320 



NATURE 



[November i8, 19 15 



good swimmers and possibly capable of "real migra- 

 tions." A§ regards food, he found that the species 

 investigated were almost exclusively vegetable feeders, 

 and were most abundant in situations where a rich 

 phytoplankton was accessible. All were negatively 

 phototactic, and were markedly intolerant of even a 

 slight increase of temperature, although they appeared 

 indifferent to considerable variations in the salinity 

 of the water. A paper by Mr. F. A. Potts, on the 

 fauna associated with the crinoids of a tropical coral 

 reef, describes in detail an extraordinary list of 

 Crustacea, Ophiurids, Polychaetes, Myzostomes, and 

 Molluscs, living as commensals or as parasites on the 

 crinoids of the same region. In all these a more or 

 less close resemblance to the host in colour and colour 

 pattern is observed, and in some cases where the host 

 species is variable in colour the commensal shows a 

 coincident variability. The phenomena are compared 

 with those investigated by Gamble and Keeble in 

 Hippolyte, and, as in that case, the mechanism by 

 which this resemblance is brought about remains 

 obscure. 



The "Flora of New Mexico," by Messrs. E. O. 

 Wooton and P. C. Standley, forms vol. xix. of Con- 

 tributions from the United States National Herbarium. 

 The flora is a list of all the species of phanerogams 

 and vascular cryptogams at present known to occur 

 within the State, and keys to the families, genera, 

 and species are also given. New Mexico embraces an 

 area of 122,000 square miles, and many portions of the 

 area have not yet been botanically explored, so that 

 it is probable the number of known species, now 

 nearly 3000, will be increased in the future. The 

 volume is based very largely on the personal observa- 

 tions of the authors, Mr. Wooton having spent 

 some twenty years in New Mexico, but all other avail- 

 able material has also been examined. The book con- 

 sists of 793 closely printed pages, and is published 

 with a complete index and a geographic index. Under 

 each species the type locality is recorded, and the 

 range is given. Among the most largely represented 

 families may be mentioned Compositae, 158 genera and 

 585 species ; Leguminosa;, 32 genera ; 189 species ; 

 Scrophulariaceae, 22 genera, 100 species ; Cruciferae, 

 30 genera, loi sjiecies ; and Gramineae, 74 genera with 

 270 species. 



In commemoration of the twenty-fifth anniversary 

 of the founding of the Missouri Botanical Garden by 

 Henry Shaw in 1889, a celebration was held at 

 Missouri on October 15-16 of last year, to which 

 American and foreign botanists were invited to attend 

 and contribute papers. The anniversary Proceedings 

 have recently been issued in a volume of 400 pages, 

 and form vol. i., Nos. i and 2, of the Annals of the 

 Missouri Botanical Gardens. The speeches given at 

 the banquet occupy the first thirt\^-two pages, and in 

 the opening speech the history of the garden is de- 

 tailed. Among the papers published, which were pre- 

 sented at the meeting, may be mentioned "The Vege- 

 tation of Mona Island," by Dr. N. L. Britton ; "The 

 Flora of Norway and Its Immigration," by Dr. N. 

 Wllle; "The Phylogenetic Taxonomy of Flowering 

 Plants," by C. L. Bessey; "The History and Func- 

 NO. 2403, VOL. 96] 



tions of Botanic Gardens," by A. W. Hill ; a paper on 

 the colloidal properties of protoplasm, by Dr. F. 

 Czapek ; "The Law of Temperature connected with 

 the Distribution of Marine Algae," by W. A. Setchell; 

 " Phylogeny and Relationships in the Ascomycetes," 

 by G. F. Atkinson ; and " A Conspectus of Bacterial 

 Diseases of Plants," by E. F". Smith. 



The East Anglian Institute of Agriculture has 

 issued a leaflet on the composition and value of feed- 

 ing stuffs which should help farmers to compound 

 the most economical rations for all classes of stock. 

 Information of this kind Is of special importance at the 

 present time as many of the better-known feeding 

 stuffs have advanced considerably in price, while 

 several new foods have come on the market which 

 can often be profitably substituted for them. Analyses 

 are given of more than one hundred different food- 

 stuffs examined at the Chelmsford laboratories, to- 

 gether with simple directions for calculating their value 

 from the analytical figures. By comparing the cal- 

 culated value with the market price, the farmer may 

 protect himself against the excessive prices often 

 charged for compound cakes and meals. As one 

 example of the method, It is shown that linseed cake 

 has a calculated value of 9L 6s. a ton, and is not 

 worth the present market price of \\l. \'js. unless 

 required for some very special purpose. Farmers In 

 Essex and Hertfordshire can have a copy of the leaflet 

 free on application to the principal of the Institute, 

 Chelmsford. 



"A Study of Soil Erosion and Surface Drainage 

 In India," by Mr. Albert Howard, is published in 

 Bulletin No. 53 of the ^Agricultural Research Institute, 

 Pusa. Enormous quantities of valuable soil are 

 annually lost throughout India, owing to unrestricted 

 erosion caused by rain-wash. This erosion leads to 

 waterlogging, which In turn, by destroying the 

 porosity of the soil and by causing denitrificatlon, 

 leads to further damage. Erosion occurs both on the 

 hills and in the plains. Thus, in the hill tracts of 

 Ceylon, when the forest canopy was removed to 

 allow the land to be put under coffee, now succeeded 

 by tea, no provision was made to retain in situ the 

 fine soil of the original forest, and as a consequence 

 the fertility and water-retaining power of the soils of 

 the tea plantations have been much reduced, necessi- 

 tating the expenditure of large sums on manures. 

 Mr. Howard urges that where forest land Is sold for 

 agricultural use, a regulation to terrace it immediately 

 should be enforced. As remedies against erosion and 

 waterlogging In the alluvial tracts of peninsular India, 

 he advocates embankments and surface drainage. He 

 describes In detail a special method of drainage which 

 has been worked out of late years at Pusa, and is 

 now being adopted on the indigo estates of Bihar. 

 The aim of this method Is to retain the fine silt on 

 the land. To carry out the Pusa system, drainage 

 maps, as originally devised by Sir Edward Buck, are 

 recommended, as they have proved to be more useful 

 than professional level maps. Soil-protection works 

 in Central India are described by H. Marsh in an 

 appendix to the bulletin. 



