3'8 



NA TURE 



[January 14, 1C09 



lation, the nitro-bactrine effected no improvement in the 

 crops. It should be noted that all the experiments were 

 confined to the cultivation of peas. 



Two papers occupy a large portion of the nineteenth 

 report of the Missouri Botanical Garden. Mr. C. S. 

 Sargent contributes a memoir on the species of the critical 

 American genus Crataegus found in Missouri. He 

 identifies no fewer than no species, of which a large 

 number are endemic, and more than half are new to 

 science ; this, by the way, is said to be a preliminary 

 study. The second paper, dealing with the types of vegeta- 

 tion found in a normal cross-section taken across the 

 Mississippi River near St. Louis, is communicated by Mr. 

 H. Hus. The physiographical divisions on either side of 

 the river are distinguished as bottom-lands, bluffs, and 

 highlands. Forests and limited prairies are characteristic 

 of the highlands. In the forests the black oak, Oueicus 

 cocciiiea, associated with other oaks and hickories, is 

 dominant. Curious features are the sink-holes, originally 

 forming entrances to caves, that have in many cases been 

 closed, when the holes have been transformed into ponds. 

 Hydrastis canadensis, Volygonaium giganlcum, and 

 Arisacmiiin triphyUum are characteristic plants found 

 therein. 



Bulletin No. Ii8 of the Perdue University Agricultural 

 Experiment Station, drawn up by Messrs. Troop and Wood- 

 bury, contains popular instructions for fruit-growers on 

 various common orchard posts. Methods of recognition are 

 given and remedial measures are described ; there is also a 

 good deal of sound advice on general management. Bulletin 

 No. 116 of the West \'irginia University Agricultural 

 Experiment Station deals with the same subjects as they 

 affect the West Virginian fruit-grower. In view, of the 

 increasing attention that is being devoted in this country 

 to the improving of orchards, and in particular to spray- 

 ing, English horticultural instructors will find much to 

 interest them in these publications. 



The Imperial Agricultural Department of the West 

 Indies has issued a bulletin, by Mr. Stockdalc, dealing 

 with the fungus diseases of cacao and the sanitation of 

 cacao orchards. The diseases described are canker, " die- 

 back " (caused by Diplodia cacaoicola), lasiodiplodia, 

 " pink disease " (caused by Corticitim lilaco-fuscum), 

 thread blights (Marasmius cqiiicrinus and other fungi), 

 witchbroom disease (Exoascus theobromac), and others. 

 Most of these diseases have been under experiment for 

 some years, having been investigated by Mr. Howard in 

 1901, and it has been satisfactorily demonstrated that 

 they are amenable to treatment. The methods found to 

 be most effective are collected together, and the bulletin 

 thus affords an interesting survey of the work done up to 

 the present on this particular subject. 



The current issue of the Transvaal Agricultural 

 Journal is up to its usual high standard, and includes a 

 number of articles of local importance, besides others of 

 more general interest. Dr. Theiler gives an account of 

 the results he has obtained by inoculating sheep against 

 blue tongue. He finds that vaccination is more effective, 

 and attended with less risk, than the older method of 

 simultaneous serum and virus injection. The mortality 

 returns from vaccinated portions of the flocks compare 

 instructively with those from unvaccinated portions; ii per 

 cent, of the unvaccinated sheep died, but only 04 per cent. 

 of those vaccinated. It is a matter of fundamental 

 importance to the Transvaal farmer, and of great credit 

 to the Transvaal Agricultural Department, that this disease 

 NO. 2046, VOL. 79] 



should have been brought under control. The number of 

 diseases, both of animals and of plants, in the Transvaal 

 is great, but is steadily being rendered less formidable by 

 the persistent efforts of the Agricultural Department. 



The work of the agricultural experiment station in 

 connection with the University of Maine is at the present 

 time organised under four departments — chemistry, entom- 

 ology, vegetable pathology, and biology. The work is 

 entirely investigational, except in the department of chem- 

 istry. With a single exception, none of the staff does any 

 teaching or has any duties other than those directly con- 

 nected with the work of his department. We have received 

 a report on the work of the biological department. The 

 general problem on which the department is working is 

 that of genetics, which is studied by observational, experi- 

 mental, and statistical methods of biological investigation. 

 The work is carried on in two laboratories. In addition, 

 the department has available what is probably one of the 

 largest and best equipped experimental poultry plants any- 

 where in existence. The work in plant breeding proper 

 and on any problems which involve the use of plants as 

 material is at the present time being carried on on rented 

 land. The work of the department falls at present into 

 three general lines of investigation as follows : — genetics, 

 physiology of reproduction in the domestic fowl, and the 

 laws of growth. Each of these topics may be considered 

 somewhat in detail. The work in genetics includes 

 hybridisation studies, the influence of selection upon the 

 inherited characters of organisms, and quantitative studies 

 of the method and degree of inheritance of various 

 characters in plants and in poultry. Under the physiology 

 of reproduction are being studied the physiology of egg 

 production within the individual, the physiology of egg 

 production within the race, the influence of environmental 

 factors (in the broadest sense), the relation of internal 

 factors to, and their influence upon, processes, and the 

 pathological and teratological cases relating to egg pro- 

 duction. During the present year a detailed study of the 

 growth of the maize plant has been made, with particular 

 reference to the following factors : — gametic constitution 

 of the growing individual, intra-individual variation, and 

 racial variation. 



In the \'atioual Geographic Magazine for December last 

 Mr. A. J. Mayer describes a cruise along that most 

 neglected part of the Atlantic coast lying between the 

 mouth of Chesapeake Bay and north Florida. In the 

 course of the voyage we pass from a temperate region 

 of chestnuts and beeches to the border lands of the tropics 

 in the Florida palmetto groves. In the animal world there 

 is ample evidence of the wanton destruction of life — 

 waterfowl, wild turkey, deer, bears, and alligators — while 

 the forests are disappearing under the axe or are being 

 destroyed by the wasteful turpentine industry. Unless 

 early measures are taken to conserve the game and forests, 

 a region which might become the favoured haunt of the 

 sportsman and naturalist will be converted into a barren 

 waste. 



The January issue of the Reliquary contains two useful 

 articles on early ceramics. The first, by Mr. .A. G. 

 Wright, curator of the Colchester Museum, describes the 

 collection of late Celtic and Roman pottery in his charge, 

 which, for the number of specimens and the great variety 

 of wares, is probably unequalled in northern Europe. 

 Specially remarkable is the splendid cinerary urn of the 

 Bronze age, the second largest of its class discovered in 

 Britain, the other and greater example being preserved 

 in the Devises Museum. Among the vessels of the Iron 



