Feb, 6, 1879] 



NATURE 



3^9 



will have had opportunities for pursuing their studies 

 hitherto unattainable. The material to be obtained at 

 Newport is abundant. The dredging is fair and not diffi- 

 cult, as the depth in the immediate neighbourhood does 

 not exceed twenty to thirty fathoms. The pelagic fauna, 

 however, is the most abundant. During the course of each 

 summer, by the use of the dip-net, representatives of all 

 the more interesting marine forms are sure to be found. 

 With my small steam launch a large space can always be 

 traversed any evening and advantage taken of the con- 

 dition of the wind and tide, the launch being amply large for 

 easy dredging in the moderate depths of the entrance of 

 Narragansett Bay. The laboratory' is placed on a point at 

 the entrance of Newport Harbour, past which sweeps the 

 body of water brought by each tide into Narragansett Bay 

 and carrying with it everj'thing which the prevailing south- 

 westerly winds drive before it. Newport Island and the 

 neighbouring shores form the only rocky district in the 

 long stretch of sandy beaches extending southward from 

 Cape Cod — an oasis, as it were, for the abundant deve- 

 lopment of marine life along its shores. 



BIOLOGICAL NOTES 



Caspian Sea Alg.e. — Herr A. Grunow has quite 

 recently published a detailed catalogue of a collection of 

 algse, made by himself at Baku and Krasnowodsk, on the 

 Caspian, and also of some collections made by his friend 

 Czermak in Baku Bay and by Thieme in Krasnowodsk 

 Gulf, in addition some specimens preserved in spirits were 

 given him by Dr. Schneider. Excluding the diatoms only 

 eleven species are alluded to, and but two (Cladophora) 

 appear as new. Of the diatoms there is a goodly list. 

 Many of the species of these diatoms appear to occur 

 everywhere. Go where one will, they are to be found, 

 and what a marvellous geographical distribution ! — Baku 

 on the Caspian, St. Paul's Island in the Southern Ocean, 

 and then the Frith of Clyde, or the mouth of the Thames. 

 Two beautiful plates representing the new species of 

 diatoms accompany the paper. Many of the species are 

 marine forms. 



Natural History of the Caucasus. — A ver}' im- 

 portant contribution to the natural history of this region 

 has been made by Dr. Oscar Schneider based on collec- 

 tions made by himself during a summer spent there in 

 1875. The series of memoirs before us, edited by Dr. O. 

 Schneider, has been reprinted from the Jour rial of the 

 "Isis" Society of Dresden, and consists of an account of 

 the mollusca, by the editor ; the arachnoids, by Dr. L. 

 Koch, many new species are figiured ; the hemiptera, by 

 Dr. G. v. Hor\-ath; the algae, by Dr. A. Grunow, a 

 memoir we have already noticed ; the minerals, by Dr. 

 A. Frenzel ; the rocks, by Dr. Moehl ; the fossils, by Dr. 

 Geinitz. These reprints form a small volume of 160 pages 

 with five plates. 



On Sprouting in Isoetes.— K. Goebel records in 

 some detail and with illustrative figures the fact that he 

 has found buds developed from the base of the leaves 

 below the lingule in Isoetes lacustris. The specimens 

 were collected in Longemer Lake in the Vosges, and the 

 discovery was made during an investigation into the 

 embryology of both /. lacustris and /. echinospora. The 

 examples in question showed neither macro- nor micro- 

 sporangia, but in their place were found on the leaves 

 little Isoetes plants. The first appearance of the buds 

 was under the lingule in the furrow of the still young 

 leaves. A pretty compact swelling made its appearance 

 on the under half of the glossopodium. This swelling 

 Was the commencement of a conical protrusion of the 

 cellular tissue, m which a side cell did not take any lead- 

 ing part ; later on this swelling appeared to be more 

 rounded off; the stages between this and that in which 

 one to two leaves were found, was not specially observed. 

