214 
NATURE 
[APRIL 22, 1915 


a small round hole in the bottom, which has been 
interpreted as due to the belief that pottery possesses 
spirits which can escape only when the vessels have 
been “killed”; possibly it is a mode of releasing the 
ghost of the dead man, 
Dr. V. Ivanor has ascertained by microscopic ob- 
servation the existence of leaves in saxaul (Haloxylon 
ammodendron). Other botanists have described the 
shrub as completely leafless or provided only with 
small, scaly growths. The leaves grow closely into 
the stem, and the apical parts and stalks form a con- 
tinuous whole (Proceedings of the Society of Natural- 
ists at the University of Kazan, 1912-13). 
In the Journal of the Philadelphia Academy of 
Sciences for January, Mr. Matsumoto gives a pre- 
liminary account of a new classification of the feather- 
stars, or Ophiuroidea, the full details of which are to 
be published in Japan. The author, who has received 
valuable advice and assistance from Prof. H. ‘Clark, 
finds that ophiuroids must be divided into two main 
groups, the first of which (Gigophiuroida) is mainly 
Paleozoic, and lacks most of the structural features 
by which Ophiuroidea are distinguished from 
Asteroidea. 
AccorDING to an article by Prof. T. D. A. Cockerell 
in the issue of the Proceedings of the Philadelphia 
Academy for December, 1914, the well-known Miocene 
insectivorous beds of Florissant, Colorado, continue 
to yield a number of new forms, so that the time is 
still distant when it will be possible to publish a 
complete list of the fauna. Compared with the rich 
insect-bearing beds of Giningen, Baden, and of the 
neighbouring village of Wangen, on the Rhine, the 
Florissant fauna is markedly the richer, so far as 
definitely named species are concerned. The Céningen 
fauna, for example, comprises 250 beetles, 80 Hemi- 
ptera, 60 Hymenoptera, and 30 flies, but the members 
of these groups already named from Florissant 
number, respectively, about 494, 230, 220, and Ioo. 
Tue Termites (so-called ‘‘white ants”) afford un- 
failing interest to the entomologist. A valuable 
account of the bionomics of the species of these insects 
found in the eastern United States has been lately 
issued by T. E. Snyder (U.S. Dept. Agric. Entom. 
Bulletin, No. 94). Two species of the Leucotermes 
{L. flavipes and L. virginicus) form the subject of 
most of the observations recorded. The forms of 
these termites and the general course of their develop- 
ment have been fairly well known for many years 
past. Mr. Snyder has directed especial attention to 
the fate of the winged, sexual individuals that 
“swarm ’”’ from the nests at certain seasons. The 
survivors — often comparatively few — of these 
“swarms” usually cast their wings before courtship 
begins, and do not actually pair until they have 
‘established themselves in a new ‘‘royal chamber,” 
which, in the case of Leucotermes, is a cavity in 
wood, It is not necessary for these ‘royal pairs” 
to be established by foraging workers and soldiers; 
they are apparently, as a rule, independent of help 
in the foundation of a new community. The pro- 
vision of ‘‘neoteinic’’ royal individuals is associated 
NO. 2373, VOL. 95] 

with the foundation of fresh communities from old 
overcrowded societies. 
In Meddelelser fra Kommissionen for Havunder- 
sggelser, Serie Fiskeri, Bd. iv., No. 7, Dr. Johs. 
Schmidt discusses the classification of fresh-water eels 
(Anguilla). A considerable number of specimens from 
various localities have been investigated as regards 
the amount of variation occurring in different char- 
acters, the characters being additional to those which 
were discussed in a previous paper. It has proved 
possible to distinguish between three species, A. vul- 
garis, A. rostrata, and A. japonica, All European 
fresh-water eels belong to one and the same species, 
within which no constant local races can be shown 
to exist, 
AN attractive article in the April issue of Wild Life 
is one by Miss F. Pitt, illustrated by four reproduc- 
tions of photographs, of the marten, in which par- 
ticulars are given with regard of the past and present 
distribution of that species in Great Britain. | Many 
readers of the same number will doubtless also be 
interested in a well-illustrated article by Mr. F. J. 
Stubbs on the plague-flea, and how it is carried about 
by rats, as well as the way in which it becomes 
infected with the plague-bacillus. It might have been 
added that the ultimate source of plague appears to 
be the indescribably evil-smelling burrows of the bobac 
marmot of the steppes of eastern Europe and western 
Asia. 
In the January issue of the Journal of the Phil- 
adelphia Academy of Sciences Miss A. M. Fielde gives 
further particulars with regard to her investigations 
of the functions of the antennz ot ants. It has 
already been shown by the author that the function 
of these appendages is olfactory, and it is now demon- 
strated that their constituent segments take up par- 
ticular kinds of odours. The distal segment, for 
example, warns an ant from approaching any colony 
other than its own. Again, the penultimate joint 
deals with the odour which renders one ant-colony 
inimical to others of the same species. Another seg- 
ment serves to guide an ant on the homeward track 
by enabling it to pick up the scent left on the ground 
during its outward journey, while the function of yet 
another is to recognise the whereabouts of the queen 
and her undeveloped progeny on the part of a worker, 
and so on with other items in the olfactory functions 
of these insects. 
WHEN he first named a gigantic ungulate, with 
somewhat Dinothecrium-like teeth, from the Lower 
Tertiaries of Patagonia, under the name of Pyro- 
therium, the late Dr. F. Ameghino regarded it as a 
proboscidean. His views have not, however, been 
accepted by the majority of palaontologists, and no 
mention of the genus is made by Dr. Andrews in his 
summary of the evolution of the Proboscidea in the 
““Guide to the Elephants in the British Museum.” 
During a recent expedition to Patagonia, dispatched 
by Amherst College, Prof. F. B. Loomis obtained a 
couple of skulls of Pyrotherium, which he has 
described in a volume, published by Amherst College, 
under the title of ‘‘The Deseado Formation of Pata- 
