Feb. 25, 1886] 



NATURE 



399 



powers magnifying from 700-900 diaras. Though successful in 

 some instances, this method is for the most part wholly insuf- 

 ficient. (3) Staining sections. This was successful in many 

 plants in demonstrating the protoplasmic connection. (4) In- 

 jection into organs. When injected slowly, underpressure, with 

 a fluid capable of colouring protoplasm, if the injection took 

 place in a sufficiently uniform way, the canals were rendered 

 visible. By the methods thus indicated continuity of protoplasm 

 was established in the stem and leaves of the box- tree, and in 

 Ficiis elastua. 



New Edible Fungus. — Mr. Colenso calls attention to the 

 rapidly-increasing value as an article of export from New Zea- 

 land of Hirncola polytrkha. This mushroom, first described 

 from the East Indies and Java by Montagne, is of various sizes and 

 shapes, some specimens measuring even a few inches. It is found 

 in New Zealand growing on the trunks of trees, both on living and 

 on decaying ones, especially on the latter while standing, particu- 

 larly on tlie stems of Coryyiocarftis lavigata and on Mdicytus rami- 

 Jiorus. Both of these are endemic. The former is mostly confined 

 to the sea-shore, where it often forms dense and continuous 

 thickets. The latter tree is scattered plentifully throughout the 

 country. When dry, the mushroom becomes shrivelled up, and 

 is as hard as horn ; when h et, it is soft and elastic, almost sub- 

 gelatinous. It grows in compact gregarious masses. The 

 market for this fungus is China, where it is largely used by the 

 Chinese in soups. It appears that another species of the same 

 genus indigenous in North China has long been an article of 

 commerce. Mr. Berkeley notes of our British species, H. 

 auricula-jiidtr, that it was once a |-opular remedy for sore 

 throats, and adds that it is still occasionally sold at Covent Garden 

 Market. The New Zealand species is plentiful, and obtained 

 at little cost, the drying of it being an easy matter. Originally 

 the price paid to collectors was a penny per pound ; now it is 

 nominally twopence halfpenny, while its retail price in China is 

 five times t!iis. The declared value per ton at the Customs ranges 

 from 33/. to 53/. a ton, and is doubtless much below its real 

 value. During the last twelve years some 1858 tons of this 

 fungus were exported, chiefly from the ports of Auckland and 

 Wellington, and of a declared value of almost 80,000/. — ( Trans. 

 Penzance Nat. Hist, and Antiq. Soc, 1884-85.) 



WoR.MS IN Ice. — Prof. Leidy had examined a block of ice 

 which was part of the stock of ice stored at Moorestown, N.J., 

 and had been nearly a year in store ; it was full of air-bubbles 

 and water drops. On being melted a number of worms were 

 liberated, and proved to be in a living and quite active condition. 

 It is probable that while imprisoned in the ice they may not have 

 been frozen, but perhaps remained alive in a torpid state in the 

 water-drops ; but it seems remarkable that these animals should 

 remain so long alive in the ice, and yet die, as they did, almost 

 immediately, in the melted ice-water. Of course the fact points 

 to the advisability of not employing spongy ice as an article of 

 food. Dr. Leidy, believing the form to be as yet undescribed, 

 gives a diagnosis of it under the name Lumhriais glacialis ; it 

 is from 4 to 6 centimetres long, of from 35 to 50 segments ; 

 oral segment unarmed, eyeless ; succeeding segments with four 

 rows of podal spines, in fascicles of three. — {Proc. Nat. Set. Phila- 

 delphia, December 22, 1885.) 



