546 



NA TURE 



[April 7, 1892 



Mr. W. W. Smith, writing to the new number of the Ento- 

 vtologist from Ashburton, New Zealand, says that he has for 

 twelve years successfully used hellebore as an insecticide. It is 

 used annually by many orchardists in the South Island for de- 

 stroying the larvae of Tenthredo {Selandria) cerasi. Mr. Smith 

 uses it in the proportion of half an ounce to a bucket of water. 

 When he notices the newly-hatched larvjK on the leaves, he care- 

 fully and effectually syringes the trees with the solution, choosing 

 a calm day for doing so. The larvae are equally common on the 

 cherry-, plum-, and pear-trees, and rapidly destroy the foliage 

 if they are not checked or destroyed. One good syringing 

 suffices. When the trees are syringed early, the imago sawfly 

 is prevented from laying eggs further on the foliage, and by this 

 course much labour is avoided. He does not go over the trees 

 syringing a second time with pure water, as the particles of 

 powder left adhering to the foliage are invariably washed off by 

 rains before any of the fruit ripens. 



Mr. J. W. Fewkes contributes to the January number of the 

 American Naturalist, just received, an interesting paper on the 

 ceremonial circuit of the cardinal points among the Tusayan 

 Indians. During the progress of the secret ceremonials which 

 are performed in the Kib-vas or Estufas at Hual-pi, and other 

 pueblos of the old province of Tusayan, it is customary for a 

 priest to pass on the north side of the fire-place as he approaches 

 the altar, and on the south as he passes from the altar to the 

 ladder. This custom is conscientiously followed by the older 

 priests, especially when taking part in important ceremonials; 

 and Mr. Fewkes has seen novices, and even old priests, corrected 

 and sent back when they had violated this simple Kib-va custom. 

 The four directions do not correspond with the true cardinal 

 points. The so-called Kwi-ni-wi-ke of the Hopi is neither the 

 magnetic nor the polar north, but about north-west, or 45° west 

 of north, and the other points vary in the same ratio. Mr. 

 Fewkes thinks that a ready explanation of this is found in the 

 orientation of the Kib-vas, which, in turn, depends on the 

 extension of the mesa upon which Hual-pi is situated — or, 

 speaking more accurately, as he says in a note, on the direction 

 of the lines of fissure of the rock of which the mesa is built-up. 

 The ceremonial circuit is constantly followed in the preparation 

 of so-called medicine. When a priest pours the liquid of which 

 it is made into the terraced rectangular bowl, preparatory to 

 placing the other ingredients in it, he pours the fluid first on the 

 north side, then on the west, then on the south, then on the 

 east side of the bowl. The ceremonial circuit is followed in 

 connection with many other observances noted by Mr. Fewkes. 

 He also remarks that the following colours correspond to the 

 four cardinal points (bearing in mind ^that the Hopi north is 

 really north-west) : north, yellow ; west, blue (represented cere- 

 monially by malachite green) ; south, red ; east, white. The 

 priest of the antelope assemblage, in making the sand mosaic 

 picture a few days before the snake dance, first makes the yellow 

 border, then the green, then the red, then the white. The 

 north line of the yellow is followed by the west of the same 

 colour, then the south, then the east. The same sequence 

 occurs when he outlines and makes the body of the semicircular 

 clouds in the centre of the mosaic (dry painting). The lightning 

 serpents of the four colours are made in the same order of the 

 colours. It is interesting to note, as Mr. Fewkes says, that the 

 ceremonial circuit is opposite that of the sun in its daily course 

 in the sky. He thinks it is probably more than a coincidence 

 that it is the same circuit which the snake and antelope priests 

 take when they move abo«t the place, and the latter carry the 

 snakes in their mouths. 



