64 



NATURE 



[NOVEMDER 21, I907 



tion of the larva lo its peculiar mode of existence is 

 thus very marked. The larval stage seems to be un- 

 usually prolong-cd, an apparently almost full-grown larva 

 observed at the end of July not having develooed into the 

 imago until the following January. As it was observed to 

 be still active a short time before the final transformation 

 the pupa-stage is inferred to be brief. An enlarged figure 

 of the adult fly is given in the second part of the paper. 



Two papers in the October number of the Journal of 

 Anatomy and Physiology relating to Australian natives 

 are of more than ordinary interest. In the first, Dr. 

 W. L. H. Duckworth describes several brains, pointing 

 out that these afford evidence of the low grade of the 

 aborigines. They frequently show, for example, features 

 very rarely met with in the white races, which are, how- 

 ever, normal in apes. Such simian features are, never- 

 theless, by no means restricted to Australians, whose 

 brains are in other respects essentially human. In the 

 second paper Dr. Ramsay .Smith, after describing the 

 results of an investigation into the mode of development 

 of the teeth of Australians, discusses the bearing of this 

 on tooth-development generally. He finds that simple 

 cuspidate teeth, like canines and incisors, are developed 

 from a single tube of dentine, tipped or capped with 

 enamel, and also that this development takes place by 

 constriction. This being so, he urges that in the case of 

 complex teeth, such as molars, in place of any fusion or 

 absorption of cusps, development has taken place by plica- 

 tion or constriction of an original primitive, single, simple 

 tube, according to the method revealed by his observations. 

 Hence the theory of the origin of " heterodont " teeth from 

 fused primitive cones, as well as the theory of the aggre- 

 gation of cusps, so far at least as it involves the origin 

 of roots, must be re-considered. 



On the subject of school gardens, attention is directed 

 in the editorial oi Irish Gardening to the absence of these 

 in Ireland, although it is an essentially agricultural 

 country, while in most European countries they have been 

 extensively provided. Mr. VV. Johnston contributes a prac- 

 tical article on raspberry cultivation, and Mr. P. Brock 

 writes on the propagation of chrysanthemums ; special 

 articles are also concerned with the development and 

 classes of carnations, and the culture of Cape heaths. 



Miss A. G. Stokey has contributed to the July number 

 of the Botanical Gasette a description of the roots of 

 Lycopodium pithyoides, a subtropical plant in which every 

 stem is a potential sporophyll. The stem is characterised 

 by the large number of roots that run through the cortex, 

 amounting to more than fifty in one instance. The roots 

 arise within a few millimetres of the apex of apparently 

 mature stems. The vascular strand in the root shows in 

 transverse section a crescent-shaped mass of xylem, with 

 phloem lying between the horns of the crescent. At the 

 apex of the root four distinct initial regions can be dis- 

 tinguished. 



With the object of disseminating the information locally 

 and for others interested. Dr. W. L. Bray has prepared 

 an account, published as Bulletin No. 82 of the University 

 of Texas, of the distribution and adaptation of the vegeta- 

 tion in that State. The factors that control the various 

 plant zones are discussed upon the principles laid down 

 in Schimper's " Pflanzen-Geographie." In connection with 

 water supply, the author distinguishes primarily a 

 moisture-demanding vegetation in east Texas and a dry- 

 c'.imate vegetation in west Texas. Mesophytic types of 

 "•oodland, notably long- and short-leaf pine and mixed 



NO. 1986, VOL. y-/} 



forests, are characteristic of the east, whereas in the 

 west, xerophytic formations abound, such as the " chap- 

 paral " scrub, grassy plains, and the " sotol " country in- 

 habited by succulents and dwarf shrubs. There is also a 

 wide range of temperature, from the semi-tropical region 

 where the culture of tropical plants is onlv prevented by 

 occasional forests, to a cold zone where the Douglas spruce 

 is dominant. Between these lie the " cotton-belt " and the 

 " corn-belt." 



In the September number of the Cape of Good Hope 

 Agricultural Journal, Mr. Robertson describes his investi- 

 gations on a local cattle disease he considers lo be identical 

 with Nocard and Leclinche's " pasteurellose. " He isolated 

 from the affected tissues a bacillus which produces all the 

 symptoms of the disease when inoculated into healthy 

 sheep or cattle. Dr. Nobbs also gives an account jf the 

 work proposed to be done at the experiment stations at 

 Knysna, on the wet " sour veld," and at Robertson, in the 

 semi-arid " Karroo " district. These two widely different 

 types of country are fairly common in Cape Colony. 

 " Sour veld " is known by its vegetation ; much of it is, 

 or was, forest, but a good deal is covered with scrubby 

 bushes 2 feet to 10 feet high, and reeds, sedges, bracken, 

 and the sugar-bush family (Proteaceac:) arc numerous. 

 There is abundant rainfall. The land is being brought 

 into cultivation, but is found to be very sterile in spite of 

 being virgin soil of excellent mechanical condition. 

 Cropping, manuring, and tillage experiments are in pro- 

 gress. On the fertile " Karroo " land the conditions are 

 altogether different ; the rainfall is only 10 inches or 

 12 inches, and as this comes chiefly in winter, recourse 

 must be had to irrigation and special cultivation methods 

 during summer. The experiments at Robertson are in 

 these directions. 



The Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, 

 Nos. 7, 8, contains a paper by Miss E. C. .Semple on 

 geographical boundaries. After dwelling on the indefinite 

 character of most natural boundaries, Miss Semple gives 

 an account of the conditions generally e.xisting in the 

 border zone between two races or states, illustrations 

 being afforded by the early history of the United States 

 and the wide frontier between Russia and the East. The 

 system of maintaining a waste boundary strip for pro- 

 tective purposes has been superseded in modern States by 

 a fixed political boundary, which, however, docs not pre- 

 vent the existence of a frontier district, the inhabitants of 

 which are generally a mixed race of the two contiguous 

 elements. By means of a map showing the races of 

 Central Europe, the migrations of Slav and Teuton over 

 the political boundary are strikingly illustrated. Attention 

 is also directed to the tendency of border zones to become 

 inhabited by undesirable refugees from both sides. 



In compliance with a request made by the Solar Com- 

 mission of the Meteorological Congress at Innsbruck in 

 1905, the Weather Bureau of the Philippines has pub- 

 lished a useful statement of the rainfall of that archi- 

 pelago, in the preparation of which all the available data 

 at the disposal of the Manila Observatory have been 

 revised by the Rev. M. S. Mas6, S.J., under the direction 

 of the Rev. Father Algu^. The rainfall differs consider- 

 ably, owing to the extension of the archipelago in the 

 N.-S. direction ; the annual average amount is about 

 87 inches, the extreme values being 355 inches and about 

 157 inches. Three different climates are distinguished; 

 the first and Vi'orst has two well-defined seasons, wet and 

 dry, in which more than 80 per cent, of the annual fall 



