July, 1903.] 



KNOWLEDGE. 



157 



have beeu previously observed by Mitchell ia 18i5, and 

 also by Green, who gave the same explanation. 



A series of very interesting photographs has been 

 secured by Mr. H. K. Palmer with a slitless spectroscope 

 specially designed for use with the Crossley reflector of 

 the Lick Observatory. Among them are spectra of 

 planetary uebuljB and Wolf-Kayet stars, but the most 

 important are those of bygone " new stars." Nova 

 Aurigie, in 1901, when its visual magnitude was 13, 

 showed four bright lines, and a comparison with earlier 

 records shows plainly that the bright lines are growing 

 weaker as compared with the continuous spectrum. Nova 

 Cygni ( 187G), now about 15th maguitu'le, seems to have 

 completely lost its nebular characteristics, the spectrum 

 having become continuous. Mr. Palmer thinks it will 

 now be possible to photograph the spectrum of any star 

 that can be seen with the 3(j-inch telescope. — A. P. 



Botanical. — Visitors to Kew Gaixlens during the past 

 fewweeks mayhave noticed in theSueculent House some tall 

 plants, having piunatisect leaves, with long stiletto-shaped 

 segments, and large terminal heads of bright pink flowers. 

 This is a hybrid Kcilanchoe, known as K. keweiisis. In 

 the March number of the Annals of Butnny Sir VV. T. 

 Thiselton-Dyer made it the subject of one of his interesting 

 " Morphological Notes." The hybrid originated at Kew, 

 and besides being a beautiful plant of considerable horti- 

 cultural value, it is remarkable in being a striking excep- 

 tion to the rule that a hybrid exhibits characters inter- 

 mediate between those of the parents. The species 

 from which the new hybrid was derived are the South 

 Arabian A'. Bentii and K. flammea, from Somalilaud ; the 

 former has long entire stiletto-shaped leaves and white 

 flowers, while in the latter the leaves are obovate or 

 obovate-oblong, and the flowers orange-red. In the hybrid 

 the leaves ai'e not intermediate, liut they approach in shape 

 two other species of Knhnirlitte, and, as the author observes, 

 " the conclusion seeius irresistible that we have a reversion 

 to an ancestral chara(.'tcr which exists elsewhere in the 

 genus, but is latent iu both pai'ents." The deviation in 

 the colour of the flowers is more easily accounted for. It 

 is shown that in one parent the flowers have deeji yellow 

 chromoplasts in a pink cell-sap; in the other both chromo- 

 plasts and cell-sap are colourless. The hybrid, it is 

 believed, has inherited the pink cell-sap of one parent and 

 the colourless chromoplasts of the other. — S. A. S. 



Entomological. — In Knowledge for September, 190l, 

 there appeared an accoimt of Flies and Midges that hauut 

 the sea-shore. In a recent pajier {Atrh. Zool. Exper. et 

 Gen.. (4), Vol. 1, 1903, pp. 1-29, pi. 1), M. Rene Chevrel 

 describes a very interesting new marine midge, which he 

 has discovered at Saiut-Hriac (not far from St. Malo in 

 Brittany), and named Scopdodrtimas isemerinns. Both 

 sexes of this midge are winged, and possess short feelers 

 with only seven segments. The larva lives among sea- 

 weeds and barnacles below the usual low- water mark, and, 

 as the life-cycle of the insects occupies six months, the 

 midges ai'c only seen on the wing twice a year at the time 

 of the equinoctial spring tides. It is no wonder, therefore, 

 that they have remained unobserved for so long. 



Meanwhile Mr. A. D. Jinms records (Trans. Liverpool 

 Biol. Sac, Vol. yiYU.. liMi:!, pp. Sl-(j) the occurrence on 

 the coast of the Isle of Man of Clnnio hlcolor, Kieffer, 

 described a year or two ago from the French shores of the 

 Channel. The presem* of a second species of this most 

 remarkable genus in the British Isles is noteworthy. Like 

 C. mm-iiinii, Haliday (described in Knowledge, September, 

 1901), U. hicolor has a wingless female. 