 A section through the young bud shows that the median 



plane of the young leaves is precisely that of the mother 

 leaves, and they lie so tightly packed together that the 

 lingule of the first new leaf is parallel with the surface of 

 the mother leaf. The root formation of these buds 

 appears to be quite normal. Some of the leaves only 

 gave rise to these buds. The author thinks this is an 

 instance of De Barj^'s apogamy. Interesting and novel 

 as these obserxations of Goebel are, they yet leave a good 

 deal to be desired {Bot. Zeitung, L, 1879). 



The Brittle Stars of the Challenger. — In order 

 that persons who are interested in echinoderms may get 

 early information, and to secure a just priority of dis- 

 covery to the Challenger expedition, Mr. Th. Lyman has 

 just published, as No. 7, vol. v. of the Bulletin of the 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard Collie, 

 Cambridge, Mass., a Part I. of a catalogue of the new 

 species found, which contains brief diagnoses, with figures, 

 of the more essential parts of no less than thirteen new 

 genera, and ninety-sLx new species of Ophiuroids. Part 

 II. will contain some remaining species of the family 

 Ophiuridae, and those of Astrophytidae. All matter 

 beyond the mere necessary description is reserved for 

 the volume to be devoted to this group, and which is to 

 be brought out by the British government under the 

 general superintendence of Prof. Sir Wyville Thomson. 



Spines of Echini. — The last published part of the 

 Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy (vol. xxvi., 

 Science, part 17) contains a memoir by H. W. Mackintosh 

 on the structure of the spines in the sub-order of the 

 Desmosticha (Haeckel). In indicating four series into 

 which, judging from the structure of the spines, this sub- 

 order may be divided, the author expresses his opinion 

 that the characters derived from the spines are just as 

 useful as any other characters drawn from the comparison 

 of individual parts. He finds it just as easy and as certain 

 to recognise a Diadema, an Echinus, or an Arbacia by 

 the structure of its spines as by the arrangement of its 

 pores, or the disposition of its anal or genital plates. 

 The memoir is accompanied by three plates containing 

 twenty-seven figures, all drawn by the author with the 

 assistance of a Wollaston's camera lucida. The figures 

 represent transverse sections of primary inter-ambulacral 

 spines of some twenty-six species, and have been drawn 

 on stone by Tuffen West with great care and accuracy. 



The Food of Fishes. — Mr. S. A. Forbes publishes a 

 very interesting paper on the food of fishes in the Bulletin, 

 No. 2, of the Illinois State Laboratory. The importance 

 of the subject to the scientific student and to the practical 

 fish-breeder cannot be doubted. Some valuable fishes 

 are found dependent on food too liable to injury or de- 

 struction by man or nature to make it worth while to cul- 

 tivate them, while others, equally valuable, may subsist 

 on food absolutely indestructible. The contents of the 

 stomachs of some fifty-four species of Illinois fish were 

 carefully examined, and the details of the food found are 

 in each case given. In some instances the enormous 

 quantity of food devoured, especially in insect-feeders, is 

 noteworthy, and much of the food consisted of land-insects 

 which had fallen into the water, thus bringing fish and land 

 birds into competition for food. Some of the species 

 were herbivorous, others carnivorous, and several, such 

 as the cat-fishes, were quite omnivorous; the dog-fish 

 {Amia calva) was herbivorous, but only one small speci- 

 men was examined. The shovel-fish (Polyodon /olium\ 

 supposed by the fishermen to live on the shme and mud 

 of the river-bottom, was found to feed to an enormous 

 extent on Entomostraca, and fully one-fourth of the entire 

 food was made up of vegetable matter, algae being largely 

 eaten, and there was ver>' little mud found mixed with the 

 food. The interlacing of the gill-rakers of this species, 

 which are very numerous and fine, and arranged in a 

 double row on each gill arch, doubtless form a strainer 

 which allows the passage of the fine silt of the river out 

 with the water, but atrrests everything is large as a Cyclops. 



