August 25, 1910J 



NATURE 



247 



Micii interest attaches to two paUi'Obotanical papers by 

 Dr. E. C. Jeffrey that have been published in the Proceed- 

 ings of the Boston Society of Natural History (vol. x.xxix., 

 Nos. q and lo). In thi' first the author describes a 

 petrified stem taken fro.n the remains of a Triassic forest 

 in .Arizona, that prcsinls sfveral novel features. The 

 wood structure resembU-s thai of living representatives of 

 the .Araucarinesc, but the plant produced short shoots that 

 persisted and elongated with the growth of the stem. 

 The leaf traces, on the contrary, did not, as in present- 

 day genera, persist in the secondary wood. The author 

 regards the persistent short shoots as primitive, and there- 

 fore indicating the antiquity of the two coniferous groups 

 of .\bieiinea; and .Araucarine.-L' in which these characters 

 occur. The second paper deals with fossil remains of a 

 conifer, collected in Massachusetts in the Lower Cretaceous 

 days, in the shape of two short shoots similar to, but 

 distinct from, the brachyblasts of Pinus, and referred to 

 the genus Prepinus previously proposed by the author. 



.\ POPUL.4R account of the date gardens of the Jerid at 

 the northern fringe of the Sahara Desert is contributed by 

 Dr. T. H. Kearney to the .American Nalional Geographic 

 Magazine (July). The author's journey was undertaken 

 with the object of obtaining palms for the date orchards 

 established by the United States National Department of 

 Agriculture in Arizona and California. The two largest 

 oases in the Jerid district comprise about 6000 acres each. 

 The ownership is much divided, as individual holdings 

 range from a few square rods to several acres. More 

 than a hundred distinct varieties are grown, differing in 

 shape, colour, and flavour. The variety exported to Europe 

 strikes the mean between the hard and very soft kinds, 

 and is characterised by its translucent flesh and keeping 

 quality. The method of propagation is by offshoots that 

 arise from the base of the palm ; these, when dipped in 

 clay and bound with layers of leaf-stalk fibre, will travel 

 safely any distance. 



The Board of .Agriculture and Fisheries reminds growers 

 of potatoes that it is their duty under the Destructive 

 Insects and Pests Order of 1910 to report to the Board 

 all outbreaks of wart disease, otherwise known as black 

 scab of potatoes, cauliflower disease, ' fungus," &c., in 

 counties in which no officer has as yet been appointed by 

 ihi> local authority to receive reports. The penalty for 



I' ^I* i-ting to report disease is loZ. The presence of disease 

 -li iiild be again reported this 3'ear, notwithstanding the 

 t I' : that it may have existed and been reported last year. 



\ !' atlet describing the disease may be obtained on appli- 

 iiiiin to the .Secretary, Board of -Agriculture and Fisheries, 

 4 Whitehall Place. Letters so addressed need not be 

 sl.nnped. 



The West Indian Bulletin (No. 3, vol. .\.) contains an 

 article by Mr. Ballou on legislation in the West Indies for 

 the control of pests and diseases of imported plants. Such 

 control has been exercised since 1884, and was considerably 

 developed in 1S98, when the Imperial Department of .Agri- 

 culture was organised. The text of the various laws and 

 proclamations is given, and certain modifications are sug- 

 gested. It Appears that legislation has been distinctly 

 beneficial. Messrs. Bancroft and South briefly describe the 

 fungi which have from time to time proved injurious to 

 cultivated crops in the West Indies. The account is 

 brought up to date, only a few minor unidentified forms 

 being omitted. A note is added containing a summary of 

 the diseases, probably caused by bacteria, which have not 

 yet been fully investigated. 



XO. 2130, VOL. 84] 



From the .Agricultural and Forestry Department of the 

 Nyasaland Protectorate we have received a Bulletin, by 

 Mr. McCall, on bacterial blight in cotton caused by Bact. 

 mahacearum, by far the worst enemy of Egyptian cotton 

 cultivators in Nyasaland, having reduced the output of 

 several estates by at least 60 per cent, in the past season. 

 The disease first appears on the leaves, causing them to 

 shed ; then the bacteria get into the branches, and soon the 

 flowers and bolls die. No method of control is yet known. 

 Mr. Purves deals with tree-planting in the highlands of 

 the country. In general, the natural timber consists of 

 small slow-growing hard-woods and shrubs. There is an 

 increasing demand for building timber and firewood, and 

 it seems likely that pl.intations may be profitable. A 

 number of suitable trees are recommended. 



We have received from the .Agricultural Institute at 

 Pusa copies of several of their recent publications. The 

 Agricultural Journal of India, which is intended as much 

 for the intelligent lay reader as for the professed agri- 

 culturist, contains an article on the outbreak of blister- 

 blight (Esobasidium vexans, Massee) on tea in the 

 Darjeeling district in 1908 and 1909, which caused a con- 

 siderable amount of damage. In the first instance the leaves 

 are attacked, then the disease spreads to the leaf stalks 

 and the young green stems, where the damage is more' 

 serious, although less conspicuous. The disease is not 

 new, and has been known for more than forty years in the 

 Brahmaputra valley in Upper Assam, but not elsewhere. 

 The districts are widely separated, yet the disease has not 

 appeared in intervening places. .A memoir is issued by 

 Mr. .Annett on the cause of the colour of black cotton soil. 

 He finds several per cent, of titaniferous magnetite, and 

 also a certain proportion of humus, both contributing to 

 the colour. Mr. Howard issues a report on his fruit 

 experiments. Of the numerous interesting results one 

 may be noted : the effect of grass growing round the tree 

 was apparently fully as injurious as in the Woburn experi- 

 ments. Tillage of orchards, however, is not an unmixed 

 advantage, as it e.xposes the soil to considerable washing 

 in the rainy season. A system of embanking combined 

 with monsoon leguminous cover crops seems to be the best 

 means of preventing this loss. Dr. Butler describes the 

 wilt-disease of pigeon pea, which he finds is brought about 

 by Fusarium udum, n.sp. 



The U..S. Weather Bureau has issued its useful meteor- 

 ological charts of the North .Atlantic and North Pacific 

 Oceans for September, and of the South Atlantic and 

 South Pacific for the season September-November, 1910. 

 The North Atlantic chart contains an account of the 

 violent West India hurricane of September 16-21 last, 

 with synoptic charts showing the existing weather con- 

 ditions at Greenwich noon over the North Atlantic and 

 Gulf of Mexico during that period. On September 16 the 

 storm was south-west of Jamaica, moving north-westward, 

 and warnings of its approach were issued to various ports. 

 It continued its north-westerly direction, reaching the 

 Gulf ports on September 20, where exceptional severity 

 was experienced, thence curving northwards and moving 

 up the Mississippi Valley. About half the coal fleet 

 anchored along the banks of that river were sunk, but the 

 remainder were saved as a direct result of the action 

 taken on the advice of the Weather Bureau. .Arrangements 

 have been made by the Bureau to obtain during the present 

 hurricane season (July to November) wireless storm tele- 

 grams from vessels in the Gulf of Mexico and all West 

 Indian waters. 