Parental care among insects is always a subject 

 fascinating to naturalists, and a short paper bv Mr. G. W. 

 Kirkakly (EntomologUt. Vol. XXXVI., 1903, pp. 113-120) 

 on " Maternal Solicitude in Rhynchota and other non- 

 social Insects," with a full bibliography, is worthy of 

 attention from all interested in the beginnings of family 

 life among animals. Good evidence is brought forward 

 for watchful care exercised by mother Saw-flies and Shield- 

 bugs {Peutatomidpe) over their eggs and newly-hatched 

 young, and Mr. Kirkakly shows that the doubt thrown by 

 Fabre on the observations of DeGeer and others of 

 maternal care among Shield-bugs is unwarninted, he 

 having examined bugs of genera distinct from tliose ujjon 

 which DeGeer's researches were made. — G. H. C. 



Zoological. — In au article published iu our columns a 

 few years ago, Mr. Lydekker drew attention to the evidence 

 in favourof an Asiatic origin for the aborigines of Australia, 

 whose nearest relatives then appeared to be the Veddas of 

 Ceylon. In a letter from Macassar (Globus, May 7th), the 

 Messrs. Sarasin, who are travelling in Celebes, announce the 

 discoverv iu the mouutains of that island of a primitive 

 people — the Toala — presenting a remarkably physical 

 resemblance to the Veddas. Although these people have 

 now, for the most part at any rate, beeu considerably 

 influenced in the mode of life by contact with theBuginese 

 of the coast districts, there is decisive evidence that a 

 short time ago they were cave-dwellers (as indeed are some 

 of their number now), while within a century or so ago 

 they were in the habit of using chipped stone arrow-heads 

 and other weapons and implements. There can b ■ little 

 doubt that the Toala were the primitive inhabitants of 

 Celebes, and that they were driven to take refuge in the 

 mouutains by the Malay invaders, witli whom, however, 

 they now hold a certain amount of intercourse. Assuming 

 their affinity to the Veddas to be true, and it is scarcely 

 likely that such a remarkable resemblance can be merely 

 accidental, we have much stronger evidence than before 

 as to the probable Asiatic origin of the Australian 

 aborigines. 



It is a common belief among both whalers and naturalists 

 that when whales " sound," they descend to enormous 

 depths in the ocean. Dr. \\. Kiikeuthal estimates, for 

 instance, that the larger memiiers of the group commonly 

 dive to a depth of fully a thousand yards ; although the 

 evidence on which this estimate rests is not given. In a 

 memoir rei'cntlv published in Bejgium, on the scientific 

 results of the Belgian Aniarcf ic Expedilion of 1897-99, Dr. 

 Ka.covit/.a challenges this belief, aud states that, in his 

 oj)inion, one hundred yards is the maximum depth to 

 which any whale can dive, and that many species cannot 

 reach anything like that limit. He very pertinently asks 

 why should whales want to go to such dejiths. All 

 whales sound for the purpose of obtaining food ; aud in 

 the profound darkness of one thousand yai-ds what food 

 could they get V Those species which feed on animalcules 

 might perha|)s obtain what they want. But how about 

 the species which feed on fishes and cuttles 'r At a depth 

 of a thousand yards they certainly could not use their eyes 

 to detect non-luminous species, and we have no evidence 

 whatever that they feed on the self-luminous deep sea fish 

 and cuttles (if indeed there be any of the latter). On the 

 contrary, the available evidence indicates that they feed on 

 ordinary light-dwelling fishes and cuttles which live in 

 much shallower zones. 



But this is not all. It is known that the effects of a 

 pressure of more than three atmospheres proves fatal to 

 human life, and although we may believe that whales can 

 stand treble this pressure, or nine atmospheres, which 



