2o6 



NATURE 



[May 4, 1916 



been a standing disgrace to civilised communities. 

 At the present juncture the Government might well 

 prohibit entirely the importation of all plumage — 

 ostrich feathers and eiderdown only excepted — as a 

 useless and undesirable import, and a wholly inde- 

 fensible form of extravagance. 



In a recent number of the Journal of the College 

 of Agriculture, Tohoku Imperial University, Japan, 

 Mr. Schtn Yoschida gives an account of a series of 

 interesting researches. He has investigated the 

 manner in which "milk" is formed in the crops of 

 brooding pigeons. The so-called "milk" is not pro- 

 duced in glands, but by a proliferation and fatty de- 

 generation of the epithelial cells lining the crop. The 

 growth and shedding of the epithelial cells occur only 

 during the brooding season, and affect both male and 

 female birds. Mr. Yoschida has also made further 

 inquiries into the nature of the horny masses (cal- 

 losities and ergots) found on the legs of horses. He 

 maintains that an examination of their microscopical 

 structure supports the contention that these horny 

 masses represent the hoofs of two of the missing or 

 vestigial digits of the horse. He infers "that the 

 callosity is the nail of the second toe, and the ergot 

 (the horny spur hid by the hair of the fetlock), of the 

 fourth toe." 



The first part of the ninth volume of the Journal 

 of the Marine Biological Association contains an 

 account of some biometric investigations carried out 

 in connection with the question of the localisation of 

 the different races of herrings inhabiting North 

 European seas. The first investigation of this kind 

 was made by Matthews, for the Scottish Fishery 

 Board, about the end of last century, and somewhat 

 later Heincke made a similar study of herrings ob- 

 tained mainly from the Baltic. Criticism of Heincke's 

 work showed defects of treatment, and his conclu- 

 sions, as well as those of Matthews, were seen to be 

 of little value since they were deduced from insuffi- 

 ciently large samples. As the question of the distri- 

 bution of local races of herrings has considerable 

 importance in fishery regulation, the Board of Agri- 

 culture and Fisheries organised, in 19 13, a compre- 

 hensive scheme of investigation applying to all parts 

 of the British seas, and a number of fisheries labora- 

 tories arranged to take part in the work. One result 

 of the war has been, of course, the suspension of most 

 of this investigation, but fortunately all the organisa- 

 tion had been completed prior to August, 19 14, and 

 some progress was made during 1915. Dr. 

 Orton, in the paper now noticed, gives an account of 

 the practical methods employed at Plymouth by him- 

 self and his colleagues. Some eighteen variable char- 

 acters were measured in each of well above 1000 

 herrings. As there is no immediate likelihood of a 

 general discussion and analysis of all the results 

 obtained by the Board, the details of this investigation 

 of the Channel herrings are now tabulated and pub- 

 lished. 



In Kew Bulletin, No. 2, 1916, several new species 

 of plants are described from India, China, and Africa. 

 Among the African species is Gardenia fragrantissima, 

 Hutchinson, of which an illustration is given ; Utri- 

 cularia papiUosa, Stapf, from Nigeria ; and an interest- 

 ing Asclepiad, Caralluma carnosa, N. E. Brown, from 

 the Transvaal, which is illustrated by a plate from 

 a photograph taken in the garden of the Botanical 

 Laboratory, Pretoria, by Mr. Pole Evans, the dis- 

 coverer of the species. Two interesting and little- 

 known South African Euphorbias are also illustrated 

 by a plate in this number, E. puhiglans, a native of 

 Port Elizabeth, and E. enopla, with fierce spines which 



NO. 2427, VOL. 97] 



are modified peduncles, from the Witte Poort Moun- 

 tains and the Karoo. 



\ SUMPTUOUSLY illustrated paper by Mr. S. Oka- 

 mura on the mosses of Japan has recently been issued 

 as article 7 of vol. xxxvi. of the Journal of the Col- 

 lege of Science, Tokyo. These contributions include 

 citations of new localities and descriptions of new 

 species from the island of Sachalin and from the 

 Corean peninsula. Among the new species may be 

 mentioned a minute and interesting Archidium, A. 

 japonicum, with a stem 2-5 mm. high, from the Prov. 

 Musashi, Hondo. Schistostega osmundacea, the 

 luminous moss, is now recorded from several locali- 

 ties in Japan for the first time, having previously only 

 been known in Europe and North America. A new 

 aquatic moss, Bryhnia Nakanoi, is also described and 

 figured. 



OnE' of the railway problems of the near future 

 must be the linking of the Balkan lands to western 

 Europe by a route independent of the Central Powers. 

 To find an alternative to the railway route vid Vienna 

 and Budapest to Constantinople will strengthen the 

 relations of Italy and France with the Balkan people 

 at the expense of Austria and Germany. In a paper 

 on the Adriatic Slavs {Geographical Journal, xlvii., 

 April, 1916), Sir Arthur Evans advocates the reopen- 

 ing of the old Roman route by the Save valley from 

 Lombardy to Belgrade. A few miles between exist- 

 ing railways would make the line complete from west 

 to east, and, subject to the formation of a South 

 Slavonic State in the Illyrian region, would constitute 

 a route to Belgrade more direct from France and Eng- 

 land than that vid Vienna. By Milan, Padova, Grad- 

 isca, and Laibach, it would be possible to reach Bel- 

 grade from London in thirty-nine hours, compared 

 with 44^, the time taken by the Orient express before 

 the war. The saving in time would be proportionately 

 much greater from many parts of France. In con- 

 nection with this article attention may be directed to 

 another, in the same number of the Geographical 

 Journal, by Mr. H. C. Woods, on communications in 

 the Balkans, which is illustrated with maps. 



Prof. A. Ricc6 has contributed to the Italian 

 Seismological Society an interesting paper on the dis- 

 tribution of the epicentres of the greater Italian earth- 

 quakes (Bollettino, vol. xix., 1915, pp. 35-47). He 

 shows that these epicentres are arranged chiefly about 

 the crest of the Apennines and its continuations. The 

 distance between successive epicentres varies from 25 

 to no km., the average distance being 50 km. The 

 area of total or partial ruin is usually bounded by 

 a curve, which is elongated in the direction of the 

 mountain-chain, and the longer axis of this curve 

 varies in length from 30 to 300 km., the average 

 length being more than 120 km. Thus the greater 

 part of the Apennine axis is marked out by the ruins 

 caused by earthquakes. Prof. Ricc6 notices that the 

 same centre is often revisited by great earthquakes; 

 for example, eight earthquakes have originated in 

 the Norcia centre from 1328 to i860, and ten in the 

 Cassino centre from 1004 to 189 1. 



The Canadian Department of Mines has issued a 

 very full description of the Canadian oil-fields under 

 the title of " Petroleum and Natural Gas Resources of 

 Canada," in two bulky volumes. The first volume 

 deals with the occurrence and distribution of oil-fields 

 in various parts of the world, with the chemical and 

 physical properties of petroleum and natural gas, and 

 the methods employed in drilling wells, in pumping, 

 storing, and transporting oil and gas, and with the 

 utilisation and conservation of these substances; the 

 second volume contains a detailed description of the 

 various Canadian oil-fields. The work is one of the 



