September 23, 1897] 



NATURE 



503 



■with scab, shows beneficial results from treatment. The recipe 

 for its use is to add eight fluid ounces (about one half-pint) of 

 formalin to fifteen gallons of water, and soak the seed tubers in 

 it for two hours before planting. This solution may be used 

 several times. 



A FOURTH edition of the skeleton guide to the Royal 

 Gardens, Kew, is now on sale at the Gardens. It has been 

 <arefully revised so as to include all recent improvements, and 

 the size has been somewhat reduced to make it more convenient 

 for the pocket. 



A BATCH of the Bulletins of Miscellaneous Information of the 

 Rojral Gardens, Kew, Nos. 122-129, just received, contains 

 many articles of scientific and practical interest. Under the 

 name Khizopus necans sp.n., Mr. G. Massee describes and 

 figures a parasitic fungus exceedingly destructive to lily bulbs in 

 Japan. It appears, however, not to attack uninjured bulbs, but 

 gains an entrance only through wounds, more especially through 

 broken roots. Attention is called to the importance of the cul- 

 tivation in India of the papaw-tree, Carica papaya, from the 

 value of the papain or " vegetable pepsin," which abounds in 

 the unripe fruit. An interesting feature of the work done at 

 Kew has been a compilation of the cryptogamic flora of the 

 Gardens. Mr, G. Massee has been entrusted with the myco- 

 logical department of the work, and now contributes a list of 

 the fungi collected in the Gardens, numbering 337 genera and 

 1340 species, probably far surpassing in point of numbers, as 

 well as in the variety of rare and interesting species, the myco- 

 logical flora of any other area of equal size. The remarkable 

 fact, however, is mentioned that not a single species of parasitic 

 fungus that has proved destructive to plants, has been intro- 

 duced to Europe through Kew, A list of the " Myxogastres " 

 is also appended. From some notes contributed by the Director, 

 it would appear that all questions respecting the botanical origin 

 of myrrh are not yet settled, especially with regard to Somali 

 myrrh ; and travellers in that country are urged to bring home 

 specimens of the tree from which it is obtained. At the 

 instance of the Government of the Gold Coast, an investi- 

 gation has been undertaken by Mr. W, H. F, Blandford of 

 the insects destructive to cultivated plants in West Africa. 

 The correspondence is now published which gives the 

 results of this inquiry, and the suggested remedies. An in- 

 teresting note is reprinted from the Hawaiian Planter' s Monthly, 

 by Mr. H. M. Whitney, regarding the grafting of the sugar- 

 -cane, and the possible production of a graft-hybrid. In the 

 Diapioses Africance, No. x,, are contained descriptions of some 

 of the novelties included in several important collections re- 

 cently received at Kew : viz. that of Dr. Forsyth Major from 

 Central Madagascar ; that of Mr. G. L. Bates from the 

 Cameroons region ; and that of Mr. Alexander Whyte from 

 North Nyasaland, a country which had never previously been 

 explored botanically. Among other subjects referred to in these 

 numbers are the West India sugar-trade, fruit-growing at the 

 Cape, and the use of Eucalyptus timber for wood-paving. 



The periodical entitled the Archives of Skiagraphy has be- 

 come the Archives of the Rantgen Ray, edited by Dr. W, S, 

 Hedley and Mr, Sydney Rowland, and published by the Reb- 

 man Publishing Company, It is chiefly as a pictorial record of 

 applications of Rontgen photography to surgerj' that the peri- 

 odical has found a professional public. This feature will be con- 

 tinued as heretofore, and, in addition, a certain amount of useful 

 letterpress upon methods of work and progress of investigation 

 will be included. The publication will thus not merely deal 

 with the practical usefulness of the new radiation, but also with 

 its scientific bearings. The number before us contains articles 

 upon the nature of the Rontgen Rays, by Prof, S, P. Thompson, 

 F.R.S. ; Rontgen Rays, past and present, by Dr. W. S. 

