May i6, 1918] 



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;n the entrance to a cave in Sotik. None of the natives 

 living in the neighbourhood had eveir before seen such 

 a bowl, and ccuajd./difer. no ..suggestiotis \,as toc' ife 

 lobable use; hence it is evident that it is a relic of 

 me extinct tribe, of which more may be discovered 

 :er. He also descHbes' SQnie 'remarkable circular 

 les found all througflithe district from the Nyartdo 

 :iver to Sotik. Arf^pg^ in. groups of from' ten to 

 A elve, each hole is provided with an entrance 

 in the form of a long narrow passage. But there is 

 nothing iq the J^brm eirher of. the passage or. of thepit 

 -elf to aflford"^ a clue as to the uses to which the 

 x(avations were put. By the present native popula- 

 111 of the Lumbwa cx>untry they are said to have 

 bwn made by a tribe called the ' Sirikwa, now, ap- 

 narently, no longer in existence. The onlv other trace 

 uf this tribe now remaining exists in the form of frag- 

 ments of red pottery of a type now unknown in the 

 country. In placing these evidences of vanishing and 

 vanished races- on record, the societv is. doing some 

 extremely valuable work. 



In the March issue of the Journal of the Board 

 or Agriculture Messrs. E. S. Salmon and, H. Wormald 

 tjive an account of an experiment in the treatment of 

 covered smut" {Ustilago hordei) of barley. Seed 

 from an affected crop was secured for the purpose, and 

 s( parate portions of this were treated with copper suU 

 phate {2}^ per cent.), Bordeaux mixture, and formalin 

 n spectively, whilst a fourth portion was subjected to 

 sweating " in a malt kiln. Plots, each two acres in 

 . xtent, were sown with the treated seed, whilst a fifth 

 plot of one acre sown with untreated seed served as 

 control. The results were assessed by counting the 

 plants with smutted ears growing in the six outside 

 rows along each side of each plot, the area thus covered 

 by each separate count being, roughly, one-tenth of an 

 acre. The formalin treatment proved completely suc- 

 ^ cessful, whilst the treatment with capper sulphate, 

 though less effective, greatly reduced the extent of 

 the attack. On the other hand, neither "sweating" 

 nor the treatment with Bordeaux mixture afforded any 

 measurable /protection. 



The depressing effect of weeds upon the growth of 

 accompanying crops has in the past been commonly 

 regarded as either an effect of competition for the avail- 

 able soil nutrients or a shade effect, although in recent 

 years increasing support has been given to the view 

 that toxic excretions from the roots may play a very 

 great part. This latter view receives little support, 

 however, from the experiments carried out at Rotham- 

 sted during the last four years by Dr. Winifred E. 

 Brenchley, the results of which are summarised in the 

 March issue of the Journal of the Board of Agricul- 

 ture. Pot- and water-culture experiments, in which 

 poppy, spurrey, blackbent, and charlock have been 

 grown separately and together with wheat and barley 

 under varying degrees of competition, have shown 

 that the association of any of the weeds with wheat 

 had a great influence upon the growth of both, the 

 results varying according to the species, of weed intro- 

 duced. The presence of extra wheat plants produced 

 an effect similar to that of weed plants, the depre- 

 qiation in individual growth being- indeed, in some 

 cases, much, greater than was caused by the w^eds. 

 From a survey of the whole series of experiments it 

 seems probable that the essential factor in the relation 

 qI crop with weed is ^hat .pf , cppnpetition for food,. 

 Space^ and Jight rather_than_lhat_of' toxic excreta from^^ 

 the roots^ Xbemere .cpnipetition orpfant wTth plant," 

 irrespective m sfiecie."?, hfrts much* to. flo^wi'th devckufvli- 

 $ient, the chief factors involved being ^tji^, Un\^. ^O^-^ 



' NO. 2533, VOL. lOFjwri 5i»^^"*'^ ;«.<.- 



aclioon«ftnftot.4je..«iii«<L,4^ut-«nitireiM,^ butat«is..6«ideo< 

 that any such action is easily masked by the manjj 

 other, .factors of comipetition,. such a^ root interfecencei 

 -c^osCtfmg of aerial ^rts; end defigiienc}' ofjplartf f^.' 



