Februarv i, 1906] 



NA TURE 



o-^o 



labours, we may refer to the fact that they record the 

 appalling total of no less than 2095 new generic and sub- 

 generic names as the result of a single year's work ! 



In the Scientific Reports of the Imperial Cancer Research 

 Fund (No. 2, 1905) a valuable series of experiments and 

 observations on the growth of cancer under natural and 

 experimental conditions is detailed by Dr. Bashford and 

 his co-workers. The statistical investigation of cancer has 

 also been pursued, and a valuable report is presented. The 

 provisional conclusion is arrived at that there is nothing 

 in the statistical investigations of the Imperial Cancer 

 Research Fund which points to an actual increase in the 

 death-rate from cancer. 



In an interesting article in the Quarterly Review 

 (January) Dr. George Pernet reviews the light-treatment 

 of disease, with which the honoured name of the late Dr. 

 Finsen, of Copenhagen, will always be associated. The 

 action of the various rays of the visible and invisible spec- 

 trum on the lower forms of life is first detailed, and it is 

 shown that the violet and ultra-violet rays are the active 

 ones, and it is these which are employed for the treatment 

 of lupus. At the same time, it must be recognised that 

 light-treatment has its drawbacks ; it is costly, slow in 

 action, and does not influence all forms of the disease, par- 

 ticularly if at all below the surface, since the active rays 

 have little power of penetration. It has recently been 

 observed, however, that if the tissues be first treated with 

 some fluorescent substance, such as eosin, the penetrative 

 powers of the active rays are increased, and this fact may 

 prove to be of practical value. Lastlv Dr. Pernet points 

 out that as lupus is a form of tuberculosis, the eradication 

 of the disease is intimately connected with the larger 

 question of the eradication of tuberculosis in general. 



A list of pyrenomycetous fungi collected in Orleans 

 County, New York, has been prepared by Mr. C. E. 

 Fairman, and is published in vol. iv. of the Proceedings 

 of (lie Rochester Academy of Science, U.S. A number of 

 species are recorded for the first time for the State, and 

 five are new to science. 



Under the title of " Mesozoic Plants from Korea," Mr. 

 H. Vabe contributes to vol. xx. of the Journal of the College 

 of Science, Tokio University, a paper on fossil botany 

 dealing with the collections obtained from a bed of coal 

 shale in the vicinity of Naktong, a village near Sengchu. 

 Twenty-one species, mostly ferns, but including a few 

 cycads and conifers, are distinguished. From the similarity 

 of several of these with species recorded from the Japanese 

 Tetori series, the writer judges that the beds were formed 

 contemporaneously; he also suggests that the plant-bed of 

 Naktong was deposited as a beach formation in shallow 

 brackish water. 



In connection with the fine avenues of trees at Ouetta 

 referred to in Nature of January 11, p. 253, Mr. F.. P. 



Stebbing has been investigating the ravages of a I tie, 



/Eolesthes sartus, thai has locally received the name of the 

 "borer." In a pamphlet printed by the Government of 

 India, Mr. Stebbing sketches the salient points in the life- 

 history of the insert. The damage is caused principally 

 by the larva?, that feed first in the phloem and sap-wood of 

 the tree, and subsequently penetrate during the winter into 

 the heart-wood. The trees that have suffered most have 

 been the Kabul willow, the reamer poplar, and the elm ; 

 the walnut, horse-chestnut, ash, and robinia have escaped 

 entirely or nearly so, and, curious to relate, the mulberry 

 has not been attacked. 



NO. 1892, VOL. 73] 



The members of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh 

 receive 1 1 ..in t in i. • to time .it their meetings interesting 

 announcements of the discovery of rare plants found during 

 summer excursions. Mr. J. (,. Nicolson publishes in 

 vol. xxiii., part i., of the Transactions and l 

 the Society .1 lisl of some rare Caithness plants, that in- 

 cludes IrctostaphylO! alpina, collected on Mt. Morven, 

 Hierochloe borealis from Thurso, and a strange alien, 

 Hymenaea Courbaril, known as the Wesl Indian locust, 



washed up by the Gull Strear :ar J ohn-o '-Groats. Mr. 



YV. Young, writing on the plants of the Glenshee district, 

 Perthshire, reports the occurrence of Gentiana nivalis, 

 Veronica alpina, and Cochlearia Groenlandica among 

 flowering plants on or near Glas Maol ; among the liver- 

 wort, gathered in the district were Cephaloziella Jackii, 

 Lophozia socio, and Harpanthus Flotowianus. The volume 

 contains the latest of many papers by Mr. W. West and 

 Prof. 1 1. \V. West on algae, in which they describe the 

 fresh-water algae collected in the Orkneys and Shetlands ; 

 their list enumerates more than four hundred species -a 

 large number being desmids and diatoms — of which several 

 are new- species or varieties. 



The order Bombai at ea 

 Malvaceae, includes, besides 

 able trees, of which the 



united by Hooker with 

 the baobab, several rental k- 

 " silk-cotton " trees are a 



prominent feature in the tropics. Two genera pass by this 

 name, Bombax and Ceiba, or, as it is known in this 

 country, Eriodendron. At Nassau, in the Bahamas, there 

 is a historic giant silk-cotton tree that is assigned to 

 Eriodendron anfractuesum in an enumeration of the plants 

 of the Bahamas. The illustration here reproduced is taken 

 from Forest and Stream, January 13, and shows the re- 

 markable formation of plank-like outgrowths, produced 

 from the base of the trunk and the uppermost roots, that 

 have received the name of plank-buttresses. The plank- 

 buttress is a peculiarity of trees growing in a tropical 

 climate witli abundant rainfall. 



Mr. Audoin contributes an interesting paper on the 

 hydrography of Lake Tchad to I.o Geographie (vol. xii.. 

 No. 5). Recent observations of the volume of tributary- 

 streams and the area of the lake are analysed and applied 

 to the examination of the question of the gradual desic- 

 cation of the region. 



Mr. Marquardsen contributes a valuable and com- 

 plete summary of the history of geographical exploration 

 in the Lake Tchad region down to the year 1905 to the 

 new number of the Mitteilungen aus den deutschen 