Last year Dr. J. T. Rothrock received from the American 

 Philosophical Society a grant of 300 dollars to defray part of 

 the expenses of a trip to the West Indies. The object was the 



NO. II 7 I, VOL. 45] 



collecting of photographs and information which could be utilized 

 in the preparation and delivery of the annual lectures popularly 

 known as "the Michaux forestry course." About 150 good 

 negatives were obtained, and there are about 75 satisfactory 

 illustrations of the trees, physical geography, and topo- 

 graphy of the islands visited. The trip lasted three months. 

 Dr.Rothrock was particularly struck by the contrast between the 

 Bahamas and Jamaica. In the course of some interest ini^ obser- 

 vations printed in the latest instalment of the Proceedings of the 

 American Philosophical Society, he points out that the Bahamas 

 are low and show no considerable elevation, while Jamaica 

 reaches a maximum altitude of 7360 feet above the sea-level. 

 The soil of the Bahamas is scanty, and consequently cultivation 

 entails fertilization. That of Jamaica is of great depth, audits 

 continued productiveness is evidence of a vast natural fertility. 

 The flora of the Bahamas shows marked resemblance to that of 

 Florida. The flora of Jamaica is essentially tropical, save at 

 such altitudes as suit plants of cooler re/ions. In such places 

 are found the common chickweed {Stellaria media), the white 

 clover {Trifolitini repens), associated with plants from the cooler 

 parts of southern regions. The mangrove (Rhizophnra mangle), 

 common to the tropical seas around the glo le, attains in Jamaica 

 (compared with that in Florida and in the Bahamas) a surprising 

 height. Near Port Morant are large jungles, where the trees 

 attain a height of at least 60 feet. Dr. Rothrock calls at- 

 tention to possible tannin production from the mangrove. 

 No tree in North America, he says, at all approaches the 

 mangrove in the percentage of tannin it contain^. That the 

 mangrove should have remained so long unutilized is due to the 

 difficulty of obtaining its tannin free from colouring matter. 

 Dr. Rothrock thinks that in the near future, owing to exhaustion 

 of other tannin-producing trees, the arts will be forced to draw 

 upon the mangrove, even if an improved chemistry is not able 

 to free it from this objectionable colour. The natives obtain a 

 red-brown dye from the bark by simply steeping it in water. 



Mr. T. Southwell, Norwich, records in the April number 

 of the Zoologist that he was lately informed, by Mr. D. C. 

 Burlingham, of the occurrence of a male Greenland shark, 

 {Lcemargus borealis), which measured 14 feet 2 inches in length 

 and weighed i\ tons, at Lynn, on the 21st of January la^^t. It was 

 found stranded on a sand-bank on the east side of the Bulldog 

 Channel, and was brought up to Lynn by a fishing-smack, being 

 still alive when Mr. Burlingham saw it. It was sub^tquently 

 exhibited at Cambridge, and its owner intended to take it to 

 Huntingdon, Peterborough, and elsewhere. This species is of 

 rare occurrence on the Norfolk and Suffolk coast, and the 

 present example is only the fourth of which Mr. Southwell has 

 notes. 



Dr. E. Rathay states that the galls of Cynips calycis, pro- 

 duced on Quercus pedunculata, attract, by their viscid secretion, 

 a number of small ants, which he believes to be advantageous 

 to the tree, in killing quantities of caterpillars and other insects 

 which are its natural enemies. He illustrates the value of this 

 protection by the statement that the inhabitants of a single ants' 

 nest may destroy in a single day upwards of 100,000 insects. 



In the Bullettino of the Italian Botanical Society, Signor F. 

 Pasquale proposes a new theory of the morphology of the 

 carpel in flowering plants, founded on an extended observation 

 of the course of the vascular bundles. According to him, a 

 carpel is not a single modified leaf, but is the result of the con- 

 crescence of three, less often of two, leaves, which take part in 

 the formation and in the nutrition of the ovules and of the 

 seeds. The carpel is therefore a triphyllome, of which one leaf 

 (the inferior one) is sterile, and the other two (superior) are 

 fertile ; and between these there is an intimate fusion, with 

 complete anastomosis of the vascular bundles. Each fertile 



