5i8 



NATURE 



[September 24, 1903 



\ 



depict, so far as possible, the birds in their natural surround- 

 ings, and although in some perhaps a trifle too gaudy, the 

 colouring appears to be very true to nature. When com- 

 plete, the book should be invaluable to all interested in the 

 birds of Brazil. 



Another illustrated work recently to hand (although the 

 cover is dated 1902) is part x. of the atlas of the section 

 devoted to Crustacea in " Illustrations of the Zoology of the 

 Investigator," by Major Alcock and the late Mr. A. F. 

 McArdle. This part includes plates Ivi.-lxvii., the majority 

 of which illustrate crabs, although some crawfishes are 

 also figured. In the absence of the text, fuller notice is 

 difficult. 



The Boston (U.S.A.) Society of Natural History is to be 

 congratulated on the decision to publish an annual summary 

 of the work done on the land mammals of North America. 

 The part just issued, dealing with the years 1901 and 1902, 

 forms No. 3 of the Society's Proceedings, and is compiled 

 by Messrs. Miller and Rehn. With the aid of such 

 annual summaries naturalists in other countries may hope 

 to keep abreast of American work in this department of 

 zoology. 



We have received the second part of vol. xiv. of the 

 Natural History Transactions of Northumberland, Durham, 

 and Newcastle. It contains the presidential addresses for 

 the years 1901 and 1902, both of which set an excellent 

 example in that they deal exclusively with local subjects. 

 The committee records with regret the determination of 

 the Tyneside Naturalists' Field Club to terminate its 

 connection with the Society, which has existed since the 

 year 1864; this feeling of regret will, we think, be wide- 

 spread, especially as it will involve in the near future a 

 severance of the Joint Transactions of the two bodies. 



Article two of vol. xvii. of the Journal of the College 

 of Science of Tokyo contains an account of a worm {Cerato- 

 cephale osawai) which, at certain seasons, appears in 

 swarms in the Gulf of Tokyo and the rivers debouching 

 therein, after the manner of the palolo worms of the South 

 Pacific and the Atlantic. Instead, however, of belonging 

 to the Eunicidas, the Japanese species, which is regarded 

 by its describer, Mr. A. Isuka, as new to science, is refer- 

 able to the Lycoridae. According to the experience of the 

 fishermen, which is confirmed by Mr. Isuka 's personal 

 observations, the Japanese " palolo " swarms during the 

 months of October and November, usually in four periods 

 of a few days' duration each. The swarming season always 

 takes place when the moon is either new or near the full, 

 and invariably occurs in the evening just after flood-tide. 

 On the occasion of the author's observation, the height of 

 the swarm did not last more than a couple of hours, the 

 worms after this apparently sinking to the bottom ex- 

 hausted. 



The collections of plants made by Mr. J. N. Rose in 

 Mexico and Central America have not only added a number 

 of new types, but have yielded several plants which are 

 likely to be of horticultural value. In an account, the third 

 which has appeared in the Contributions from the United 

 States National Herbarium, attention is directed to two new 

 bulbous species of Polianthes, and a Crinum. Of the genus 

 Argemone the author has obtained eleven species, including 

 the three well-known cultivated species of which wild 

 specimens are rare, even in herbaria. 



There is very considerable difficulty in obtaining inform- 

 ation concerning the botany of Siam, and the reason for 



NO. 1769, VOL. 68] 



Ihi.-; appears to be that no collectors have attempted to work 

 the country systematically. Mr. F. N, Williams has written 

 a short article on this subject in the current number of the 

 Journal of Botany, in which he enumerates the few collec- 

 tions of Siamese plants which he has discovered in the 

 Kew Herbarium. Almost as little known is the algal vegeta- 

 tion of the Shetland Isles, for which the only records date 

 back to the year 1845. A list of the marine algae collected 

 by Mr. B6rgesen — together with those previously recorded 

 — is contributed by him to the same journal. 



The growth of canker-areas on trees has been attributed 

 by some investigators to frost, and by others, including 

 Hartig, to the ravages of the fungus Nectria ditissima. 

 The suggestion made some years ago that bacteria were 

 the cause of disease has not met with much support from 

 pathologists. In the Bulletin International de I'Acaddmie 

 des Sciences de Cracovie, Mr. J. Brzezinski adduces fresh 

 evidence in favour of this view so far as apple, pear, and 

 hazel trees are concerned. After unsuccessful attempts to 

 set up disease in sound tissues by infection with Nectria, the 

 author sought for the origin of disease in the bacteria 

 which are abundant in the wood elements. It was not 

 difficult to get pure cultures, and after inoculation with the 

 bacteria discoloration and destruction of the tissues soon 

 followed. Canker spots were not produced, but it is prob- 

 able that they would not develop in the space of time 

 during which the experiments were conducted. 



A REPORT has recently been issued by the Foreign Office 

 giving the result of inquiries made by His Majesty's 

 ministers as to the navigable inland water-ways in France, 

 Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and Austria-Hungary. 

 The reports are necessarily statistical, but at the same time 

 contain a great deal of useful information. Each of the 

 above countries has expended out of State funds during the 

 past twenty-five years very large sums in improving the 

 inland navigation either by deepening and improving the 

 natural rivers, or, where this was not practicable, by 

 canalising them, or by the construction of new water-ways. 

 Mr. Hugh O'Beirne, who drew up the report relating to 

 France, has arrived at the conclusion that, taking into con- 

 sideration the cost of improving the water-ways, which 

 varies from 14,924/. to 64,516/. per mile, it would have 

 been cheaper and more advantageous to have constructed 

 railways. Mr. Robinson, the reporter for the Netherlands, 

 directs attention to the use of petrol motors for moving 

 the boats, and says that the number of small steamers and 

 tugs employed on the water-ways has immensely increased 

 in Holland, and that water transport seems to be on the 

 verge of a revolution owing to the introduction of the 

 cheap, small and practical petroleum motors which can 

 be fitted to almost every description of craft. 



A. NEW edition — the third — of " The Figures, Facts and 

 FormulEe of Photography " has just been published by 

 Messrs. Dawbarn and Ward, Ltd. The work has been con- 

 siderably enlarged, and now has an index. 



We have received a copy of the map and report on the 

 auriferous quartz reefs of Cue and Day Dawn in the 

 Murchison Goldfield of Western Australia, by Mr. W. D. 

 Campbell {Bulletin No. 7 of the Geol. Survey, W.A.). 

 The reefs lie in areas of granite, diorite and amphibolite. 



The ninth edition of the well-known " Bloxam's Chemis- 

 try," revised and rewritten by Prof. J. M. Thomson, F.R.S., 

 and Mr. A. G. Blo.xam, has been published by Messrs. 

 J. and A. Churchill. The work retains its characteristics 