Star-Fishes from South Georgi.v. — Dr. Studer describes 

 a small collection of star-fishes made by Dr. v. d. Steinen, 

 the naturalist of the German Polar E.xpedition in 1882-83, ^^^1° 

 had a meteorological station at South Georgia. Of the 14 species 

 collected, 9 belonged to the family StelleridEe, and 7 of these 

 were new, 5 to the Ophiurid^e, of which 4 were new. Most 

 were collected in quite shallow water. The general character 

 of the fauna is like that of Kerguelen Land ; and, to assist the 

 comparison. Dr. Studer gives a comparative list of the known 

 species from the South American (Falkland Islands, Magellan 

 Straits) district and that of Kerguelen Land. All the new 

 species are well figured in two plates which accompany the 

 memoir. — (Aiis dem Jahrbuch di r wissens-AnstalU'U zu Hamburg, 

 xi. 1SS5.) 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

 The last number (15) of the Journal of the Straits Branch 

 of the Royal Asiatic Society contains several papers of much 

 geographical interest. In the first, Mr. Swettenham describes 

 a journey across the Malay peninsula from Kwala Bernam in 

 Perak, through Pahang to Kwala Paharg on the east coast. | 



The paper is in the form of a journal, but, unfortunately, the 

 accompanying sketch-map is so defective as to be quite useless 

 to assist the reader in following the narrative. Pere Couvreur, 

 of the Missions Etrangeres at Singapore, contributes an account 

 of a recent journey through Laos from Bangkok to Ubon, a town 

 on the Szimun, a tributary of the Mekong, including a visit to 

 the ancient Khmer city of Puthai-Saman, the monuments and 

 architecture of which make it similar to the renowned Angkor, 

 but on a reduced scale. To the people of the country these 

 magnificent ruins are the work of avals, so completely has all 

 trace of the great civilisation of which they are the eloquent wit ■ 

 nesses disappeared from Cambodia. This paper is also in the 

 form of a journal, but is not accompanied by a map. There 

 are several other papers of interest (such as the translation of 

 old Valentyn's account of Malacca, and the account of the 

 Dutch expedition of 1877-79 to the interior of Malacca), but 

 these are not original to the Straits Asiatic Society. 



The Verhandluitgen of the Berlin Geographical Society just 

 pubUshed (Band xiii., No. I) contains an account, by Dr. Wolff, 

 of the journey of the expedition sent out by the African Society 

 in 1SS4 from San Salvador to the Quango .and back, .and 

 Dr. Diener writes on the mountain system of Lebanon, on 

 which he has also a paper, already noticed, in the February 

 Pelerinaiin. The current Zeitschrift (V>t.\\<S. xx.. Heft 6) of the 

 same Society is largely occupied by a bibliography of the works, 

 papers, maps, &c., relating to geography published during the 

 year ending November 18S5. There is, however, a curious list 

 of the lengths and drainage areas of 376 rivers of the world. 

 These figures are necessarily approximate only in most cases. 

 It is noticeable that, while the Mississippi is 5882 kilometres in 

 length, and the Amazon only 4929, the drainage area of the 

 former is less than half that of the latter, the figures being : 

 Mississippi, 3,201.545, and the Amazon 7,337,132, square kilo- 

 metres. The only other paper in the number is an exceedingly 

 interesting one by Herr Kohde, on the Terenos tribe, which 

 inhabits the district to the west of the Bi-azili.an town of 

 Miranda, and stretches as far as the Bolivian frontier. They 

 are really Chaco Indians who have migrate! from Bolivia. The 

 writer describes, all too briefly, their appearance, mode of life, 

 occupation, and customs — especially their festivals. 



The Austrian traveller, Mr. C. Hermann, who started on a 

 West African exploring tour in April last, has returned to Vienna. 

 Having visited Liberia, Cameroon, Eloby, Gaboon, and other 

 points on the coast, he arrived at the Congo early in July, and 

 expected the arrival of Dr. Lenz at Banana. In order to engage 

 the necessaiy porters for Dr. Lenz's expedition he went to 

 Loango, but returned to Banana without having succeeded. He 

 left Dr. Lenz on October 20 and returned to Europe. 



Dr. Bernhard Schwarz writes from Monrovia (Liberia), 

 under date January 23, as follows : — " As chief of an official 

 expedition ' for the investigation of the up-country districts of 

 Cameroon,' I reached Cameroon on November 6 last, and 

 thence I proceeded eastwards with forty Bakwiri porters (from 

 the Cameroon Mountain) on the large main road leading to the 

 interior over the magnificent slopes of the Cameroon Peak. I 

 penetrated through the immense virgin forest=, which are 

 peopled with elephants, and in which coffee, india-rubber, &c., 

 grow, and and safely reached the interior of our colony, never 

 before visited by a white man on account of the energetic resist- 

 ance offered to all traders by the natives. Here live the 

 Bafarami in the Bafon Land, hitherto not even known to the 

 world by name. They cultivate the soil and keep cattle, and are 

 comparatively civilised. I visited Kumba and Kimendi, their 

 large towns, but on account of an attack made upon us by 500 

 armed slaves I could not see the upper Calabar, which must 

 have been quite near. The maps hitherto existing of this inter- 

 esting district, which may be of the highe>t importance for the 

 whole future of our colony, are either insuflScient or else quite 

 wrong.'' 



THE SUN AND STARS ^ 



VATHEN we have to consider the stars taken in their entirety. 



it is obviously convenient that we should begin with the 



sun, because in that way we shall be enabled to go outwards from 



the known ; since it is easily to be understood that it is within 



' A Course of Lectures to Working Men delivered by J. Norman Lockyer. 

 F.R.S., at the Museum of Practical Geology. Revised from shorthand 

 notes. 



