1889.] MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 133 



BIOLOGICAL NOTES.* 



British Fungi. — M. C. Cooke reports in Grevillea for March four 

 new species of British fungi, three of them belonging to tlie genus 

 Plioma and one to the genus Physarum. This number has also a review 

 of Mr. Plowright's " Monograph of the Britisli Uridineae and Ustilagi- 

 neae" and many interesting notes on fungi. 



Pollen Mother Cells. — Bryon D. Halstead, in the Botanical 

 Gazette for April (p. 109), describes a method of obtaining from the 

 partly grown anthers of Negimdo aceroides^ Moench. the pollen 

 mother cells. Transverse sections are made through the staminate 

 flower and a weak solution of azorubin is recommended for bringing 

 out the young grains more prominently. 



North American Umbelliferae. — The revision of this group of 

 plants, so difficult for beginners in botany, by Profs. J. M. Coulter and 

 J. N. Rose, is announced. This will be welcomed by botanists if it 

 sustains as high a character as the ability of the authors promises. 



Yellow Fever.— Jerome Cochran, M.D., of Alabama, in the Sani- 

 tarian for Feburary, discusses the "problems in regard to yellow fever" 

 under the three following heads, viz : 



1. To prevent the introduction among us of yellow fever across the 

 sea from foreign countries. 



2. To prevent the transmission of yellow fever from one part of our 

 own country to another by land. 



3. To prevent the spread of yellow fever in our towns and cities after 

 the outburst of a few cases. 



The doctor says that the sea quarantine is much less difficult to man- 

 age than that on the land. While disinfectants are valuable, non-inter- 

 course with infected persons, localities, and things is the only reliable safe- 

 guard. Depopulation of a large city is impossible and of a small village is 

 unnecessary, and this method of non-intercourse is not therefore of great 

 value. Prompt and rigid quarantine of infected localities is not an easy 

 thing to accomplish in the midst of a densely, populated city, and it 

 would seem that Dr. Cochran docs not overstate the gravity of the prob- 

 lems which arise in the treatment of this dreaded disease. 



Microbes in the Human Stomach. — M. Abelons is reported to 

 have discovered sixteen species of microbes in the human stomach in 

 normal health, nine of which are new species. He maintains that these 

 play an important part in the processes of digestion, as he ffnds that 

 some of them attack albumen and other various substances which figure 

 as ingredients of food. 



Rotifera. — Dr. C. T. Hudson, president of the Royal Microscopical 

 .Society, in his inaugural address, delivered February 13, 18S9, discusses 

 in a very interesting manner the distribution of the rotifera. After al- 

 luding to the fact that certain species seem to find a limited locality in 

 regions very widely apart and citing records to show how remarkabh' 

 is this true, he attempts to show in what way they may have been 

 transported to these widely separated areas. Among the methods men- 

 tioned are the following : 



1. Many rotifera live in temporary pools, the drying up of which en- 

 ables the wind to carry in the form of dust the eggs of the rotifera, es- 

 pecially the more imperishable or thickly-coated eggs. These, when 



* Conducted by J. H. Pillsbury. 



