APRIL 29, 1897 | 
WATURE 
615 
fully dried and, in many instances, specially prepared for dis- 
tribution. The catalogue can be obtained from the curator, 
Mr. C. D. Beadle, Biltmore, North Carolina, U.S.A. 
In June 1895, Messrs. P. A. Rydberg and C. L. Shear were 
commissioned by the Secretary of Agriculture of the United 
‘States to pay a three months’ visit to certain points in the States 
of Nebraska, Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Colorado, for the 
purpose of collecting roots and seeds of grasses and other forage 
plants, and of obtaining information from farmers and others as 
to their economic value. The Report of this Commission forms 
Bulletin No. 5 of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Division 
-of Agrostology. A large number of grasses are described and 
figured, and notes are appended with regard to their value to 
-agriculturists. 
THE St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists, section of Botany, 
proposes to issue a full herbarium of the flora of European Russia, 
‘similar to Fries’s ‘‘ Herbarium normale” and to Kerner’s 
‘© Flora exsiccata Austro-hungarica.” It will be issued in parts 
-of fifty species each, under the editorship of S. I. Korzinski, and 
every person who will send to the editor (St. Petersburg Univer- 
sity) two species, represented by fifty specimens each, will be 
-entitled to receive one part of the herbarium. A preliminary 
‘communication with the editor would save the trouble of a 
double collection of the same species, in which case the 
person who has sent its plants first will have the priority. Each 
part will contain the species fastened to paper, or not if pre- 
ferred, and each species will have a printed note giving the 
name of the plant, the spot wherefrom it comes, and various 
literary and critical observations. The copies which may 
remain over, after the contributors have been supplied with their 
parts, will be sold. 
De icaTE filaments of living matter flow out from the proto- 
plasm of many one-celled animals, and exhibit remarkable 
movements. Similar thread-forming phenomena are said, by 
Gwendolen Foulke Andrews, to appear when the protoplasm 
of developing starfish and sea-urchin eggs are examined under 
very high powers; they are termed by the author the spennzng 
activities of the living substance (fowrnal of Morphology, 
February 1897, vol. xii.). It is claimed that the filaments are 
projected from normal Echinoderm eggs; and that they are 
concerned in the formation of the egg membrane. The facts 
appear to point to a physiological drawing together of the 
cells by the filaments, rather than to any physical and chemical 
**cyto-tropismus.” Also, a physiological, rather than a physical, 
reaction to mechanical stimulus of pressure or shaking is in- 
dicated ; in fact, the cause of the spinning activities is held to 
be physiological rather than physico-chemical. For the living 
substance, cell-walls apparently do not a prison make, for we 
read : ‘‘ Whatever may be the significance of the cell-wall in 
the development of these eggs, it surely cannot be thought a 
separator, in either a physical or physiological sense, of the 
cell contents from other portions of the common mass.” Or, 
as put in other words, ‘‘the peripheral substance of eggs and 
cells is freely protoplastic, despite its appearance under less 
magnification of being a smooth and stable pellicle.” 
THE following lectures will be given during May at the Royal 
Wictoria Hall, at 8.30 :—May 4, ‘‘ Mountains of Skye,” by Dr. 
’T. K. Rose ; May 11,‘‘ More about Réntgen and other Rays,” by 
Prof. A. W. Porter ; May 18, ‘‘ Travel and Adventure in South 
Africa,” by Mr. F. C. Selous; May 25, ‘‘ Growth of the 
Colonies in the Queen’s Reign,” by Mr. O'Donnell. 
WE have received vol. xl. part v. and vol. xxx. part iv. of 
the Annals of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College. 
NO. 1435, VOL. 55] 
The first of these gives the observations made at the Blue Hill 
Meteorological Observatory under the direction of Mr. A. 
Lawrence Rotch, and contains an appendix, including summaries 
of observations for the lustrum and decade, a discussion of 
them, and a bibliography. The second of these volumes deals 
with a discussion of the cloud observations by Mr. H. Helm 
Clayton. This is described somewhat in detail, and several 
interesting plates showing, for instance, the average cloudiness 
during cyclones, anti-cyclones, their movements, and numerous 
annual and diurnal curves, illustrating average cloudiness at 
Blue Hill. 
Four common species of the family Dermestidz have become 
vegetarians ; and their conversion forms the subject of a paper 
in Bulletin No. 8 (New Series), of the U.S. Department of 
Agriculture (Division of Entomology). Cyclopzdias and text- 
books inform us that the members of this well-known family 
feed upon dried animal substances. The depredations of certain 
species on leather, hides, and dried meats; of others on 
carpets, furs, and woollen goods ; and of still others on dried 
insects, and other ‘‘ objects of natural history” are, unfor- 
tunately, too well known to require further comment. Within 
recent years, however, several household dermestids have been 
suspected of living in the larval condition upon vegetable sub- 
stances, and the charge of having vegetarian proclivities has now 
been brought home to four species, viz. dt/agenus piceus, or black 
carpet beetle ; Zrogoderma tarsale, a bad cabinet pest ; Z7ogo- 
derma sternale, and Anthrenus verbasct. The first-named is 
found guilty of feeding upon flour and meal ; the second revels 
in fiery-red pepper ; and the third species appears to be able 
to thrive on such laxative substances as castor-beans and flax- 
seed. The change from a natural animal-feeding habit to a 
vegetable one is attributed to altered environment. 
We have just received the Report of the U.S. National 
Museum, under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution, 
for the year 1894. About two hundred pages of this report 
are devoted to reviewing the work accomplished in the 
various scientific departments of the Museum, and general 
administrative matters; the remaining five hundred pages are 
taken up with most valuable papers describing and illustrating 
collections in the Museum. These papers have already been 
referred to (p. 469), and we need only now give expression to 
the gratitude which all men of science feel towards the Smith- 
sonian Institution for the many ways in which it extends know- 
ledge among men.—<Another recent publication by the 
Smithsonian Institution is ‘‘A Recalculation of Atomic 
Weights,” by Prof. Frank W. Clark. This fifth publication in a 
series on ‘* The Constants of Nature ” comprises a full discussion 
and recalculation of atomic weights from all the existing data, and 
the assignment of the most probable value to each of the ele- 
ments, The first edition was published in 1882. The enormous 
mass of new material which has since become available has 
been assimilated and combined by Prof. Clark with the old data 
in the present edition of his most handy work. 
Dr. S. SCHONLAND’S report on the Albany Museum, Grahams- 
town, during the year 1896, shows satisfactory progress. Large 
additions have been made to the publicly exhibited collections, 
and the collections formed for purely scientific purposes have 
grown even more rapidly. A sum of three thousand pounds 
was voted by the Cape Parliament last year towards the cost of 
a new building to accommodate the increasing number of speci- 
mens. Plans have been prepared for the new museum, and it 
is hoped that Parliament will make a further grant to enable 
them to be carried out. The alarming spread of insect pests in 
the Eastern Province occupied the attention of the Committee of 