 NO. 1456, VOL. 56] 



Hedley ; and a number of notes, mostly cuttings from the daily 

 papers. All the subjects of the Rontgen photographs repro- 

 duced are of purely medical and surgical interest. 



The fourth edition of "Quantitative Chemical Analysis," by 

 Prof. Frank Clowes and J. Bernard Coleman, has been pub- 

 lished by Messrs. J. and A. Churchill. The book has not lieen 

 modified to any considerable extent, but descriptions of a 

 number of new methods and apparatus have been added. — Mr. 

 Edward Stanford has issued a fourth revised edition of •' Epping 

 Forest," by Mr. Edward North Buxton. This excellent little 

 book is not only an interesting guide to all the beauties of Epping 

 Forest, but also a brightly-written handbook of local natural 

 history. Chapters have been added on forest management, the 

 geology of the district, pre-historic man and the ancient fauna, 

 and the entomology, pond-life, and fungi of the forest. There 

 are six large coloured maps, and many illustrations in the text. 

 — A fourth edition of an illustrated handbook of instruction in 

 methods of saving persons from drowning, has been published by 

 the Life Saving Society. The book contains, in addition to a 

 course of instruction in rescue from drowning, descriptions of 

 the methods adopted in resuscitating the apparently drowned, 

 and a short account of the principles underlying them. 



The following are among the papers and other publications 

 which have come under our notice within the past f^ days : — 

 An eulogy of the late Prof. Alfred M, Mayer, accompanied by a 

 full-page portrait of the lamented investigator, is contributed to 

 Science (August 20) by Prof. Le Conte Stevens. — An address 

 on the connection between pharmacy and science, delivered by 

 Prof. E. Shaer at the recent meeting of the German Apotheker- 

 verein, appears in the Pharmaceutical /ournal (Septemher 18). — 

 A paper containing the results of studies of Mexican and Central 

 American plants, by Dr. J. N. Rose, has been published in the 

 Contributions from the U.S. National Herbarium (vol. v. 

 No. 3). — Dr. James Murie writes upon " Our Economic Sea 

 Fishes," in the Zoologist (September 15), and describes a few 

 of the results of the study of the life-history of our food-fishes 

 during the past twenty years or so. — The eighth and ninth 

 numbers of Dr. George King's " Materials for a Flora of the 

 Malayan Peninsula," reprinted from the Journal of the Asiatic 

 Society of Bengal, have just been distributed. In No. 9 the 

 account of the Calyciflorte is begun. This contribution 

 covers 345 pages, and Dr. King hopes "that one more 

 contribution similar in size to the present one will suffice to 

 complete the account of the Calyciflora:, and so to bring the 

 whole series about half-way towards completion." — Vols, x., 

 xi. and xii. of the Annalen of the Imperial University Observ- 

 atory at Vienna, edited by Prof. Edmund Weiss, have been 

 received. The contents include position observations of planets, 

 comets and nebulae, made with the various instruments at the 

 Observatory from 1890 to 1893 ; observations with the meridian 

 circle, zone observations with the iij-inch Clark's refractor, 

 and meteorological observations. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Chacma Baboon ( Cynocephalus porcarius, i ) 

 from South Africa, presented by the Earl of Orkney ; a Coypu 

 (Myopotamus coypus) from South America, presented by Mr, H. 

 W. Garratt ; an Arctic Fox {Cam's lagopus) from the Arctic 

 Regions, presented by Mr. G. B. Collier ; a Grey Ichneumon 

 {Herpestes griseus) from India, presented by Mr. Harold Smith ; 

 a Water Vole (Arvicola amphibius) from Scotland, presented by 

 Master E. Hope Vere ; a Levaillant's hxa3a.oxi{Chrysotis levail- 

 lanti) from Mexico, presented by Mr. Charles Strong ; two 

 j Cirey-breasted Parrakeets {Myopsittacus vionachus) from the 

 Argentina, presented by Mr. R. M. Copnall ; two Gannets 

 {Sula bassana) from Scotland, presented by the Hon. Walter 

 Rothschild ; a Marabou Stork (Leptoptilus crumeniferus) from 



