652 
NATURE 
[AUGUST 12, 1915 

The value of the article is enhanced by a useful map 
showing the railways, rivers, diamondiferous areas, 
etc., and an account of the geology, meteorology, 
mineral resources, and agricultural conditions of the 
country is given. Diamonds were discovered in 1908, 
and the value of the output in 1912 was 1,520,704l. 
Gold, marble, and various other economic minerals of 
importance are found. As regards agriculture, stocl:- 
raising has received considerable attention, and in 
the middle districts and south, where irrigation is 
possible, a good many crops are grown. Tobacco- 
growing has been encouraged at the Government 
station Okahandja, and cotton of good quality has 
been grown experimentally. Grapes, peaches, apri- 
cots, etc., have also been successfully grown, and 
various dry-country trees are being grown at the 
forest stations. 
Unper the title of ‘‘The Wonderland of California,” 
Mr. Herman Whitaker, in the July issue of the 
National Geographic Magazine, deals with some of 
the magnificent scenery of the peninsula. The paper 
is, as usual, illustrated by a splendid collection of 
photographs, among which those of the entrance of 
the Golden Gate, the magnificent trees in the State 
Redwood Park near Boulder Creek, the Bridal Veil 
waterfalls on Merced River, the views of the Yose- 
mite Valley, and of the mighty granite peak known 
as El Capitan, are particularly impressive. Now that 
the Continent is likely to be barred for some time to 
come, travellers in search of the beautiful may well 
direct their attention to the country described in this 
pleasant paper. 
InasmucH as the wheat-producing capabilities of 
the non-belligerent nations is now a matter of the 
most vital importance, it is disconcerting to find that 
the Hessian fly, during the past season, has inflicted 
immense damage to the wheat crop of the United 
States, millions of bushels having been ruined. 
What is more, unless strenuous efforts are immedi- 
ately made, the devastation will assume far more 
alarming proportions during the coming year. To 
avert this, if possible, the United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture has just issued a_ leaflet, 
which cannot be too widely read by British 
farmers, for this country is by no means immune 
to attacks from this insidious parasite. The farmers 
over the vast area now 
act on the advice ignored by them, in spite of 
repeated warnings, during 1914. It is once more 
pointed out that this pest can be practically exter- 
minated by adopting the simple precaution of delay- 
ing the autumn wheat-sowing until after the adult 
flies emerging from the ‘‘flax-seed”’ or larval cases 
adhering to the straw of the summer wheat have 
perished, which they must do soon after assuming 
the adult stage. They will thus die without leaving 
offspring, since they will find no nidus for their eggs. 
Wherever possible, all stubbles are to burned, and 
where this is not possible they should be deeply 
ploughed in and the ground rolled. Further, rota- 
tion of crops should be adopted whenever possible. 
infected are exhorted to | 


a mild attack of this fly niay even prove beneficial, 
since the early developing larvz destroy the first 
shoots and cause the plant-to ‘tiller.’ Maps show- 
ing the best average dates for sowing, according to 
latitude, and diagrams illustrating the life-history of 
the fly, add immensely to the value of this leaflet. 
From the Kew Bulletin we learn that the new 
laboratory for the exclusive investigation of problems 
in plant pathology is now in use. The laboratory 
has been formed by the alteration of two Georgian 
cottages facing Kew Green, and contains several re- 
search rooms and a large library. The cottages were 
formerly houses in the occupation of Ladies of the 
Bedchamber when the Court was in residence at 
Kew, and the plaster ceilings in some of the rooms 
are of considerable beauty. Until now, much of the 
Board of Agriculture’s pathological work has been 
carried out at Kew in the Jodrell Laboratory, but 
owing to the increasing importance of the work, the 
establishment of a separate institute with its own 
staff of plant pathologists has become an imperative 
necessity. ~The attention of the staff. will be devoted 
primarily to the investigation of diseases caused by 
fungi, both at home and in our Colonies, and special 
research in connection with important problems in 
plant pathology will also be undertaken. Mr. A. D. 
Cotton, assistant in the herbarium, has been pro- 
moted to a first-class assistantship in connection with 
the new laboratory, and Mr. W. B. Brierley, of 
Manchester University, has also been appointed a 
first-class assistant. A temporary assistant and a 
preparer comprise the staff up to the present. A por- 
tion of the laboratory is being used temporarily by 
the entomologist of the Board of Agriculture, so that 
opportunity is also afforded for the investigation of 
' plant diseases caused by insects. 
Ow1nc to the high price of wheat flour, attempts 
are being made in the West Indies to replace part of 
the imported flour by locally prepared products. An 
analysis of a sample of banana flour from Jamaica is 
given in the current number of the Bulletin of the 
Imperial Institute (vol. xiii., No. 2). Compared with 
wheat flour or maize meal, it was found to have a 
lower nutritive value, owing to the much smaller per- 
centage of proteins. The meal has rather a_pro- 
nounced aroma, but as a partial substitute for wheat 
flour or maize meal it may prove useful locally. 
In the Indian Forest Records, vol. v., part vi., of 
May, 1915, Mr. R. S. Hole describes a new species 
of forest grass from Burma under the name 
Spodiopogon lacei. The paper is illustrated by excel- 
lent photographs of the grass and drawings of the 
details of the structure of the spikelets and flowers, 
the number of the spikelets in the raceme and of 
flowers in each spikelet being important features in 
the genus. In this species the racemes consist of 
three to nine spikelets, and are usually two-flowered. ° 
Tue flowers of Milton form the subject of the first 
instalment of a paper, by the veteran Canon Ella- 
combe, in the Gardener’s Chronicle for July 17. It 
will be remembered that he has already written on 
Where good seed-wheat is sown on generous ground, } the flowers of Chaucer, Spenser, and Gower, and the 
NO. 2389, VOL. 95]| 


