October 20, 19 10] 



NATURE 



505 



absence of proper show-cases, the Rhodesia Museum at 

 Bulawayo is stated in the report for 1909 to be making 

 continued and in some respects rapid progress. A con- 

 siderable amount of original research was carried out 

 during the year by various members of the staff. The 

 report concludes with an appendix on the gold-bearing 

 rocks of Rhodesia, and a second on the minerals of the 

 district, both by Mr. A. E. V. Zealley. 



Great credit is due to the staff of the Exeter Museum 

 for the rapidity with which they have prepared and 

 arranged for public exhibition the fine series of about 

 4000 species and 20,000 specimens of land-shells received 

 towards the latter part of 1909 as a bequest from the late 

 Miss Linter. According to the terms of the will, the 

 collection was to be made accessible to the public within 

 a specified period, and this heavy task has been success- 

 fully accomplished. Lack of space prevented, however, 

 the whole collection being shown at once, and it has 

 accordingly been arranged to exhibit it in sections. In 

 the October issue of the Museums Journal Mr. Rowley 

 describes the manner in which this was done, and Hkewise 

 the methods of mounting, which he thinks may prove 

 useful to other museums. 



While Great Britain has produced many brilliant ex- 

 amples of self-educated men who have won for themselves 

 more or less distinguished positions in science, Ireland, 

 according to the October number of the Irish Naturalist, 

 can lay claim to only one such hero of the highest type. 

 This was Samuel .-Moxander Stewart, who was born in 

 Philadelphia on February 5, 1826, whence he came in 

 1837 with his father to Belfast, where he eventually 

 worked as a miller. Details of his life and work are 

 recorded in two separate articles in the serial quoted, the 

 former being described by the Rev. C. H. Waddell and 

 the latter by Mr. R. L. Praeger. Most of his papers were 

 devoted to botanical subjects, although local zoology and 

 botany likewise claimed a share of his attention. Mr. 

 Stewart died on June 15 last as the result of a street 

 accident. 



The relation of palaeobotany to plant-phylogeny forms 

 the subject of an article by Prof. Penhallow, of McGill 

 University, in the October number of the Popular Science 

 Monthly. .Mthough considerable progress has been made 

 in the matter of tracing the descent of plants through the 

 geological ages, many gaps remain to be filled. The 

 bryophytes, for instance, which, from their low organisa- 

 tion, ought to date at least from the Silurian, are unknown 

 before the later Tertiary ; in this instance the deficiency in 

 their past history may perhaps be attributed, at least in 

 part, to the " imperfection of the geological record," and 

 if this be so the need of caution in making generalisations 

 in this and other cases is self-evident. In conclusion, the 

 author observes that " if palaeontology teaches us any- 

 thing, it is that each great phylum, as well as its various 

 subdivisions, finally reaches its culmination in a terminal 

 member from which no further evolution is possible. But 

 that from some inferior member, possessing high potenti- 

 alities, a side line of development arises." In an earlier 

 paragraph it is stated that although evolution is still in 

 progress, the possibilities of its continuation are steadily 

 diminishing, and will eventually come to an end. 



Is part i. of vol. xli. of Travaux de la Societe Imperiale 

 des Naturalistes de St. Petersbourg Mr. K. Derjugin 

 gives a summary of the contents of a forthcoming memoir 

 on the fauna of the Kola Fjord, in the Arctic Ocean, 

 based on the survey carried on by the yacht .ilexander 

 Koli^alc~Jsky during the summer of 1908. The investiga- 

 "RO. 2138, VOL. 84] 



tions were carried on by dredging and surface netting, 

 especial attention being directed to the mouth of the fjord, 

 into which both the Kola and the Tulima discharge, and 

 the line of division between the fluviatile and marine 

 faunas determined. The interesting forms included the 

 isopod Limnoria liguorum, the mollusc Xylophaga dorsalis, 

 and certain bryozoans, such as Loxosoma and Stomato- 

 pora, while the plankton contained a rare and lemark- 

 able type of Sagitta. In the same issue Mr. \V. Schitz 

 directs attention to the northward extension of the 1 ange of 

 blue roller and the thicknee. Nests of the former were 

 observed during the past summer in the governments of 

 St. Petersburg and Novgorod, where they had never 

 previously been seen, while in the summer of 1909 the 

 latter bird was noticed near Lake Celigner, in the govern- 

 ment of Twer. 



Messrs. John Wheldon- .and Co., 38 Great Queen 

 Street, have recently issued a catalogue of general and 

 economic botanical publications, including a few early 

 herbals and works of Linnseus. 



The report for 19 10 of the Lichen E.xchange Club of 

 the British Isles contains the report of the secretary, Mr. 

 .\. R. Horwood, and notes on critical specimens. Two 

 species new to science are recorded under the genera 

 Lecidea and Arthopyrenia. 



The Department of Lands in New Zealand is responsible 

 for the management of the State nurseries and plantations 

 and for the operations connected with scenery preservation, 

 for w^hich separate reports for the year 1909-10 have been 

 published. The output of five nurseries amounted to 

 12,000,000 young trees, of which 8,000,000 were planted, 

 largely by prison labour, on seven plantations. It is 

 surprising to find that nearly all of these are European 

 trees, chiefly the larch, Pinus laricio, the spruce, and 

 Pinus ponderosa ; of the eucalypts. Eucalyptus Stuartiana 

 has proved to be a fast grower and is being planted, while 

 the only reference to indigenous conifers states that, owing 

 to failures, it has been decided to discontinue raising 

 plants of Podocarpus Totara. It is also noted that 

 deciduous trees and mixed plantations have for the most 

 part proved unsuccessful. The report on scenery preserva- 

 tion indicates that additional areas amounting to 1500 

 acres were reserved during the year. 



A volume (Publication No. 129) emanating from the 

 Carnegie Institution of Washington is devoted to an 

 account of field observations near the desert laboratory at 

 Tucson, .'\rizona, and experimental cultures in connection 

 with the conditions of parasitism in plants. Dr. W. .\. 

 Cannon has discovered parasitism, apparently facultative, 

 in two species of Krameria, a genus assumed to be auto- 

 trophic. The species, Krameria canescens, was found 

 attached to several hosts, most frequently to Covillea 

 tridentata, probably on account of a similar growth habit. 

 The experimental work conducted by Dr. D. T. Mac- 

 dougal was directed towards inducing dependent nutrition 

 by the insertion of prepared slips into a host plant. The 

 selected hosts were succulents, as Opuntia, Echinocactus, 

 and the " xeno-parasites " — to use the author's name — 

 were species of Cissus, Agave, and others. In the more 

 successful cultures, the xeno-parasites formed roots and 

 showed some degree of development for a year or longer. 

 It was found that a superior osmotic activity on the part 

 of the parasite is an essential. The pamphlet closes with 

 a discussion on the origination of parasitism. 



We have received from Mr. E. Leitz a booklet on 

 " Some Hints on the LTse of the Sliding Microtome," 

 which contains a good description of the operations of 



