44 



NA TURE 



[May 12, 1904 



Drawing for young children, by Mr. E. B. Sargant. The 

 author said it was well recognised at the present day that 

 the old plan of beginning to teach drawing by making the 

 children produce a series of straight lines tended to disgust 

 young children with the subject for their whole school life. 

 It was much easier to draw circles than straight lines, as 

 appeared natural if the mechanism of the arm was con- 

 sidered. It was also better to begin with drawing rather 

 than with writing, and to practise from the shoulder at 

 first, then from the elbow, and finally from the wrist and 

 fingers. This plan prevented the straining of the eyes at 

 a time when short sight was likely to be produced very 

 early. There was also a great deal to be said for beginning 

 with the brush and colour rather than with the pencil or 

 chalk. Mr. Sargant then proceeded to consider in detail 

 the code of the Orange River Colony, which gave effect in 

 drawing to these principles. 



General Business. 



At a council meeting of the association on April 4, Sir 

 Charles Metcalfe, the president, alluded to the visit of the 

 British Association to Johannesburg ne.Kt year, and said 

 he had been in frequent correspondence with members of 

 the committee which had been appointed in England, in- 

 cluding Sir Norman Locl^yer and Prof. Dewar. Everything 

 is now settled except the route, the fixing of which it has 

 been considered better to postpone until nearer the date. 

 There is also the question as to who should be president 

 for the year, and though this has not been decided yet, there 

 was no doubt there would be a very good president coming 

 out for the meetings. The greatest man of science of the 

 day. Lord Kelvin, who would be eighty-one years of age 

 next year, was resolved to come. With regard to the status 

 of members of the South African Association, they would 

 naturally be entitled to attend all the meetings of the British 

 .Association. The proposal was that there should be three 

 days' meetings at Cape Town and three days' meetings at 

 Johannesburg, with shorter sessions at Durban, Kimberley, 

 Bulawayo, and other places visited. 



Sir Charles Metcalfe also referred to the arrangements 

 to be made in connection with the visit of the British 

 Association at the annual business meeting of the South 

 African Association. Certain local papers will be read, and 

 these will be chosen by the local committees of the places 

 where meetings are held, so that those who come from 

 distances may have the opportunity of hearing a good paper 

 dealing with the chief object of interest in that particular 

 centre. 



THE NEW ZEALAND VEGETABLE 

 CATERPILLAR. 



"pEW among the smaller natural productions of New 

 Zealand have attracted more attention than the so- 

 called vegetable caterpillar of New Zealand, of which we 

 have just received a very fine specimen from Messrs. Arm- 

 brecht, Nelson and Co., of Duke Street, Grosvenor Square, 

 \V. Fungoid parasites are sufticiently common in all parts 

 of the world, but are not generally conspicuous enough 

 to be much noticed by any persons Ijut naturalists. Many 

 of the largest and most remarkable moths of the Australian 

 region belong to the families Cossidje and Hepialidce, re- 

 presented in Europe by our goat moth and swifts, and the 

 caterpillars of several species of these are known to be 

 infested by various parasitic fungi belonging to the genus 

 Cordyceps, Fries, which convert the whole substance of 

 the caterpillar into a woody substance, and then sprout 

 from it to a length of several inches. 



.As in the case of larva; attacked by insect parasites, these 

 (which are usually about four inches long when full grown) 

 live until they are ready to assume the pupa state, when they 

 bury themselves in the ground, die, and the fungus sprouts 

 upwards, generally from the neck of the caterpillar, some- 

 times acquiring the length of nearly a foot, and sprouting up 

 from the ground above the caterpillar. Very rarely two, or 

 even three, of these filaments may sprout from a single 

 caterpillar. The best known species is Cordyceps Hugelii, 

 Corda (Sphaeria Robertsii, Hooker), which is extremely 

 abundant in New Zealand. 



