Bihliographical Notices. 229 



Foremost among these is an elaborate treatise by Mr. Fridtjof 

 Nansen, the Curator of the Museum, on " The Structure and Com- 

 bination of the Histological Elements of the Nervous System," a 

 memoir of over 180 pages, written entirely in English and illus- 

 trated with eleven quarto plates. About a year and a half ago we 

 published in the ' Annals ' (vol. xviii. p. 209) a translation of a 

 preliminary communication by the same author upon the histologi- 

 cal structure of the central nervous system in the Ascidia and in 

 Myccine glutinosn. His present memoir gives an account of his 

 investigations upon the histology of the nervous system, with some 

 remarkable generalizations and a valuable summary of the litera- 

 ture of the subject. It would lead us too far to attempt to give even 

 a sketch of the results arrived at, which, indeed, would not be very 

 intelligible without figures. 



A second paper of importance to British zoologists is Mr. James 

 A. Grieg's " Contribution to the Knowledge of the ]N^orwegian Alcyo- 

 naria," containing descriptions of several new species of the group, 

 illustrated with nine octavo plates. In this paper, which is written 

 in Norwegian, with an English summary, the author describes 

 species of the known genera Si/mpocUum, Stenogorgia, Paramuricea, 

 and Protoptiliim, and proposes the establishment of two new genera, 

 namely Danielssenia (sp. D. in-amosa), an unbranched form with a 

 horny axis, allied to Qorgonia, and Stiolioptilum (sp. S. arcticum), a 

 Pennatulid of the family Protoptilidoe, in which there is a strongly 

 marked bilateral symmetry in the arrangement of the polypes. The 

 general characters and structure of the species are admirably illus- 

 trated in the plates, which furnish, among other things, a very com- 

 plete exposition of the characters of the calcareous spicules. 



The other natural-history papers in the volume are in German 

 from the pen of Dr. J. Brunchorst, and relate to cases of vegetable 

 pathology. The first is on a very general disease of the potato, 

 produced by a parasitic fungus nearly allied to Plasmodiophora, for 

 which the author proposes the name of Spongospora solani. This 

 fungus is believed to be the cause of the diseases of the potato 

 known as " Schorf " in Germany and " scab " in England. In a 

 second paper Dr. Brunchorst treats of the disease of cabbage-plants 

 produced by the attacks of Plasmodiopiliora brassicce, as a remedy or 

 preventive of which he recommends the use of sulphuret of carbon. 

 His third paper relates to the production of nodular swellings on 

 the roots of certain plants and trees by the action of some forms of 

 parasitic fungi, especially those of the genus Frankia. 



The papers above cited are of so excellent a quality and of so 

 much importance that, although we could do little more than indi- 

 cate their existence, we have thought it desirable to call the atten- 

 tion of our readers to their existence, seeing that an " Annual Re- 

 port " is not the place where such productions are generally looked 

 for ; and we must congratulate the authorities of the Museum at 

 Bergen upon their having brought out such a valuable set of contri- 

 butions to the literature of Natural History. 



Ann. dc Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 6. Vol.'i. 16 



