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NATURE 
[APRIL 7, 1923 
Research Items. 
Earty History oF THE Sioux TriBE.—In the 
Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences (vol. 
xiii. No. 3), under the title of ‘‘ New Light on 
Early History of the Siouan Peoples,” Dr. J. R. 
Swanton produces new evidence, largely based on 
phonetics, of the former distribution of this race. 
He summarises the results of his inquiries as follows : 
“The occupancy of the territory of our Middle West 
between the great Lakes and the Ohio by Siouan 
tribes seems to rest on grounds almost historical. 
With the strong indications now at hand there seems 
reason to think that a close comparative study of 
the Siouan dialects would enable us to reconstruct 
the general outlines of their ancient geographical 
positions with considerable accuracy. If present 
indications are not deceptive, when that is done we 
shall find that they fell into four major linguistic 
groups: a north-eastern, consisting of the ancestors 
of the later Siouan tribes of Virginia, the Hidatsa, 
Dakota, Biloxi, and Ofo; a south-eastern, including 
most of the later Siouan peoples of the two Carolinas ; 
a south-western, composed of the five tribes of 
Dorsey’s Dhegiha group; and a north-western, 
Dorsey’s Teiwere.” 
HIGH-ALTITUDE MOUNTAINEERING.—Basing his con- 
clusions on his experiences in climbing Mount Everest, 
Mr. G. I. Finch discusses the equipment for high- 
altitude mountaineering in the Geographical Journal 
for March. Up to 21,000 ft. the climber’s physical 
functions were practically unimpaired and good sleep 
and recuperation from fatigue were possible, but at 
23,000 ft. sleep was fitful, appetite fell off, and there 
was a general loss of physical fitness. The conclusion 
is that at, say, 22,000 ft. acclimatisation to altitude 
ceases and above that height oxygen should be used, 
at first in small doses, and from 26,500 ft. in larger 
doses, but the dose must depend on the nature of the 
ground. It must also be rememberéd that’ Oxygen 
increases the appetite, and due provision must be 
made for this. The stimulating effect of cigarette 
smoke was noted at 25,500 ft. Although greater 
heights than these were reached without the use of 
oxygen, Mr. Finch thinks this procedure unwise, and 
believes that above the acclimatisation level a’ man 
must become steadily weaker and unable to recover 
from fatigue unless he makes use of oxygen. The 
article contains also some hints on clothing, footgear, 
and apparatus. 
NEw PLANTS UNDER CuLTIvaTion.—Part II. of 
Vol. 148 of Curtis’s Botanical Magazine shows that 
figures and descriptions under the new editor, and 
conditions of publication, will maintain a high level. 
Among the plants described by Dr. Stapf, four are due 
to the activities of collectors in China; two new 
Rhododendrons, R. sulfureum Franch. and R. planetum 
Balf, a delightful Labiate from Yunnan named by 
Forrest Dvacocephalum Isabelle, and a small-fruited 
hardy apple Malus tovingoides Hughes. Two orchids, 
Mawillaria Fletcheriana Rolfe and Cirrhopetalum 
tripudians Parish et Reichenb., two succulents, 
Euphorbia anoplia Stapf (S. Africa) and Echinocactus 
undulatus Dietr. (Mexico), two other African plants, 
Amorphophallus _ coffeatus Stapf and Lachenalia 
convallariodora Stapf, are described, together with 
one plant from the Afghan Indian frontier, Loniceva 
Griffithii Hook. f. and Thoms., a honeysuckle that 
seems to offer some difficulties in cultivation, although 
it has been grown in an unheated conservatory suc- 
cessfully and with very pleasing results. 
NO. 2788, VOL, 111] 

British Cytospora.—In the Kew Bulletin, No. 1 
for 1923, W. B. Grove has provided descriptions of 
the British species of Cytospora which will be of great 
value for mycologists, particularly for phytopath- 
ologists, as these fungi do considerable damage, 
especially among fruit trees. Cytospora is the name 
given to a conidial form, producing upon the branches 
of the host plant pustules and ultimately roundish 
discs, from the centre of which conidial discharge is 
indicated by a black point or little tendril of conidia 
held together by mucilage. When the full life-cycle 
can be traced, it will probably be found that all the 
species can be shown to be stages in the life-history of 
some Pyrenomycete, such as Valsa, Valsella or Euty- 
pella. The necessary cultural experiments, to connect 
these conidial stages with their specific ascophorous 
form, should be carried out during the next few years 
in the cases where the host plants are cultivated plants 
of value. The British locality for a large number of 
the 62 species described is given as Kew Gardens, 
presumably because suspicious twigs are more fre- 
quently removed for expert examination from Kew 
than from trees that are less closely examined. Mr. 
Grove’s list will, however, be an incentive to a more 
general study of the British species of Cytospora. 
THE OLDEsT Rocks oF MARYLAND.—Following the 
general trend of opinion as research progresses among 
pre-Cambrian rocks, Eleanora B. Knopf and Anna 
T. Jones (“ Stratigraphy of the crystalline schists 
of Pennsylvania and Maryland,” Amer. Journ. Sci., 
vol. 205, p. 40, January 1923) assign a sedimentary 
origin to the oldest known rocks of Maryland, which 
are styled the Baltimore gneiss. There is no tendency 
to revert to the old view that gneisses were deposited 
from primordial hot solutions. Their layer-structure 
represents normal sedimentary sheets, in which a 
complete recrystallisation of the constituents has 
taken place. Some dynamic metamorphism is traced 
in portions of the mass; but the principal feature of 
alteration appears to be due to invasion by a batholitic 
granite magma, with consequent Jit-par-lit injection. 
This fact leads the authors to write of the composite 
rock as an “ intrusive complex of early pre-Cambrian 
age,’’ an expression that surely misrepresents the 
general conclusion at which their work arrives. The 
distribution of metamorphic masses in the local 
Paleozoic series is anomalous, and the presence of 
subjacent batholitic invaders is suggested. 
A GREAT STRATIGRAPHICAL SEQUENCE.—The enor- 
mous vertical sections provided by the Grand Cafion 
of the Colorado River in Arizona remind one of 
the old-fashioned geological diagrams, in which the 
succession of known strata was represented as con- 
tinuous at one spot and based inevitably on a floor of 
granite. Yet even the 4000 feet of horizontal beds 
exposed by the stream-cut at Bass Trail tell us 
nothing of what went on between Cambrian and 
Devonian times, and include, as Mr. L. F. Noble’s 
detailed study shows, several notable if lesser un- 
conformities. In Professional Paper 131B, United 
States Geological Survey (1922), Mr. Noble does not 
confine himself to the Bass Trail section, of which he 
gives a drawing worthy of reproduction as a lecture- 
diagram. He provides photographic studies of various 
unconformities, which the casual visitor would find 
it difficult to trace, and concludes with the suggestive 
outlier of Lower and Upper Triassic strata, forming 
the flat-topped Cedar Mountain, two miles from the 
cafion edge. His discovery in 1920 of the frond of 
Callipteris conferta in the Hermit Shale is regarded 
se ee 
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