January 6, 191 6] 



NATURE 



519 



diagnostic characters can be found. These weapons 

 indeed are very variable, even in adults of the same 

 species, and should perhaps be regarded as disintegrat- 

 ing structures, since in both groups they display a 

 marked tendency to malformation. In regard to 

 cranial characters, it is evident that, as the author 

 points out, the relative size and form of the nasals, 

 the size and contour of the antorbital vacuity, the 

 junction or otherwise of the premaxillaries and nasals, 

 and the depth of the lachrymal pit are extremely un- 

 trustworthy as diagnostic characters, although they 

 often enter into the diagnoses of species and sub- 

 species. 



Some valuable notes on the fauna and flora of the 

 \'edda country and on the Vedda people, by Mr. F. 

 Lewis, appear in Spolia Zeylandica (vol. x., part 37). 

 The area surveyed includes part of the eastern and 

 part of the Uva provinces, and is inhabited to-day 

 by people of mixed origin, mainly Sinhalese and 

 Tamils. Pure Veddas are practically extinct. The 

 survivors of this primitive race exhibit a great reluct- 

 ance to speak in the Vedda language in the presence 

 of Europeans ; nor are they more communicative in 

 regard to the manners and customs of their race. 

 Nevertheless, Mr. Lewis contrived to gain some valu- 

 able information when at Selavai, in the Panapa 

 Pattu. From one old man he learned that the Veddas, 

 in the days of their prosperity, were divided into a 

 number of small clans, each of which occupied and 

 hunted over a specific area of country, and had no 

 connection with the others, who lived in separate com- 

 munities. The women were kept in a state of rigid 

 subjection, married as children, became mothers at 

 fourteen, and passed the prime of life at thirty. These 

 people had no domesticated animals save the dog, and 

 their only weapons were the bow and arrow, the spear, 

 and a small axe or hatchet. At one time, it appears, 

 they were harassed by a pigmy people, the Nittawo, 

 who lived in the country known as Lenama, which 

 extended from Bagura, in the east, to the confines 

 of the Kataragama hills on the west. These diminu- 

 tive people lived in small troops, and inhabited caves, 

 hollow trees, and the crevices of precipices. In 

 stature they are said scarcely to have exceeded 3 ft. 

 Through fear, or jealousy, they are said to have been 

 exterminated about three or four generations ago by 

 the Veddas themselves. 



In the Annot. Zoolog. Japan, ix., part i (Tokio, 

 ^915)' Waro Nakahara describes the Japanese lace- 

 wing flies of the subfamily Hemerobiinae. Of the 

 twenty-two species enumerated, three only are inhabi- 

 tants also of Europe, and of these, two — Hemerohius 

 huniuli and Micromus angujatus — are also North 

 American. 



Abnormalities in the venous system of the frog are 

 more or less familiar to teachers in zoological labora- 

 tories. W. E. CoUinge gives (Journ. Anat. and 

 Physiol, 1., pp. 37-42) some results from the dissection 

 of five hundred specimens, of which twenty-two were 

 in some respect abnormal. Of especial interest are the 

 persistence of the caudal vein, of the right posterior 

 cardinal sinus, and of the anterior abdominal vein's 

 connection with the precavals on one side or both; | 

 NO. 2410, VOL. 96] 



also the continuity of a renal portal vein with the 

 post-c^val. 



Prof. Nansen describes the details of construction 

 of two closing tow-nets in Publications de Circon- 

 stance. No. 67, issued by the International Council for 

 the Study of the Sea. The first net is the well-known 

 form devised by Prof. Nansen for vertical hauls, which 

 had not previously been described in detail. The 

 second net is a modification of the first, adapted for 

 horizontal towing. A current meter fitted in the mouth 

 of the net is stated to make it possible to measure 

 the volume of water which actually passes through the 

 net. 



The twenty-first volume of the Rapports et Proces- 

 verbaux des Reunions of the International Council for 

 the Study of the Sea, recently issued at Copenhagen, 

 contains the administrative reports for the years 19 13 

 and 19 14, and its chief interest perhaps lies in the fact 

 that it records the attempt which is being made to 

 keep this international organisation in existence during 

 the period of the European war. The report states 

 that as regards participation for the year 1914-15, all 

 countries except Germany have paid contributions, that 

 for Russia, however, being an overdue contribution 

 for the preceding year. In a letter of Januar>' 29, 

 19 15, to the Danish Foreign Office, the German 

 Government has explained its attitude in the following 

 terms : — " Germany will during the war abstain from 

 further co-operation in the work of the international 

 investigations, because the carrying out of an essential 

 part of the problems has been suspended by the present 

 state of matters. Consequently the German delegates 

 will not take part in the voting and resolutions of the 

 organisation as long as war continues. The Imperial 

 Government, however, hope to be able to resume par- 

 ticipation when a more quiet time has ensued." As 

 regards the scientific reports contained in the volume, 

 those of importance deal with the investigations on 

 herring fisheries. 



Mr. L. Lan'Celot Burlingame has published a 

 series of memoirs on Araucaria brasiliensis and on 

 the origin and relationships of the Araucarians in the 

 Botanical GazeKe, vol. Ivii., No. 6, vol. lix.. No. i, and 

 vol. Ix., Nos. I and 2 (19 14-15). His researches em- 

 brace a careful study of the ovulate cone and female 

 gametophyte, fertilisation, the development of the 

 embryo and the seed, illustrated by a series of plates 

 of microphotographs. In the two latter papers the 

 various views of Araucarian affinities are reviewed, 

 and the conclusion is arrived at that the Cordaitales 

 are the nearest allies of the Araucarias, since they 

 resemble them more nearly than any other conifers. 

 The transitional conifers of the Mesozic are either 

 Araucarians or Cordaitians, and it is suggested that 

 some are ancestors of Sequoia and Cryptomeria. It is 

 also suggested that the AbietinesB are derived directly 

 from the Cordaitales or from very ancient members 

 of the Araucarineae. 



In the cutivation of varieties of wheat, mixtures of 

 types sometimes occur on the pure-culture plots, which 

 are often very difficult to explain. In vol. x., part iv., 

 of the Agricultural Journal of India, Mr. D. Milne 



