April 2, 1908] 



NA TURE 



517 



of the white anl, and the damage indicted bj' the species 

 in the Southern United States. 



Till! existence of an intimate relationship between the 

 fauna of the eastern coast of Arctic North America and 

 ihat of northern Europe has for some years been admitted 

 by naturalists. .Supplementary evidence to the same effect 

 is afforded by a recent study on the part of Mr. J. .\. Cush- 

 inan of minute fresh-water crustaceans from Labrador and 

 Newfoundland, the results of which arc published in No. 

 1589 of the Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum. 

 Cladocera were represented in the collection by seven and 

 the Copepoda by one species, all of which are common to 

 Lurope. 



The second part of the new Leipzig journal Yortriige 

 und Aiifsiilzc iibcr Eiitiinckclitngsmecltanik der Organismen 

 is devoted to a paper read by Mr. Jacques Loeb before the 

 International Zoological Congress held at Boston (Mass.) 

 in August last, on the chemical character of the secretions 

 of the reproductive organs. Starting with the a.xiom that 

 the special prerogative of living organisms is the power 

 of automatic reproduction, the author proceeds to describe 

 I be chemical composition of the reproductive elements, and 

 tile bearing of this on certain biological theories. 



Zeituiig fiir Lilcratiir. Ktitist und Wissciischajt for 

 March 15 contains a summary of the results of the Ham- 

 burg Expedition to the Magellan Strait in 1892-3, as de- 

 tailed in a work of three volumes just issued by the Ham- 

 luirg Museum of Natural History. A feature on which the 

 Hamburgers speciallv pride themselves is that the expedi- 

 tion was practically " run " by the municipality and in- 

 h.ibitants of their own city, while even the scientific 

 workers iire to a great extent their own fellow-citizens. 

 .According to the notice in the Zeitung, special attention 

 appears to have been directed to the subject of " bi- 

 polarity, " that is to say, the occurrence of similar types of 

 animal life at the two poles and their absence from almost 

 the whole of the intervening area. The geological and 

 faunistic resemblances of South -Africa, South America, and 

 .Australia are also referred to, with the remark that most 

 of the common tvpes indicate extremelv ancient forms of 

 life. 



The importance — or r.-ilber the absolute necessity — of 

 cooperation among workers in different branches of bio- 

 logical research formed the subject of discussion at a meet- 

 ing of the American Society of Naturalists in December 

 last, in which Profs. Lillie, Trelease, Donaldson, Howell, 

 and .Angell took part. The discussion is reported in exienso 

 in Science of March 5. The first speaker, Prof. Lillie, 

 took for his text the .American Marine Biological Labora- 

 tory as an example of cooperation, not only among the 

 members of its governing body, but with various other 

 institutions. As it is, several branches of sciences are 

 represented in the laboratory, but it is suggested that it 



, will be necessary to add a chemical section. Prof. 



' Trelease, on the other hand, took his illustrations from 

 the fact that at the present day interest in biology centres 

 on the mechanism of animals and plants, and their rela- 

 tions to environment — factors demanding the cooperation 



J of morphological and physiological research. A further 



I advantage claimed for cooperation is that by its means 

 alone is it possible to discover the most productive and 

 original research-workers. 



.A r.iRT (vol. iii., No. 4) of the Records of the Botanical 

 Survey of India is assigned to a revision of the Indo- 

 M.ilayan species of Cedrela undertaken by Prof. C. 



NO. 2005, VOL. yj] 



de Candolle. The author restores to the genus the species 

 separated by some systematists under a genus Toona. 

 The columnar receptacle of the flower is noted as a 

 character of systematic value. As it was found dilTicult 

 to assign specific limits to the specimens ranging round 

 the species Toona, the forms are split up into numerous 

 varieties. Of three new species created, Cedrela Hainesii 

 is the most notable on account of the staminodes that are 

 present in the flower. 



Writing on the Florida strangling figs, an article 

 intended for the nineteenth annual report of the Missouri 

 Garden, Prof. E. A. Bessey describes the characters of 

 the two indigenous species Ficus aurea and Ficus populnca. 

 The former commonly, the latter rarely, begins life as 

 an epiphyte ; in this connection it was experimentally 

 determined that the seeds of Ficus aurea require light for 

 germination. The seeds of Ficus populnea show a less 

 marked light requirement. Neither species develops the 

 two distinct types of pistillate flowers known as seed and 

 gall flowers, but larvae are produced if the flowers are 

 visited by ovipositing Blastophagse ; otherwise seeds are 

 formed. 



The early stages of development of the sporangia and 

 the sporocarps of .Azolla have been carefully studied by 

 .Miss \V. F. Pfeiffer ; the account published in the Botanical 

 Gazette (December, 1907) corrects and amplifies previous 

 information on the subject. In all cases a mega- 

 sporangium is formed at an apex, and the wall rising 

 below as an annulus quickly outgrows and encloses the 

 sporangium. The development of the megasporangium is 

 normal up to the formation of eight tetrads. Meanwhile, 

 the microsporangia begin to appear as initial cells on the 

 broad stalk of the megasporangium. .At this stage, for 

 reasons undetermined, either the megasporangium develops 

 and the microsporangia cease to grow, or the mega- 

 sporangium aborts and the microsporangia then develop 

 normally. 



Mr. L. Wrav contributes to the Journal of the Federated 

 Malay States Museum (vol. ii., No. 2) an account of a 

 Malay varnish that is prepared from the resin obtained 

 by making incisions in the bark of the tree Garcinia 

 merguensis. The same writer publishes a short account 

 of a native method of embroidering with gold thread, and 

 a note on an opium substitute favoured by the Malays in 

 some districts. The latter, known as " biak," is made 

 from the leaves of Mitragyne speciosa. The dried leaves 

 are powdered and mixed with water to form a decoction, 

 or an extract is made that is smoked like " chandul," the 

 extract of opium. In the same number will be found a 

 hand-list of birds of the Malay Peninsula compiled by Mr. 

 H. C. Robinson. 



Mr. N. W. Thomas, in his " Bibliography of Anthro- 

 pology and Folk-lore," published under the auspices of the 

 Royal -Anthropological Institute and the Folk-lore Society, 

 has issued the first number of an annual series which will 

 be indispensable to all students of the subjects with which 

 it deals. His bibliography includes papers and articles in 

 no fewer than 165 publications — proceedings of learned 

 societies, magazines, and other ephemeral literature. In 

 subsequent issues we may hope for a more full analysis of 

 the papers with which the compiler deals. But, as it 

 stands, this pamphlet, which is provided with excellent 

 indexes, serves a distinctly useful purpose. 



Lawyers in India have long been aware that, besides 

 what may be called the official or sacerdotal view of law 

 contained in the Institutes of Manu and other codes of 



