August io, 191 1] 



NATURE 



185 



problems Mr. Theobald considers of most pressing 

 importance are the bionomics of nematodes and the 

 study of Strongylidae. Nematodes are responsible for 

 considerable losses to the hop-grower, the market- 

 gardener, the strawberry-grower, and the farmer ; they 

 have long been known to damage cereal crops, and are 

 now recognised as potato pests. The Strongylidae are 

 serious parasites of sheep and other animals, yet 

 nothing is known of the life-history of the commonest 

 form. 



We reproduce a very good photograph of a female 

 March moth (Anisopteryx aescularia, Schiff.) laying 

 her "egg band" on a twig. 



The report from the Analytical Laboratory deals 

 with the more interesting of the 377 samples sent in 

 for analysis. 



In the report from the Botanical Department, Mr. 

 S. T. Parkinson describes some interesting experiments 

 that will be new to many people in this country. It 

 will be remembered that, in 1909, Prof. Molisch, of 

 Prague, published a paper in which he advocated that 

 perennial plants, while still in their resting stage, 

 should be dipped in hot water prior to forcing. In 

 the resting period he distinguishes between the "un- 



Fic 2.— Photograph of " Dipped " (D)and Com 1 (C) plants of Spirea. "Dipped" Novembe 

 photographed December 13. From the Journal of the South-Eastern Agricultural College. 



freiwillig " and the "freiwillig" rest; the former, 

 being inherent in the nature of the plant, cannot be 

 altered ; the latter, being dependent on the external 

 circumstances, can be shortened. By steeping the 

 plant in hot water at the proper time the "freiwillig" 

 period is therefore cut out, and its cells spring into 

 activity, thus it has such a start over the untreated 

 plants that it comes to maturity well before they do. 



Without committing himself to this particular hypo- 

 thesis, Mr. Parkinson has carried out numerous ex- 

 periments, and finds that an exposure of about twelve 

 hours to a temperature of 95° F., or, in the case of 

 soft plants, such as seakale, to 85 F., just after the 

 period of "deepest rest," i.e. the end of November or 

 beginning of December, led to very rapid growth. 

 Numerous photographs are given, one of which is 

 reproduced in Fig. 2. Further studies of this interest- 

 ing problem will be awaited with interest. 



Experiments are recorded by Mr. Garrad on the 

 growth of tobacco for nicotine extraction. Nicotine 

 makes an excellent wash for fruit-trees and hops, but 

 its price (12s. per lb.) is too high. Mr. Garrad shows 

 that he produced it at 6s. per lb., which, if it turned 

 out a normal cost of production, would make a profit- 

 NO. 2l8o, VOL. 87] 



able industry. Mr. Garrad 's Indian experience has 

 stood him in good stead, and a continuation of the 

 work would be very useful. 



Mr. E. S. Salmon's report makes very sad reading. 

 It seems but a few years ago since he announced that 

 a gooseberry disease had appeared in Ireland and 

 must inevitably spread to this country, with alarming 

 results, unless certain precautions were adopted. Un- 

 fortunately his words fell on deaf ears, and it is a 

 matter of history that no steps were taken to exclude 

 the disease; trouble that had not yet appeared could 

 not rouse the authorities to action. When the disease 

 finally came over its seriousness was at first denied, 

 and now that many hundred acres are affected and 

 the disease is rapidly spreading, a plan of campaign 

 has been organised in some, but not in all, districts. 

 Thus Kent is efficiently inspected bv trained inspectors, 

 while Surrey and Sussex are not." 



If the serious losses now being incurred could teach 

 all concerned a few elementary facts about plant 

 diseases, the lesson would still be worth having, how- 

 ever dearly bought, but we seem to be in for equal or 

 greater losses from a potato disease known as the 

 Wart Disease or Black Scab. The disease is here and 

 is spreading, yet nothing adequate is 

 being done, it is not surprising that 

 the Pests Committee of the Central 

 and Associated Chambers of Agricul- 

 ture should, in a communication to 

 _^_^_i— ^ tn e Board of Agriculture, "earnestly 

 recall your attention to the last pan- 

 graph of their report, dated December 

 1st, 1908, in which they suggested 

 that the Board should appoint an ad- 

 visory committee of experts to assist 

 the Board in dealing with plant 

 diseases generally, as recommended 

 by the Departmental Committee on 

 the Fruit Industry." 



A JUNGLE FOLK. 1 

 ""PHE Veddas of Ceylon have long 

 -* been regarded as one of the 

 most interesting of the varieties of 

 mankind, and one way and another a 

 good deal has been written about 

 them in various journals and books, 

 but the information was usually 

 scrappy and not always trustworthy. 

 An exception must, however, be made to the careful 

 work of John Bailey in 1S63, and the sympathetic in- 

 vestigations of Hugh Nevill, whose valuable notes are 

 to be found in a scarce journal, The Taprobanian. In 

 "Ancient Ceylon" (1909), Mr. H. Parker gives a useful 

 summary of our knowledge of the Veddas, together 

 with the results of his own observations on the village 

 Veddas. For the physical anthropology we are mainly 

 indebted to Virchow (1881), who studied the craniologv 

 of the Veddas, and to the magnificent memoir, "Die 

 Weddas von Ceylon," by the cousins Sarsin; this 

 monograph deals also with their material culture, but 

 the account of Vedda sociology is much less satis- 

 factory. It was evident to ethnologists that the 

 sociology and religion of the Veddas needed to be 

 studied carefully by modern methods of sociological 

 field research, as these people undoubtedly are little- 

 modified representatives of a very ancient human 

 stock, and there was a danger, owing to the very 

 small number of the wilder bands and their gradual 



1 " The Veddas." By Dr. C. G. Seligmann and Brenda Z. Seligmann. 

 With a chapter by Dr. C. S. Myers and an appendix hy A. Mendis 

 Gunasekara. Pp. xx-f-463+map. (Cambridge: The University Press, 

 1911.) Price 155. net. 



