February i8, 1909] 



NA TURE 



4^7 



shows an advancing but still incomplete appreciation of 

 Alpine scenery, which was further developed by the solitary, 

 imaginative Gray. It was left to Rousseau, in " La 

 Nouvelle Heloisc," to popularise that feeling in Europe, 

 the tradition of which passed on to Wordsworth, Byron, 

 and their many successors. While, then, it is incorrect to 

 regard the love of wild nature as an almost universal 

 human instinct, there is evidence that it was felt by the 

 more imaginative minds from the very earliest times. 



Mr. D. Griffiths contributes to the annual report of 

 the Missouri Botanical Gardens (vol. xix.) a first series 

 of illustrated studies on the genus Opuntia that acquires 

 additional interest because the plants have been studied in 

 their natural localities. Types of several new species, 

 chiefly Mexican, are described. 



With the present issue, for February, Irish Gardening 

 completes its third year, and may well claim to have 

 fulfilled its purpose of providing a source of information 

 for Irish cultivators. An article of general interest to 

 cultivators of rock gardens, on the subject of suitable 

 dwarf shrubs, is contributed by Mr. J. W. Besant. Attrac- 

 tive colouring of leaves, flowers or fruit, in addition to 

 dwarf habit,' are the qualities recommended. The author 

 presents a selection of species from about ten genera, 

 among which Bcrhcris Wihonae, a new introduction from 

 China, Cotoncastcr adprcssa, varieties of Enonyiniis 

 radicans, Genista tincloria. Hypericum moserianum. Pnlcn- 

 tilla Friedrichsoni, .ind Perovsl;ia atriplicifolia receive 

 special commendation. 



Mr. G. A. XAn.sox contributes to the BiiUclin dii Jardin 

 imperial botaniqiic, St. Petersburg (vol. viii., parts v. 

 and vi.), a short article on the physiology of luminous 

 bacteria, regarding the action of salt in cultural media. 

 Luminosity is produced quickly by using a strong solution 

 containing about 3 per cent, of salt, but a solution con- 

 taining one-half per cent, eventually produces a more 

 intense light. The following method for obtaining the 

 spores of Saccharomyces cerevisiae is recommended by Mr. 

 A. A. Gorodkowa. Sowings of pure yeast are made on 

 plates of agar prepared from a solution containing i per 

 cent, each of agar, peptone, and meat extract, a half per 

 cent, of salt, and a quarter per cent, of glucose. The 

 cultures, placed in a thermostat maintained at a tempera- 

 ture of 28° C, should produce spores in three or four 

 days. 



On the question of sense-organs in plants, botanists are 

 primarily indebted to Prof. Haberlandt and Dr. Kemec 

 for original conceptions that have met with considerable, 

 but not universal, acceptation. .'\rising out of a lecture 

 delivered in Berlin, Prof. Haberlandt has published an 

 article on the subject in Himmel und Erdc (December, 1908, 

 January, 1909). Three different classes of sense-organs are 

 described, concerned respectively with the perception of 

 mechanical, gravitational, and heliotropic stimuli. The 

 arrangement, in the first case, often consists of a project- 

 ing cell or portion of a cell, as in the stamens of Porlulaca 

 grandiflora ; more remarkable is the staminal filament of 

 Sparmannia africana, that is notched on the receptive side. 

 The theory that starch grains act as mechanical regulators 

 of gravitational stimulation has aroused much criticism, 

 but has been put to a convincing experimental test by Dr. 

 Francis Darwin. Finally, Prof. Haberlandt submits the 

 arguments in favour of regarding lens-shaped epidermal 

 cells and similar structures in the leaves as apparatus 

 for concentrating the light on the protoplasm, and so 

 regulating the position of the leaf. 



XO. 2051, VOL. 79] 



The December (iqo.S) number of the Journal nf Agri- 

 culture of South Australia contains the official estimate of 

 the probable wheat harvest for 1908-9 in South Australia. 

 The total yield is placed at just under 20 million bushels, 

 an average of ii-6 bushels per acre. The corresponding 

 actual figures for last year were a little more than 19 

 million bushels, with an average of ioq bushels per acre. 

 The total area under wheat is estimated at 2,062,000 acres, 

 an increase of 37,000 acres over the previous year, but 

 some of this is grown as a hay crop. The area reaped 

 for grain is placed at 1,727,000 acres, a decrease of 26,000 

 acres ; the area cut for hay is 334,000 acres, an increase 

 of 63,000 acres. 



The report on the Botanic Station, .Agricultural School, 

 and Experiment Plots of St. Lucia, recently issued by the 

 Imperial Commissioner of .Agriculture for the West Indies, 

 shows satisfactory progress. A large number of economic 

 plants have been raised, and nearly 75,000 were distributed, 

 including lime plants, wOiich were most in request, cacao, 

 rubber, the demand for which fell off, mangoes, oranges, 

 &c. Experiments are recorded on cultivation and spraying ; 

 it was found that lime trees could be sprayed with an 

 emulsion of kerosene sufficiently strong to destroy the 

 orange snow scale (Chionaspis citri) without themselves 

 suffering any harm. 



The varieties of potatoes grown in the Central Provinces 

 of India are described by Mr. G. Evans in a bulletin 

 issued by the Department of Agriculture for the Central 

 Provinces. Until four or five years ago the Moolki variety 

 was the only one grown in certain districts, and there is 

 evidence to show that it had been grown for nearly 100 

 years without change of seed or climate ; it is now, how- 

 ever, said to be " worn out," and rapidly succumbing to 

 attacks of disease, &c. Potatoes are not uncommonly dis- 

 placing sugar-canes, and are found to be more profitable. 



In vol. xxiii. of the Queensland Geographical Journat 

 Mr. H. R. Mathews, without any reference to, and appar- 

 ently quite independently of, the papers by Mr. N. W. 

 Thomas in vols. xxxv. and xxxvi. of the Journal of the 

 Royal Anthropological Institute, discusses the methods of 

 navigation among the aborigines of Australia. He dis- 

 misses the catamarans and dug-outs used in Cape York 

 Peninsula, Port Darwin, and other northern parts of the 

 continent because he refuses to admit that they are of 

 Australian origin, and attributes the introduction of these 

 types to Malays or Papuans, the former race being prob- 

 ably responsible for the more elaborate decoration of bark 

 canoes in the same territory. It is not quite clear whether 

 he intends to found any ethnological speculations on the 

 fact that the custom of men swimming and towing rafts 

 is found at Macquarie Harbour, on the western coast of 

 Tasmania, and at Peterson Bay, in North Australia. It 

 seems obvious, however, that this is a device which, like 

 the materials and forms of the rafts in use at these places, 

 iSoo miles apart, might be independently discovered by 

 natives employing these primitive methods of navigation. 



The extensive literature dealing with American basketry 

 unfortunately seems to be little known among art students 

 and managers of industrial schools in this country, yet 

 both these classes might with advantage consult it in their 

 search for new schemes of decoration and for instruction 

 in the technique of an art which has been brought to such 

 a high degree of perfection by the Indian tribes. The 

 last monograph on the art, as practised by the Pomo tribe 

 in California, is that contributed to the seventh volume 

 of the Publications of the Universitv of California bv Mr. 