" The New Zealander's name for this plant-caterpillar is 

 NO. 1802, VOL. 70] 



Hotete, Aweto, Weri, and Anuhe. The natives eat the 

 plants, which when fresh have the flavour of a nut, and 

 also use them, when burnt, as colouring matter for their 

 tattooing, rubbing the powder into the wounds, in which 

 state it has a strong animal smell " (Gray, " Notices of 

 Insects that are Known to Form the Bases of Fungoid Para- 

 sites " (1858), p. 6, note quoting from Taylor^. Almost 

 every writer in New Zealand has discussed the vegetable 

 caterpillar in more or less detail, notably Taylor and Hoch- 

 stetter, in addition to Gray's important paper quoted above. 

 Mr. G. Massee's " Revision of the Genus Cordyceps " 

 (Annals of Botany, vol. ix. pp. 1-44, pis. i. and ii., March, 

 1895) may also be consulted. 



It is probable that more than one species of New Zealand 

 caterpillar is infested by, perhaps, more than one species 

 of Cordyceps. C. Hugelii (Robertsii) is usually said to be 

 parasitic on the larva of the large green moth Hepialus 

 (Ginetiis) virescens, Doubleday, but Mr. G. V. Hudson points 

 out in his " New Zealand Moths and Butterflies " (p. 132) 

 that this cannot be the case, because the larva of that insect 

 burrows in the wood of trees, and forms its pupa in the 

 galleries, and not in the ground. He suggests that it may 

 infest the larva of Porina Mairi. Duller, a brown moth with 

 black and white spots and markings ; but this seems equally 

 improbable, for this is a very rare moth, of which very 

 little seems to be known. More information on these 

 curious parasites and their hosts is very desirable. 



W. F. KiREY. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Oxford. — A meeting of the University Junior Scientific 

 Club was held on May 4. -Mr. H. B. Hartley exhibited 

 an unpublished portrait of Sir Richard Owen. Mr. A. S. 

 MacNalty read a paper on William Harvey. 



The eleventh Robert Boyle lecture will be delivered on 

 June 3 in Balliol College Hall by Prof. J. J. Thomson, 

 F.R.S. His subject will be " The Structure of the Atom." 



The Romanes lecture will be delivered by Sir Courtenay 

 Peregrine Ilbert, K.C.S.I., Balliol College, on Saturday, 

 June 4, at 3 p.m., in the Sheldonian Theatre. The subject 

 of his discourse will be " Montesquieu." 



A meeting was held in the schools on Friday, May 6, to 

 discuss the question of the organisation of post-graduate 

 study. The p^-esident of Trinity was in the chair. The 

 meeting was largely attended by those who are interested 

 in the encouragement of research. Prof. Poulton moved 

 a resolution advocating the expediency of " the further 

 utilisation of fellowships for the purposes of research." 

 This was seconded by Profs. Ellis and Gardner, and carried 

 unanimously. Dr. Farnell moved a resolution favouring 

 " the better organisation of the teaching resources of 

 Oxford." He wished to see the boards of faculty take a 

 more active part in organising the teaching resources, which 

 now suffer from considerable dislocation. The boards ought 

 to be able to give the status of professor to a college tutor, 

 and assign him an income from university funds. The 

 general principle of Dr. Farnell 's resolution was carried. 



C.\MERIDGE. — Sir Michael Foster has been re-appointed 

 a manager of the Balfour (Animal Morphology) Fund. 



Applications for leave to occupy the university tables at 

 the Naples and Plymouth Zoological Stations are to be sent 

 to Dr. Harmer, King's College, by May 26. 



Mr. Frank G. Smart, M.B., has generously endowed a 

 university studentship for research in botany of the value 

 of 100/. a year for two years. The first election will be 

 made in July. 



The Board of Agricultural Studies reports the continued 

 progress of the department, which last term had forty 

 students. A number of field e.^periments have been insti- 

 tuted, and are in progress on the university farm and in 

 the adjoining counties, under the supervision of Prof. 

 Middleton and his staff. 



The Drapers' Company has decided to grant 15,500/. to 

 the University College of South Wales for the purpose of 

 erecting the structure of the proposed new library, in lieu 

 of 10,000?. conditionally granted in 1S95. 