The late Prof. F. E. L. Beal attained a world-wida 

 fame a«.the result .of his minute studies on the food 

 and feeding habits of .wild birds, and in the recently 

 issued Bulletin No.' 619 of the U.S. Department oi 

 Agriculture, treating of the food habits of the native 

 swallows, his reputation is fully maintained. The 

 paper is characterised throughout by ripe experience; 

 scrupulous detiiil, and a broad grasp of thesubjectv 

 The stomach contents of the seven species dealt with' 

 have been carefully examined, 2030 specimens being 

 atilised in determining the nature of the food, and, ad 

 was to be expected, they prove, in their relation to 

 man, to be as harmless as any family in the bird king- 

 dom. They are practically wholly insectivorous, th^' 

 major portion of their insect food consisting of ini 

 jurious species. In only a single species, the tree-swallow 

 (Iridoprocne bicolor), was there any appreciable amount 

 of vegetable matter; here it reached 19-5 per cent.j 

 and consisted chiefly of the fruit of the bayberrv and 

 a few weed seeds. Curiously, in this species Diptera 

 form the largest item of the food, viz. 4o-5 per cent.; 

 these were taken throughout the year, the highest per- 

 centage (89-5) being reached in November. The rela- 

 tive proportions of the different elements of food of 

 the seven species were as follows : — Weevils, . 42 ; 

 other beetles, ii-8; ants, 9; other Hymenoptera, 167 f 

 Hemiptera, 17-2; Diptera, 26-9; Lepidoptera, 27 ; 

 Orthoptera, 0-4; other insects, 7-8; other animal food;' 

 0-3; vegetaJble food, 3 per cent. On the whole, we 

 may say that the bulk of the food consists of beetles, 

 Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, and Diptera. Lepidoptera are 

 only sparingly eaten, the larvae not being readily taken 

 on the wing. From time immemorial these birds have 

 been of the greatest economic importance to man ; 

 indeed, it is questionable if there is any other family 

 of birds so wholly and directly useful to mankind, and 

 their strict preservation should be a dutv of every 

 State. 



Some Chinese contributions to meteorology ar^ de- 

 scribed by Co-Ching Chu in the Geographical Revieiv 

 (New York : American Geographical Society, Febru- 

 ary, 1918). Although several meteorological instru- 

 ments had been invented and weather proverbs are 

 numerous, systematic study of meteorological problem? 

 appears to have been introduced only with the Western 

 sciences. ,The kite was known at a very early date, 

 probably about four centuries before Christ, but waS 

 only employed in warfare and not for meteorological 

 observations. Chang Huh, who invented the seismo^ 

 graph, lived from a.d. 78 to 139. He also calculate^ 

 JT to be the square-root of 10. Wind vanes are occa*. 

 sionally referred to in Chinese writings, as also raiii 

 gauges, but the earliest references to the latter ar<^ 

 in Korean writings (a.d. 1442). Evidence shows that 

 the Chinese had discovered the magnetic compass at 

 least 700 years before its use by Columbus. Sun-spot^ 

 were observed in China fr6m" 28 B.C. onwards, and 

 are described as visible to the naked eye in a.d. 321. 

 On the other hand, the thermometer and hygrometet 

 were first introduced into China by Ferdinand Ver*- 

 biest (1623-88), a disciple of Tycho Brah^, the instrui- 

 ments in qiiestion being an air thermometer and ^ 

 hygrometer of gut ,^^ which Verbiest himself invented.; 



2^^Pr6f. RT^^'Sr.^LtfLL discusses (Amer. Journ. Scit 

 ■yoT. 'xTiv.', p7'47r715"i7) the alleged -^sacral- brain ^'eJ 

 'Diik*aurs^W.*nliw¥N?«J»t dj th^^gafm^. coj^jmn thsk 

 .hasjf^jfn .^(fpjjally studied by him in Stegosaurus. I^i 

 spite^of B ranca 's con tention, he feels that no unusuiil 



