February 27, 1908J 



NA TURE 



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ill numbers in several places, while hartebeest, gnu, water- 

 buck, Thomson's and Grant's gazelles, and, above all, 

 bonte-quagga, occurred • in enormous herds, and rhino- 

 ceroses and hippopotamuses were by no means uncommon. 

 The extinction, or decimation, of the fauna is, according 

 to the author, not likely to occur for many a long day. 

 Such testimony from an impartial and unprejudiced 

 observer is as satisfactory as it is valuable. 



For some years a difference of opinion has prevailed 

 among palceontologists with regard to the systematic posi- 

 tion of the group of Upper Tertiary mammals typified 

 bv the European genus Chalicotherium. In these 

 mammals, it may be mentioned, the cheek-teeth are of 

 Ihe general type of the Perissodactyla, whereas the feet 

 are of an unguiculate character, the latter feature having 

 long led to the belief that these mammals were members 

 of the Edentate order. Since the date of the association 

 of the teeth with the foot-bones (when the ungulate 

 affinities of the group could no longer be doubted), Mr. 

 Lydckker has persistently maintained that there is no 

 justification for separating the chalicotherioids from the 

 Perissodactyla, whereas .American paljEontoIogists have 

 with equal confidence asserted that they should form 

 a subordinal (or ordinal) group by themselves. In an 

 article contributed to the American Naturalist for 

 December, 1907, Mr. O. A. Peterson, from the evidence 

 of specimens referable to the genus Moropus, con- 

 cludes " that Moropus is, excepting its unguiculate feet, 

 essentially a perissodactyle in structure. That the laterally 

 compressed and cleft condition of the terminal phalanges 

 is quite distinct in some of the early Perissodactyla, and 

 that by adaptation . . . the unguals of Moropus were 

 specially modified, and should not ... be regarded as of 

 ordinal importance." 



M. Gaston Bonnier records in the Coiuptes rciidiis of 

 the Paris .\cademy of Sciences (vol. cxiv.. No. 27) some 

 interesting observations on what he terms the raisonne- 

 incnt collectif of bees. In one of his experiments he 

 placed in his garden several lumps of sugar ; these were 

 visited by bees, which, however, were unable to bite off 

 its particles on account of the weakness of their mandibles. 

 Thfe bees were marked by the experimenter, and were 

 seen to fly off to their hive ; in one to two hours they 

 returned with other workers, but this time they flew, not 

 from the hive, but from a fountain of water. On settling 

 on the sugar they were seen to pump water from their 

 crops on to the sugar, and then suck up the syrup so 

 formed, finally flying back to the hive. Other observa- 

 tions convinced M. Bonnier that individual bees were 

 able to communicate news of their discoveries of fresh 

 sources of honey to the colony, and he has reason to believe 

 that the number of workers summoned is always propor- 

 tional to the supply of honey that has been found. 



The Bio-Chemical Journal for January (iii., Nos. i and 2) 

 contains several interesting papers, notably one by Prof. 

 Moore and Dr. Roaf on the equilibrium between the cell 

 and its environment in regard to soluble constituents, with 

 special reference to the osmotic equilibrium of the red-blood 

 corpuscles, in which the conclusion is formulated that the 

 difference in composition of the electrolytes within and 

 without the cell, and the physiological effects of perfusion 

 or irrigation of c^ells by media defective or excessive in 

 certain electrolytes normally present in the cell receive a 

 simple explanation, on the basis of the formation of 

 adsorpates or chemical combinations between cell protein 

 (or protoplasm) and other constituents. 

 NO. 2000, VOL. 77] 



There are two essential factors with others required for 

 the success of a nature-study course, the one that the 

 course should be seasonal, the other that the instructor 

 should manifest a continuous and keen interest in his 

 subject. The first point has been effectively brought out 

 in a pamphlet by Prof. J. .\. Thomson, issued from 

 .Aberdeen University, wherein he indicates suitable lines of 

 study for various courses. The notes refer to physical, 

 botanical, and zoological studies. A careful perusal of the 

 pamphlet cannot fail to supply teachers with suggestions 

 and stimulate interest. 



The January number of Tropical Life contains informa- 

 tion with reference to a rubber exhibition that is already 

 arranged to be held at the Royal Horticultural Hall in 

 September this year, and an International Rubber Exhibi- 

 tion that it is proposed to hold in London a year or two 

 hence. In the same journal useful information with regard 

 to methods of cultivating and curing tobacco in Porto 

 Rico is contributed by Mr. D. W. May, and the value of 

 manures for cacao plantations forms the subject of one 

 of a series of articles dealing with the cultivation of cacao. 



A contribution by Mr. F. Ramaley on the silva of 

 Colorado, dealing with the woody plants of Boulder 

 County, is published in vol. v.. No. i, of the University 

 of Colorado Studies. The flora provides an interesting 

 study in altitudinal distribution, since the elevation of the 

 county varies from about 5000 feet to 10,000 feet at the 

 foot of the main range, while the highest peak exceeds 

 14.000 feet. Grass lands rise up to 6000 feet, when open 

 forest of rock pine, Piniis scopulorum, and Douglas 

 spruce, Pseiidotstiga mucroiiata, is found. A zone of 

 lodge-pole pine, Pintts mtirrayana, mixed with rock pine 

 and limber pine, Piniis flexilis, reaches to 10,000 feet, 

 above which the Engelman spruce is dominant. Higher 

 again in the .Alpine zone, the only woody plants are dwarf 

 willows. 



A number of the Philippine Journal of Science (vol. ii., 

 Xo. 5), devoted to the descriptions of commercial Philip- 

 pine woods, has been prepared by Mr. F. W. Foxworthy. 

 It contains a general discussion of their structure and 

 properties, a key for their identification, and notes on the 

 species. The key is elucidated by means of a series of 

 fiftv-five photographs representing transverse sections. Of 

 timbers well known on the European market, only teak 

 and ebony are found ; the former is very scarce, and the 

 ebony is chiefly derived from Maba iuxifolia, with less 

 valuable timber from Diospyros pilosanthera and other 

 species. " Narra " is a first-class timber yielded by Ptero- 

 carptis indicus and allied species, therefore related to Indian 

 " padouk " ; also the tree known in India as "poon," 

 Calophyllum inophyllum, provides a timber that is 

 employed for construction and furniture. Other valuable 

 species are Homalium lusoniense, Illipe betis, Pitheco- 

 lobium acle, species of Lagerstroemia, Intsia and Vitex, 

 and Pahtidia rhomboidea. 



A PAMPHLET on the geology of the Roberts-Victor 

 diamond mine has been published by Mr. J. P. Johnson 

 (Johannesburg). This mine, which is situated in the 

 Boshof district. Orange River Colony, presents many 

 points of geological interest, and the author's observations 

 lead him to believe that kimberlite, the rock in which the 

 diamonds occur, is not an igneous rock, but a purely 

 fragmental one, simulating in parts an igneous structure 

 owing to changes induced by hot water or steam, and that 

 it is to these factors that the extreme alteration of the 

 mineral constituents of both the peridotite and pyroxenite 

 boulders and of the matrix in which they lie is due. 



