I 62 



NATURE 



[December 13, 1900 



In the American Naturalist Prof. Wheeler describes a 

 new genus of insect living commensally with certain ants. 

 The general reader will, however, be specially interested in the 

 so-called " mushroom gardens" formed by the ants in question. 

 It appears that they cut and transport into their subterranean 

 cellars large pieces of leaves, which are there divided into 

 smaller fragments, and ultimately reduced to a fine pulp. " This 

 pulp is heaped up, and soon becomes invaded by the mycelium 

 of a fungus. The mycelium is kept aseptically clean— z.e. free 

 from all species of fungi and even from bacteria — and induced 

 to grow in an abnormal way by bringing forth minute swellings 

 which constitute the only food of the ant colony. Moller likens 

 these swellings to the * kohlrabi ' of the German kitchen 

 gardens." 



The U. S. Department of Agriculture has published a Bulletin, 

 by Dr. L. O. Howard, describing the principal insects affecting 

 the tobacco plant. Although indigenous to America, this plant 

 does not suffer so severely from insect attacks as do many other 

 crops in the United States. It has no insect enemies peculiar 

 to itself, although every year a certain amount of damage is 

 done to the crop, which in some seasons may assume serious 

 proportions. Remedial agencies in the form of poisons can be 

 easily applied to the seed-beds, while arsenical spray may be 

 employed at a later stage. Much good can also be effected by 

 means of various solanaceous plants, such as nightshade, horse- 

 nettle, and Datura, growing in the neighbourhood of the crop. 

 Small clumps of these can be left growing, which will attract 

 the noxious insects while the tobacco is still young, such clumps 

 being subsequently cut down and destroyed with the pests upon 

 them. 



The Trustees of the Indian Museum have issued a " Guide to 

 the Zoological Collections exhibited in the Bird Gallery," by 

 Mr. F. Finn. The author is so well known as an authority on 

 Indian birds that any contribution from his pen on the subject 

 cannot fail to be of value. But he has departed from the usual 

 practice of ornithologists by relegating the groups generally termed 

 " orders" to the rank of " suborders," thereby rendering avian 

 classification much more in harmony with that of other verte- 

 brate classes. He also refrains from adding the superfluous affix 

 ''formes " to such subordinal groups. While in every respect 

 admirably suited to the special purpose for which it is intended, 

 this "Guide " has, therefore, a value considerably exceeding that 

 attaching to the majority of publications of a similar nature. 



We have received Parts vii. and viii. of " Papers from the 

 Harriipan Alaska Expedition," now in course of publication 

 in the Proceedings of the Washington Academy of Sciences. 

 Both are from the pen of Mr. T. Kincaid, and deal with 

 entomology. Although the collection of insects and arachnids 

 is very large indeed, it indicates that, with the possible excep- 

 tion of the beetles, which were previously collected during the 

 Russian occupation, scarcely a beginning has been made 

 towards bringing to light the arthropod fauna of this vast 

 region. Mr. Kincaid commences with an account of the insects 

 known as Tenthredinoidea, of which he describes a number of 

 new forms. His second communication deals with the meta- 

 morphoses of certain beetles. 



In an article on Lepidoptera in South Devonshire, which 

 appears in the December issue of the Entomologist, Mr. J. Jager 

 states that he never saw the clouded yellow butterfly in such 

 profusion as in the week following August 15. They were simply 

 swarming in the clover fields and lanes, and were probably as 

 numerous as in 1877. Two plates of hybrid moths illustrate the 

 continuation of the account of experiments on cross-breeding by 

 Prof. Max Standfuss in the same issue. 



Among other papers, the November issue of the Journal of 

 the Quekett Microscopical Club contains one by Mr. A. A. 

 NO. 1624, VOL. 63] 



Merlin, on " Structural Division of the Endoderm in Bacilli of 

 the Bubonic Plague," which ought to prove of considerable 

 interest to students of that disease at the present time. 



The December number of the Entomologisf s Monthly Maga- 

 zine contains a communication from Baron C. R. v. d. Osten 

 Sacken, in which it is pointed out that the proper title of the 

 malaria-producing mosquito is Anopheles maculipennis , and not, 

 as has been generally supposed, A. claviger. 



The distinctive peculiarities of the skull of the puma forms 

 the subject of a note by Dr. A. Duges in the last issue of the 

 Memorias y Revista de la Sociedad Cientifica " Antonio Alzate." *■ 



The Anthropological Society of Paris has just published an 

 authors' and subject index of all publications issued by it since 

 its foundation in i860. ; 



Messrs. A. Gallenkamp and Co. have issued a bulky and 

 comprehensive catalogue of chemical apparatus, balances and 

 accessories of various kinds used in the teaching of chemistry ' 

 and related subjects and in practical analysis. The catalogue is ; 

 one which may with advantage be kept for reference by science j 

 demonstrators and teachers. 



The third edition, revised and enlarged, of " An Elementaiy 

 Treatise on Dynamics, containing Applications to Thermo- 

 dynamics," by Dr. B. Williamson, F.R.S., and Dr. F. A. 

 Tarleton, has been published by Messrs. Longm ans, Green and 

 Co. The whole work has been revised and some portions of 

 the subject have been developed, more especially that on 

 generalised co-ordinates in connection with Lagrange's and 

 Hamilton's methods. Students intending to devote serious at- 

 tention to the study of dynamics will find the volume a helpful 

 introduction to the great treatises of Thomson and Tait and of 

 Routh. 



An elaborate " Report on the Census of Cuba," by Lieut. - 

 Colonel J. P. Sanger (Director) and Messrs. H. Gannett and 

 W. F. Willcox (Statistical Experts), has just been published by 

 the U.S. War Department. The census was the first step 

 taken towards the establishment of an effective system of self- 

 government in the island, and as no census had previously been 

 taken by the people the difficulties were numerous and great. 

 To induce the Cubans to take a real interest in the census, it 

 was decided that the work should be performed by them, under 

 the supervision of an officer of the United States Census, and 

 this was actually done, so that when the enumeration was com- 

 pleted it was a census of Cubans by Cubans. The total popu- 

 lation of Cuba, including the Isle of Pines and the neighbour- 

 ing islets, was 1,572,797 on October 16, 1899. At a census 

 taken under Spanish authority in 1887, the population was re- 

 turned as 1,631,687, and if this is assumed to be correct, the 

 diminution during the twelve intervening years is about 3*6 per 

 cent. The native whites constitute 57-8 per cent., or consider- 

 ably more than one-half of the population of Cuba ; the foreign 

 white people constitute 91 per cent. ; the coloured people 32 

 per cent., or about one-third ; and the remainder are Chinese. 

 Illustrations of typical Cuban people and buildings, and numerous 

 maps are included in the report. 



Readers of popular periodicals know that articles upon scien- 

 tific topics appear in every number of Pearson's Magazine. 

 The December number contains several contributions of this 

 character. The Rev. H. N. Hutchinson describes some pre- 

 historic animals and illustrates them with some good pictures. 

 Special mention is made of the giant ground sloth of Patagonia, 

 for a living representative of which Mr. H. Prichard is seeking, 

 having been sent to Patagonia for this purpose by the Daily 

 Express. A number of striking coloured portraits of American 

 Indians, showing the devices painted upon their faces, as marks 



