March r, 1906] 



NATURE 



423 



In addition to the descriptions of a number of Indian 

 forest fungi that Dr. E. J. Butler has been contributing 

 to the Indian Forester (October to December, 1905), some 

 of his remarks possess a more general interest. In con- 

 nection with the genus Chrysomyxa, a hetercecious species 

 in Europe produces teleutospores on rhododendrons and 

 ascidia on the spruce. In India, both ascidial and teleuto 

 stages of a Chrysomyxa have been found on Rhododendron 

 campahulatum, thus giving grounds for an assumption that 

 Chrysomyxa was originally confined to a single host. 

 Dr. Leather also makes some definite statements on the 

 subject of wheat rust, Puccinia gratninis, and the ajcidial 

 stage that occurs on the barberry. In India, the stages 

 on the wheat do not seem to depend upon the presence 

 of barberry bushes, as the most destructive areas of rust 

 were hundreds of miles distant, and, further, at the only- 

 part of the Himalayan range where Aecidium berbcridis 

 is known to occur black rust is extremely rare on cereals. 



It has always been recognised that there is an un- 

 certainty as to the plant that yields the Manila Elemi of 

 commerce. Trimen and Bently, in " Medicinal Plants," 

 referred it to a species of Canarium allied to Canarium 

 commune, and later writers have generally referred it to 

 that species. Mr. E. D. Merrill, the botanist in the Philip- 

 pine Islands, with specimens before him of fruit, flowers, 

 and the pitch locally known as "brea," assigns it to 

 Canarium luzonicum in Publication No. 29 of the Bureau 

 of Government Laboratories. Other species of Canarium 

 yield brea, but, according to the writer, do not furnish 

 the article of commerce. The same publication contains 

 the third list of new or noteworthy plants that Mr. Merrill 

 has identified. It includes a number of new species of 

 Medinilla and Rhododendron ; of the fourteen species of 

 Rhododendron, thirteen are believed to be endemic. 



Ix a note contributed to the Atti dei Lincei, xiv. (2), 12, 

 Dr. G. Xoe discusses the functions of the remarkable 

 organs of sense first discovered by Hicks in 1S57 on the 

 wings of many species of Diptera. 



In the Memorie of the Italian Spectroscopists' Society, 

 xxxiv., 6, Messrs. A. Mascari and A. Cavasino discuss 

 the effect of atmospheric disturbances on the outline of the 

 sun's disc, with special reference to the direction of the 

 wind and other meteorological conditions. 



Members of the recent British Association party will 

 remember enjoying English salmon for dinner one day on 

 the voyage home from Beira. This reminiscence is sug- 

 gested by a note in the Revue gene'rale des Sciences from 

 which we learn that an undertaking has successfully been 

 carried out for obtaining in Paris fish from the French 

 fisheries on the west coast of Africa, transported under 

 cold storage. 



In connection with Prof. Sydney Hickson's article on 

 " Miners' Worm " (February 8, p. 344), attention may be 

 directed to a paper by Gino Peri in the Atti dei Lincei, 

 xiv. (2), 12, dealing mainly with the question as to how 

 far Ankylostoma duodenale is parasitic on animals other 

 than man. The author has succeeded in infecting dogs 

 through the mouth and by penetration of the skin, and 

 there are good reasons for believing that horses are also 

 liable to infection. 



M. Georges Claude describes in the Journal de Physique 

 a series of apparatus for the separation of oxygen and 

 nitrogen by the liquefaction of air. In these the necessary 

 degree of cold is obtained by expansion accompanied by 

 performance of external work, and the process of separation 

 NO. 1896, VOL 73] 



depends on the small difference between the boiling points 

 of oxygen and nitrogen. The whole apparatus is of 3 

 compact form, and of two examples in actual working at 

 Boulogne-sur-Seine, one is capable of generating 700 and 

 the other 1000 cubic metres of 96 to 98 per cent, oxygen 

 per diem. 



The U.S. Monthly Weather Review for September last 

 contains a graphic account of a tornado of marked severity 

 which visited Carbondale, Pennsylvania, on August 30, 

 1905. Mr. W. M. Dudley, meteorologist in charge af 

 Scranton, about sixteen miles distant, issued a circular of 

 inquiry, and obtained special reports from neighbouring 

 districts. From these it appears that a funnel-shaped 

 cloud, from which vivid lightning played, moved across 

 the northern portion of Carbondale in a south-west to 

 north-east direction, covering a track two miles in length 

 and from 25 to 200 yards in width. About thirty houses 

 and other buildings were blown down, and some of the 

 roofs were carried to a distance of 600 feet. The trees 

 which were blown down fell to the eastward. The area 

 affected was, as usual, very small, the storm being chiefly 

 confined to the Carbondale district. At Scranton there was 



-A building which was moved in 1 

 1 of a tornado on Augu 



lih the direction of 



vivid lightning, but no other special characteristics were 

 observed ; the barometer was low, reading 29-64 inches, but 

 remained steady ; there was no noticeable increase in the 

 wind velocity, and very little rain fell. The passage of 

 the cloud, which appeared to revolve in a backward 

 direction, was accompanied by a heavy rumbling noise. 

 The illustration, from one of the photographs taken, shows 

 the effect of the storm on the buildings ; the tornado 

 occurred about Sh. 30m. p.nr., but its duration is not 

 stated. 



M. Ch. Ed. Guillaume contributes to the Revue generate 

 des Sciences for January 15 an interesting account of the 

 career of Colonel Charles Renard, whose death took place 

 in April of last year. From a popular point of view, 

 Colonel Renard sprang into fame in 1884-5 m connection 

 with the successful trips made by the navigable balloon 

 La France ; but his scientific work covers a wider range 

 than this series of experiments, his inventions dating from 

 1875, when he devised a new air-valve for balloons, up 

 to within a short time of his death. Among other innova- 

 tions we notice the introduction of the coefficient of 



