4i6 



NATURE 



{March 8, 1877 



living organic forms, there is ^.temperature optimum ; which is as 

 distinctly marked when, by heating, we rise to it from lower 

 temperatures, as when wc descend to it by cooling from higher 

 temperatures. 



Fertilisation of Flowers by Birds. — In an interest- 

 ing article by Prof. Asa Gray, in the American Journal of 

 Science and Arts, on Darwin's recent work the writer notices 

 what Darwin says about the fertilising of flowers by birds, 

 chiefly humming-birds. The frequenting of the flowers of Im- 

 pattens is the only case cited from the United States ; and Dr. 

 Gray asks : " Can it be that there are no references in print to 

 the most familiar fact that our humming-bird is very fond of 

 sucking the blossoms of trumpet creeper { Tecoma radicans) and 

 of honeysuckles ? Both these are, in size and arrangement of 

 parts, well adapted to be thus cross-fertilise'." 



A New Parasitic Green Alga. — Not very long since it 

 was thought that the want of chlorophyll determined the para- 

 sitism of plants, and it is still true that the want of this green 

 colouring substance serves to distinguish between fungi and alga>. 

 It is also true that the former need already-formed carbon com- 

 pounds, but it is still thought that chlorophyll-bearing plants not 

 only do not require to find these compounds ready formed, but 

 that they are absolutely unable to assimilate them. It was 

 therefore a fact of great interest when Prof Cohn described some 

 years since (1872) a perfectly new chlorophyllaceous alga 

 ("Ueber parasitische Algen " in Beit, zur Biol, der BJlanzen, 

 Bd. i. Heft 2 ; see also W. Archer, Quart. Jotirn. Mic. Science, 

 N.S., vol. xiii.), which he found living as a bright emerald green 

 parasite in the thallus of duck-weed gathered at Bieslau. For 

 this the genus Chlorochytrium was established, and C. levnue 

 was the only species until at a late meeting of the Dublin 

 Microscopical Club, Prof. E. Perceval Wright exhibited and 

 described a second species found growing and developing itself 

 in the mucilaginous tubes of a species of Schizonema, collected 

 on rocks at ilowth, near Dublin, between high and low water- 

 marks. There can be no question as to the parasite on the 

 diatom being different from that on the duck-weed, while there 

 is but little difficulty in placing it in Cohn's genus. Smaller in 

 size its emerald lustre is scarcely if at all less than the fresh-water 

 species, and like it its development has not been traced farther 

 than the production of zoospores. 



Flora of Turkestan. — We notice a very interesting com- 

 munication on the Flora of Turkestan, made by Prof. Regel, 

 the director of the St. Petersburg Botanical Garden, at the last 

 meeting held on January 20, by the Russian Society of Garden- 

 ing. The special aim of the communication being to advocate 

 the introduction into European gardens of representatives of the 

 flora of Turkestan, Prof. Regel described the numerous, origi- 

 nal, and most beautiful species belonging to the Composite^, 

 CaryophyllcE, Umbellifenc, Fapilionacecc, Malvacece, and Campami- 

 lacece, which grow in Turkestan, and which could rank among 

 the best ornaments of our gardens by their variety and beautiful 

 forms and colours. Most of these species are already cultivated 

 with complete success in the St. Petersburg Botanical Garden, 

 and they might be thus introduced in the gardens of Russia and 

 Western Europe. Concluding his communication. Prof. Regel 

 pointed out the remarkable circumstance that in Turkestan, even 

 in hilly tracts, the Ericacecz are totally wanting, whilst they are 

 so common in the highlands of the Alps, of the Caucasus, and 

 even of the Altai. 



NOTES 

 Meteorologists everywhere will learn with much satisfac- 

 tion that Dr. Julius Hann, the eminent meteorologist, was 

 appointed, February 10, successor to th? kte Dr. Jelinek, as 



Director of the Central-Anstalt fiir Meteorologie und Erdmag- 

 netismus, Vienna. 



Fifty-seven candidates for election into the Royal Society 

 have offered themselves during the present session. 



Prof. A. Oppeniieim, of Berlin, has accepted the chair of 

 chemistry in the newly-organised Philosophical P'aculty at 

 Miinster. 



Prof. Pfeffer, of Bonn, has accepted the ordinary profes- 

 sorship of Botany in the University of Basel. 



The Treasury .have agreed to recommend votes from the 

 Consolidated Fund for 80,000/. towards the new buildings 

 devoted to the Science Schools of the University of Edinburgh, 

 in four yearly instalments of 20,000/. each. This vote is to 

 supplement a like amount subscribed by the public. 



The marble statue of Sir W. Fairbairn is in the hands of Mr. 

 Geflowski, who obtained the Commission in competition with 

 other eminent sculptors. Besides the statue, which is to stand 

 in the New Town Hall, Manchester, facing the entrance, a 

 Fairbairn scholarship is founded in Owens College, Manchester, 

 out of the funds subscribed. The statue is eight feet high, repre- 

 senting Sir W. Fairbairn staflding with papers in his hand as if 

 delivering an address to a scientific audience, the head bare and 

 inclined slightly, and an admirable likeness in the features as 

 well as in the thoughtful expression and quiet energy charac- 

 teristic of the man. 



The University of Tiibingen is making preparations to cele- 

 brate its 400th anniversary during the coming month of August. 

 Various historical addresses are in course of preparation, and a 

 work will be issued commemorative of the occasion. 



A PUBLIC meeting of the Sanitary Institute of Great Britain 

 will be held at the rooms of the Society of Arts, John Street, 

 Adelphi, on Wednesday, March 14, at 3 P.M., to consider the 

 repost recently issued by the Committee appointed by the Presi- 

 dent of the Local Government Board upon the disposal of town 

 sewage. 



His Majesty, the Emperor of Brazil, observed the eclipse 

 of the moon on the evening of the 27th, at the Arcetri 

 Observatory. The Emperor took a very lively interest in the 

 phenomenon and discussed with acuteness the hypothesis with 

 which Prof. Tempel, the astronomer, and Prof. Echert tried to 

 explain the varying shades and colours in which the moon 

 appeared during the different phases of obscuration. On Mon- 

 day last his Majesty assisted at a meeting of the Anthro- 

 pological Society, when Prof. Mantegazza made some interest- 

 ing remarks on several Maori skulls, and Prof. Giglioli read an 

 elaborate paper on the ethnology of Brazil. 



The general expenses of the seven Russian universities in 1876 

 were as follows: — The University of St. Petersburg, 43,500/.; 

 of Moscow, 52,850/. ; of Kieff, 38,375/. ; of Kazan, 39,500/. ; 

 of Kharkof, 38,125/. ; of Odessa, 25,375/.; and of Dorpat, 

 26,625/. 



We notice the following more important papers on natural 

 science, among those published by professors of the Moscow 

 University in 1876: — "Observations de Jupiter en 1876," 

 " Profil spectroscopique du Soleil en 1876," and " Sur la Queue 

 de la Comete de 1874," by Prof. Bredikhin, in the Annates of 

 the Moscow Observatory ; a paper, by Prof. Babukhin, " Ueber 

 die Structur und Verhaltnisse elektrischer und pseudo-elektrischer 

 Organen," in \}clq Archiv fiir Anatoinietind Pliysiologie ; "Theorie 

 des Derivees," and " On the Numerical Equations of the Second 

 Degree," by Prof. Bugaieff, in the Mosco-w Matkcinatical Review 

 (Russian); the papers of Prof. Markovnikoff on Theine (Nature, 

 vol. XV. p. 167). An interesting popular lecture on Unicorns, 



