 results of this Rodriguez Transit of Venus Expedition, through 

 Mr. Balfour's collecting, had yielded some 280 species of flower- 

 ing plants and ferns. Of these 1 10 were common weeds and 

 170 species indigenous to the island. The botany of Rodriguez, 

 with a total area of fifteen miles, has now been fully settled by 

 Mr. Balfour's researches, and these go to sustain its flora as 

 belonging to the temperate region, and not truly tropical in cha- 

 racter. — A paper on pollen was communicated by M. P. 

 Edgewortb, F.L.S. The pollen grains of some 400 species 

 have been carefully examined and drawn to scale by the author, 

 those of the main orders of plants receiving comparison. It 

 results from his survey that some famihes appear to have 

 the bodies in question of variable forms, while others are 

 remarkably uniform in shape. — Notes on algce found at Ker- 

 guelen Land (by the Rev. A. E. Eaton), by Prof. Dickie, 

 F.L.S. In this paper three new species, Sphacelaria 

 corymbosa, Mdobesia ker^tielini, and Plilota eatoni are de- 

 scribed. The total number of algjE recorded are 65 ; of 

 these 16 belong to the Olive, 34 to the Red, and 15 to the 

 Green series. While there are 9 peculiar to the island, 21, or 

 about one- third, are also found on European shores. — A list of 

 the Musci and Hepaticse collected in Kerguelen Island (by the 

 Rev. A. E. Eaton), by William Mitten, F.L.S., was taken as 

 read. This contains reference to 38 mosses and 13 liverworts, 

 of the former, Bartramia eatoni, of the latter, Tylimanthus viri- 

 dis and Balantiopsis incrassata, are new to science. — W. Carru- 

 thers, F.R.S., in calling attention to the specimens on the 

 table, gave a rhiimi of the recent researches of Prof. De 

 Bary of Strasbourg, into the potato fungus. The Perono- 

 sporeje De Bary separates into three genera. In Cystopus 

 the conidiophores grow in large bunches, the conidia, or bud- 

 cells, being developed in single rows in basipetal order. In Pcro- 

 nospora, from a tree ;like mycelium, conidiophores arise singly 

 or in small bunches at the end of the branches, and have no 

 successors in the direct line. Phytophthora differs from the last 

 in its multiple and successive conidia, which, when shed, leave 

 swellings on the branches. The lipe conidia in all, when placed 

 in water, produce zoospores, or nucleate moveable cells provided 

 with cilia. These penetrate the plants, and, ceasing to move, 

 develope threads, or mycelium. By another sexual method of 

 propagation the oogonia, bladder-shaped female cells, after being 

 fertilised by the small male cells, antheridia, produce from 

 their protoplasm a thick-walled oospore. Mycelial threads 

 sprout from this latter and the above process is repeated. 

 A considerable period of inactivity may, however, precede 

 the germination of the oospore, which in this case hyber- 

 nates for the winter, whilst its host decays. The coni- 

 dia, De Bary states, propagate and spread the fungus during 

 the summer season only, but do not live through the winter. 

 He has, moreover, found in decayed potato tubers bodies exactly 

 corresponding to oospores. On experimenting with the oogonia 

 of these and planting them in potatoes he obtained bodies which 

 conducted themselves precisely like zoospores, and in most re- 

 spects resembled those of Pythium. Other experiments with 

 them, on the moistened l^s of dead flies and bodies of mites, 

 resulted in their complete phases of development, which was 

 watched step by step, the zoospores producing a plentiful crop 

 of mycelium, &c. As this new fungus in many ways differs 

 from the Phytophthora infestans, he names it Pythium vexans, 

 on account of his trouble therewith. He regards it as a true 

 Saprolegniea. De Bary has likewise investigated the question 

 of the perennial mycelium of Phytophthora occasionally dis- 

 charging the function of hybernation where the oospores are not 

 found in the district. He believes he has established by proofs 

 that there are two methods whereby the conidia pass from the 

 tuber to the foliage. The general opinions held in this country 

 De Bary is at variance with. Mr. Worthington Smith replied 

 at some length to Mr. Carruthers' epitome, and criticised De 

 Bary's conclusions unsparingly. Dr. Masters supported Mr. 

 Smith's views, as opposed to Prof. De Bary's interpretation 

 of the subject at issue. Further discussion of this interest- 

 ing topic was postponed till next meeting. A series of the 

 said parasitic fangi prepared by De Bary were exhibited under 

 the microscope to the Fellows present. His complete memoir 

 hereafter is to appear in the Roy. Agric. Soc. Trans. 



Chemical Society, March 16.— Prof. Abel, F.R.S., pre- 

 sident, in the chair.— Before commencing the ordinary formal 



