392 



a White Rain- or Fo 

 1S75). 



NATURE 



\^Feb. 25, 1886 



3o\v " (Quart. Jo 



Met, Soc, October 

 A. Ramsay 



A Nocturnal Hymenoptera of the Genus BoDihus 

 Mr. Leonardo Fea, Assistant in the Museo Civico of 

 Genoa, wlio is now engaged in a zoological exploration of 

 Upper Burmah, and who has extensive experience in collecting 

 insects, writes to me from Mandalay that, on the night of Janu- 

 ary J7, as he was walking in the "compound" of Dr. Barbieri, 

 the moonlight being very bright, he was surprised to hear hum- 

 ming around a clump of flowering acacias. He at once pro- 

 ceeded to fetch a net, and, on capturing the hummers, found, to 

 his no small .astonishment, that he had got a fine species of the 

 genus Bombus, of a uniform fulvous colour. 



Being unaware that the fact of a nocturnal melliphagous 

 Hymenoptera (all of which are eminently diurnal) has been 

 before noticed, I should be glad to hear of any other cases to 

 the point. ^l- DoRiA 



Genoa, Febiuary 16 



PHYLLOXERA AT THE CAPE 



WE have received from a correspondent in South 

 Africa some details of the long-dreaded appearance 

 of the Phylloxera in the vineyards of the Cape Colony. 

 As long ago as iSSo the importation of living plants in 

 any form or shape was forbidden by the Cape (jovern- 

 ment. This measure was so strictly enforced that con- 

 signments of young beech-trees from England and of 

 tree-ferns from New Zealand were not allowed to be 

 landed. 



In 18S4 the prohibition was for a short time relaxed. 

 But it was speedily revived, under a penalty of 500/. or 

 two years' imprisonment with or without hard labour in 

 the case of any one infringing it. 



The insect has now, notwithstanding, actually appeared 

 in a few vineyards near Cape Town, and in two others 

 about twenty-four miles off. 



Fortunately the Cape Government has competent 

 scientific advice at hand. Mr. Roland Trimen, F.R.S., 

 the Director of the South African Museum, and a well- 

 known entomologist, attended the Phylloxera Congress 

 at Bordeaux in 18S1 as the representative of the Cape 

 Colony. A Commission to examine and report on the 

 outbreak has been appointed, consisting of Mr. Trimen, 

 of M. Pdringuey his assistant, and of Prof. Macowan, 

 F.L.S., Director of the Botanic Garden. M. P^ringuey 

 is a Bordeaux man and a good entomologist ; he first 

 drew Mr. Trimen's attention to some suspicious-lookini; 

 mites on a slide which had been taken from a Cape vine- 

 yard by the doctor of a French ship, about Christmas. 



Two or three of the vineyards are simply swarming 

 with Phylloxera. But in others it appears to have onl\- 

 recent centres. Unfortunately sulpho-carbonates and 

 carbon bisulphide are little more than names in th.^ 

 colony, and it has been necessary to telegraph for a 

 supply. Pending the arrival of the insecticide, the vines 

 are being uprooted and burnt. The result so far is 

 encouraging, and the small range of the insect leads to 

 the hope that it may be well kept under if not stamped 

 out. 



OSCAR SCHAHDT 



EDWARD OSCAR SCHMIDT was born at Torgau 

 on February 21, 1823. When he had finished his 

 preliminary education he was sent to Berlin, where he 

 had the advantage of studying natural history, to which 

 his mind early had a bent, under the superintendence of 

 Johannes Mtiller and Ehrenberg. Schmidt, however, 

 proceeded to Jena to take his degree in 1S49, and he 

 held the post of Professor of Natural History in the 

 University until 1S55. His " Manual of Comparative 

 Anatomy," which went through several editions, was first 

 published in 1849. .Appointed Professor of Zoology in 



the University of Cracow in 1855, he was obliged, two 

 years afterwards, to quit the country, owing to some un- 

 fortunate political complications, and he took refuge in 

 Gratz. He was appointed Professor of Zoology and Com- 

 parative .Anatomy in the University, and in time was made 

 its Rector. During many of his vacation tours he visited 

 the Ionian Islands and other places on the shores of the 

 .Adriatic, and, diligently working out the fauna of this 

 almost tideless sea, he became more and more interested 

 in the natural history of the Sponges, with the result that 

 in 1S62 he published his well-known and important work, 

 " Die Spongien des Adriatischen Meeres," to which two 

 supplements were issued in 1864 and 1866, followed in 

 1868 by a third supplement, which formed part of a new 

 work on " Die Spongien der Kuste von .Algier." It will 

 be conceded that this work of Schmidt's marked an 

 epoch in the history of this interesting sub-kingdom. 

 The enormous progress made in our knowledge of the 

 natural history of the Sponges during the twenty-four 

 years that have elapsed since Schmidt put forward his 

 classification, and the immensely improved methods of re- 

 search, may be said to have revolutionised the subject ; 

 but Schmidt's work will always be of value, and the 

 merit of having grasped the leading features of the 

 classification of the Sponges will generally be awarded 

 to him. That he for the most part failed to perceive the 

 proper specific and generic characters of the forms he 

 describes and figures is not to be much wondered at. 

 In 1870, leaving the Sponge fauna of the Mediterranean, 

 he published his " Grundzuge einer Spongien Fauna des 

 Atlantischen Gebietes," which was followed in 1874 by 

 an account of the Sponges collected by the German Ex- 

 pedition to the North Sea ; and his latest contribution 

 to this subject was his work on " Die Spongien des 

 Meerbusen von Mexico, 1 879-1 SSo." In 1872 he was 

 appointed Professor of Zoology to the University of 

 Strasburg, returning thus once more to his fatherland. 



Though his works on "The Natural Sciences and the 

 Philosophy of the Unconscious" and on " The Descend- 

 ance Theory of Man and Darwinism " passed through 

 several editions, and were translated into French, they 

 need not be more particularly referred to here. As already 

 noticed in these volumes, Prof. Schmidt died at Strasburg 

 on January 17 last. 



THE STORY OF BIELA'S COMET^ 

 T ASK you to listen to-night to the story of Biela's 

 -'■ comet. I will weave into the story enough of astro- 

 nomy to justify its place in this course as a lecture. 



This story has none of the interest which human pas- 

 sions give to stories of human life, and yet if it shall not 

 be to you as interesting as a novel, it will be because I 

 shall spoil the story in telling it to you. It is a true story. 

 In other words, 1 mean to separate sharply what we know 

 from what we guess. 



One hundred and two years ago last night (March 8, 

 1772) a Frenchman named Montaigne, in the provincial 

 city of Limoges, found a comet. He did what little he 

 could with his small telescope to mark its place in the 

 heavens, but it was not much that he could do. The comet 

 was a faint one, not to be seen by the naked eye, and had 

 a short tail, only one-eighth as long as across the disk of 

 the moon. He did not dream that that little foggy speck 

 of light was to be one day one of the most interesting 

 comets in the solar system ; in fact, that he himself was to 

 be known to history only for having first seen it. This 

 little comet is the hero of my story — a hero from humble 

 life. Montaigne wrote to Paris of his discovery, and they 

 saw it three or four times before it disappeared. 



' A Lecture delivered by Prjf. H. A Newton, on March 9, 1874, at the 

 .Sheffield Scientific School of Yale College, U.S. The renewed interest in 

 Biela's comet created by the great shower of meteors on November 27 last 

 justifies giving space for this lecture. From the Airterican Jtrurnal of 



