402 



NATURE 



[September 29, 1910 



<n, 



archjeology of the district are contributed by a number of 

 members of the club, among which reference may be made 

 to Mr. Ussher's announcement of the discovery of five 

 specimens of the humerus of the great auk. 



Dr. a. C. Gunthf.r, with the assistance of Mr. Tate 

 Regan, has (in the Journal des Museum Godeffroy, Heft 

 xvii., Hamburg, 1910) co:npleted the description of the 

 collection of fishes made in the Indian Ocean and South 

 Pacific by Andrew Garrett. Four new species, Trygon 

 ponapctisis, Tetrodon regani, Opichthys macrops, and 

 O. garretti, are described. The report is very beautifully 

 illustrated by twenty coloured plates. 



Attention has previously been directed in Nature to 

 the need for uniform orthography of geographical names 

 in Government departments ; this need is exemplified by 

 the " Return " of the British Museum for 1910. In igoq 

 Mrs. J. A. Brooke presented to the museum a series of 

 specimens sent from China by her son, the late Mr. J. W. 

 Brooke, some of which went to Bloomsbury and others 

 to Cromwell Road. Those at Bloomsbury are entered 

 (p. 77) as having been obtained in Szechuan, while those 

 at Cromwell Road are recorded (p. 123) as coming from 

 Sze-chuen. 



We have received copies of several papers on human 

 skulls and skeletons and supposed evidence of human 

 work, read by Dr. F. Ameghino before the Congreso 

 Cientifico Internacional Americano, held at Buenos Aires 

 in July last. In one he describes a skull from a cave 

 in Cuba as a new species, under the name of Homo 

 cubensis. Skeletons from the Moro district, on the 

 .Atlantic coast of Argentina, are described in a second 

 paper under the name of H. sincmento, and stated to 

 be of a more primitive type than the Neanderthal H. 

 primigenius. These remains are stated to be of Lower 

 Pampean age ; in a third paper the author describes 

 another skeleton, from the Upper Pampean, which is 

 regarded as representing a third species, H. caputin- 

 cUnatus. The other four papers relate to supposed 

 evidence of man's presence in various formations, the 

 oldest of which is classed as Upper Eocene. 



To vol. xxviii., pp. 1^7-239, of the Bulletin of the 

 , American Museum of Natural History Dr. R. Broom con- 

 '/ tributes an important article on the relationship of the 

 Permian reptiles of North America to those of South. 

 After reviewing the leading types of each, he concludes 

 that in the Upper Carboniferous northern South .America 

 was the home of a primitive vertebrate fauna from which 

 originated both the North American Pelycosauria and the 

 .African .Anomodontia (in the wider sense of the term). 

 In the Permian this fauna invaded North .America, where 

 it soon became isolated. Early in the same epoch the 

 Brazilian Mesosaurus reached .Africa by a land-bridge, and 

 later on appeared other types, which probably developed 

 in the area now occupied by the South Atlantic. When 

 sundered, the North American and African faunas under- 

 went great development in divergent directions, the 

 former undergoing many strange specialisations — notably 

 in vertebral spines — while the latter showed a tendency to 

 a great increase in the size of the limbs. This limb- 

 lengthening, accompanied by the alteration of the 

 phalangeal formula of the toes from 2.3.4.5.4 to 2.3.3.3.3, 

 started the mammalian line of evolution, for directly the 

 more specialised anomodonts raised their bodies above the 

 ground they were well on the way to become mammals. 

 Birds, in fact, " are reptiles that became active on their 

 hind limbs; mammals are reptiles that acquired activity 

 through the development of all four." 

 NO. 2135, VOL. 84] 



.An article entitled "Hunting Birds with the Camera," 

 contributed by Mr. \V. Bickerton to the October number 

 of the Royal Magazine, gives a good idea of the great 

 patience required by anyone who desires to photograph 

 birds. The article is accompanied by several striking 

 illustrations, including two of a reed-warbler feeding a 

 young cuckoo. Mr. Bickerton says that, of all our summer 

 visiting birds, the reed-warbler has its nest used most 

 frequently by the cuckoo to deposit her eggs. He 

 remarks, " In the area I am describing no fewer than 

 seven different eggs of the cuckoo lay each in a different 

 reed- warbler's nest, left there for the latter bird to hatch 

 out." 



The second nunilier of the botanical section of the current 

 volume of the Philippine Journal of Science contains 

 the latter portion of the critical enumeration of Philippine 

 Leguminosa; prepared by Mr. E. D. Merrill, a third set 

 of bryological determinations by Dr. V. F. Brotherus, 

 and a short list of indigenous fungi compiled by Messrs. 

 H. and P. Sydow. 



An investig.ation into the causes underlying a serious loss 

 of gooseberry bushes in Cambridgeshire is recorded by 

 Mr. T. F. Brooke and Mr. A. W. Bartlett in Annates 

 Mycolngici (vol. vii., No. 2). Two fungi fell under sus- 

 picion, but definite proof in the shape of infection 

 experiments was only obtained for Botrytis cinerea, 

 although good reason is adduced for finding a second cause 

 of disease in Cystoporina riHs. The diseases are not in 

 any way connected and distinct macroscopic and micro- 

 scopic characters are defined for each fungus ; further, it is 

 noted that in no case were both fungi discovered on the 

 same plant. 



.A NEW and peculiar type of resin collector that has been 

 tried in the pine forests of Florida, U.S.A., is described 

 bv Mr. J. S. Woolsey, jun., in the Indian Forester 

 (.August). The tree is tapped by two small tunnels, about 

 an inch in diameter and five inches long, bored from a 

 common opening or mouth tangentially through the sap 

 wood. The collector consists of two metal caps set at 

 right angles, and connected by a hollow angle piece. One 

 metal cap is fitted over the mouth, while a glass jar, into 

 which the resin flows, is fitted to the other horizontal cap. 

 It is claimed that the method gives an increased yield 

 and a clean gum, and that evaporation is avoided. 



Systematic articles are prominent in the latest issue of 

 the Kew Bulletin (No. 7), as, in addition to a long series 

 of new species of Protea and other .African diagnoses, Mr. 

 J. .S. Gamble contributes a second list of new Lauracese 

 from the Malayan region, principally additions to the 

 genera Cinnamomum, Alseodaphne, and Notophcebe, and 

 Dr. O. Stapf presents a revision of the Australian plant 

 Epacris heteronema. .Also Mr. G. Massee describes several 

 new exotic fungi, including a Spha;rulina and a Phoma, 

 both discovered on Wehvitschia mirabilis in Damaraland. 

 More important from an economic aspect is Eutypa cauli- 

 vora (SphiEriaceEe), a parasite collected on rubber trees in 

 Singapore, that kills its host by blocking up the water 

 channels with mycelium. 



The .Australian Commonwealth Bureau of Metrorology 

 has commenced the issue of a monthly report from January 

 last. It is intended to embody, inter alia, discussions on 

 current weather, daily observations at each of the capital 

 cities, and extracts, or brief articles, on matters of general 

 scientific interest, and, judging from the first number, it 

 gives promise of taking a prominent place among the 

 leading weather bulletins. The principal article in the 



