August 20, 1903] 



NATURE 



377 



in the development of the Zoological Park and of the 

 serious work of the society, all concerned are to be heartily 

 congratulated on the progress that has been made up to 

 date, and the promise of rapid advance in the near future. 

 A gratifying feature in the year's record was the trans- 

 ference of the New York Aquarium to the management of 

 the society, since, as we are told in the report, this was 

 made spontaneously by the municipality without any 

 suggestion on the part of the governing body. The society 

 has organised the administration of the aquarium on 

 practically the same basis which has been found so effective 

 in the case of the Zoological Park, with a director and 

 council who secure the best expert advice obtainable. As 

 regards the general progress of the park, the report records 

 the completion of a lion house, and the issue of a contract 

 for a building devoted to the exhibition of antelopes. The 

 executive committee states, however, that if the menagerie 

 is to equal the best European institutions of a like nature, 

 even, greater efforts in the way of new buildings must be 

 made in the future. 



Judging from the excellent reproductions of photographs 

 with which the report is illustrated, the larger mammals 

 are allotted ample space, and enjoy, whenever practicable, 

 surroundings suitable to their particular requirements. 

 This is well exemplified in the annexed illustration of a 

 group of Barbary wild sheep in the collection. 



Fig. I.— a group of .^oudad, or Barbary wild sheep. (From Report of the 

 New York ZoL logical Society.) 



Perhaps the most important part of the society's work, 

 so far, at any rate, as menagerie administration is con- 

 cerned, is the establishment of a medical department on 

 what it is hoped inay be a permanent basis. In the words 

 of the report, " the object of this service is, by systematic 

 observation and record, and by experimental treatment, to 

 extend our knowledge of the care and health of wild 

 animals in captivity, the causes of various diseases, and 

 the means which should be taken for their prevention. 

 This is both humane and part of an econoinic administra- 

 tion." The establishment includes a well-known medical 

 pathologist, a trained veterinarian, and an expert in micro- 

 scopic investigation and the preparation of pathological 

 cultures. To the report before us the last-named official 

 contributes two cominunications of prime importance in 

 regard to menageries, namely, one on the modes of 

 tubercular infection in wild animals in captivity, and a 

 second on cysticerci in wild ruininants. The work of the 

 department in question is therefore already in full swing, 

 and its investigations will doubtless be found of the highest 

 value to menagerie authorities throughout the world. 

 None of us can fail to be pained at the large percentage of 

 ailing animals to be seen in every menagerie, and all will 

 therefore welcoine anything that can be done to render 

 such cases less common in the future. 



In addition to the aforesaid special papers and the reports 

 of various officials, the volume before us contains other 

 articles of interest. In one of these, for instance, Mr. 



R. H. Beck gives a graphic account of hunting for giant 

 tortoises in the Galapagos Islands, illustrated by a photo- 

 graph of these reptiles coming to a pool to drink, and by 

 a second of the mode in which their empty shells are carried 

 on mule-back to the coast. The psychology of birds forms 

 the subject of a communication by Mr. C. W. Beebe, while 

 Mr. R. L. Ditmars discourses on the method of feeding 

 reptiles in captivity, with especial reference to the some- 

 what forcible measures adopted in the case of a recalcitrant 

 python. 



To those who make the study of mammals a speciality, 

 as well as to big gaine hunters and sportsmen generally, 

 a paper by the secretary, Mr. M. Grant, on caribou, or rein- 

 deer, will be of special interest, not only from the excellent 

 account of the various local forms, but from the numerous 

 illustrations by which their distinctive features are dis- 

 played. One of these we herewith reproduce, on account of 

 its being taken from an animal in the wild state. Mr. 



Fig. 2. — Wild Newfoundland Caribou. (From KepDrt of the New York 

 Zoological Society.) 



Grant considers that all the American caribou may be 

 divided into two groups, the large and light antlered barren 

 ground group, and the woodland group, distinguished by 

 the short, heavy, and much-branched antlers. The dis- 

 tribution of the various members of these two groups is 

 illustrated in a coloured map. R. L. 



THE ORIGIN OF SEED-BEARING PLANTS.' 

 yVTHEN Linmeus, in 1735, brought out his famous sexual 



* ' system of classification, which for so long dominated 

 systematic botany, twenty-three out of his twenty-four 

 classes were occupied by flowering plants, and one only was 

 left for the flowerless plants or Cryptogamia. 



As the name " Cryptogamia " indicated, a thick veil of 

 mystery still hung over the reproductive processes of these 

 flowerless plants. When this obscurity became gradually 

 dissipated, with the aid of improved microscopes, by the 

 brilliant researches of Hedwig, Mirbel, Nageli, ^'ringsheim, 

 Cohn, Thuret, and above all Hofmeister, and t'le " Crypto- 



1 Discourse delivered at ihe Royal Institution on Friday, May 15, by 

 Dr. D. H. Scott, F.R.S. 



NO. 1764, VOL. 68J 



