September 26, 1912] 



NATURE 



113 



September number of The Irish Naturalist as A. 

 spennatophora. A second addition to the British 

 fauna is recorded by Mr. N. H. Joy in The Entomo- 

 logist's Monthlv Magazine of the same date in the 

 shape of Orthochaetes insignis, a beetle common in 

 Brittany. 



The American Camp Fire Club lias issued a circular 

 letter setting forth the part played by that body in 

 regard to legislation for the protection of the Pribilow 

 fur-seals. It is claimed that both the recent inter- 

 national fur-seal treaty and the Bill establishing a 

 five-year close season for the fur-seals are the result 

 of action taken by the club. Be this as it may, the 

 enactment of such a close can scarcely fail to be a 

 source of satisfaction in this country. During the 

 Russian occupation of the Pribilows the number of 

 fur-seals was at one time reduced to 31,000, but when 

 the United States came into possession of the islands, 

 after a ten-years' close season, it had increased to 

 nearly five millions. At the present time it is believed 

 that the seal herd does not comprise more than 125,000 

 head, but it is confidently expected that at the end 

 of the five-years' close season the number will have 

 risen to more than a million. 



The greater part of Nattiren for July and August is 

 occupied by an illustrated article by Mr. K. E. 

 Schreiner on " the oldest men," in which skulls of 

 the Neanderthal, Spy, and other early races are 

 figured, as well as the lower jaw of Homo heidel- 

 bcrgensis, and the skull, teeth, and femur of Pithec- 

 anthropus, are figured. Genealogical diagrams illus- 

 trating different views which have been expressed as 

 to the relationship of the genus last mentioned to the 

 Neanderthal and modern man are of interest. In one 

 case Pithecanthropus is regarded as the direct ancestor 

 of Homo sapiens, with H. neandertaliensis as the 

 intermediate link; in a second Pithecanthropus and 

 the Neanderthal race are regarded as separate lateral 

 offshoots of the stem which gave rise to the modern 

 races, while in a third Pithecanthropus occupies the 

 same collateral position, but is supposed to have given 

 rise to Neanderthal man, who is accordingly only a 

 distinct cousin of the e.xisting races of mankind. 



Under the title "An American Lepidostrobus," Prof. 

 J. M. Coulter and Dr. VV. J. G. Land have described 

 (Botanical Gazette, vol. 51) the first hitherto discovered 

 American coal-measure cone showing the internal 

 structure. Until now American palaeozoic fructifica- 

 tions and seeds have been known only as impressions 

 or casts, in striking contrast to the richness of the 

 coal-measures in Britain and France in petrified 

 remains showing beautifully preserved structure, 

 though the mesozoic formations have yielded a rich 

 harvest of material to .American palaeo-botanists such 

 as is unequalled in any other country. 



The well-known work of Prof. H. de Vries on the 

 evening primrose, Oenothera Lamarckiana, and the 

 various forms (mutants and hybrids) derived from it 

 has been followed up by various cytologists in the 

 hope of elucidating the origin and nature of these forms 

 with reference to the nuclear phenomena. Miss .Anne 

 NO. 2239, VOL. 90] 



M. Lutz has published an extensive paper {Biolo gische s 

 Centratblatt, 1912, No. 7) based upon the counting 

 of the chromosomes in the dividing nuclei of various 

 Gt^notheras, especially in the forms called " triploid 

 mutants " — in which the somatic cells have thrice in- 

 stead of twice the number of chromosomes normally 

 found in the male and female germ-cells from which 

 the plant arose. The results obtained by Gates, Davis, 

 Gcerts, and the writer herself are discussed at length, 

 and considerable ingenuity is shown in the explana- 

 tion of the various numbers of chromosomes observed 

 in different CEnolhcras — a list is given of more than 

 forty possible combinations and permutations in the 

 chromosome numbers in the germ-cells, and the writer 

 claims to have demonstrated "the harmonious relation- 

 ship existing between practically all of the observed 

 phenom.ena thus far reported for the germ and somatic 

 cells of Oenothera." 



Prof. H. E. .Armstrong's lecture to the Royal 

 Horticultural Society on "The Stimulation of Plant 

 Growth" is printed in the current number (vol. 38, 

 part i) of the .Society's journal. It is primarily con- 

 cerned with the action of volatile activating bodies or 

 hormones, .which can pass through the membranes 

 of plant cells and stimulate enzymes to set up chemical 

 changes in the cell contents. In the growth of an 

 ordinary green plant two periods may be distinguished 

 — that in which assimilation occurs under the influence 

 of light, and that in which growth takes place at the 

 expense of the materials thus produced. The latter 

 is apparently the period during which stimulation is 

 necessary, that in which enzymes are brought into 

 action as simplifying agr-nts and the products of their 

 action enter into circulation and are carried to the 

 places where they can be used as building materials 

 in promoting growth ; probably during this period the 

 membranes become more or less permeable to sub- 

 stances which do not pass them during the period of 

 assimilation. It is pointed out that manures probably 

 act largely as hormones ; that ammonia is the most 

 active "natural" stimulant, and that a substance 

 (ammonia, for instance) which is a valuable hormone 

 when used in proportions not exceeding a certain low 

 maximum at once becomes toxic when this maximum 

 is exceeded. 



In the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society 

 of London for 1912, vol. Ixviii., part 2 (price 5s.), 

 the president, Prof. W. W. Watts, F.R.S., reviews 

 the important subject of the coal supply of Britain. 

 He urges forcibly that an exploration by boring of 

 concealed coal areas might well be undertaken bv the 

 State. The "Summary of Progress of the Geo- 

 logical Survey of Great Britain for 191 1 " (191-2, price 

 IS.) shows how the Coal Measures of the Denbigh- 

 shire district are being examined, and coal again 

 attracts attention in Staffordshire, Warwickshire, and 

 Scotland (pp. 22, 23, and 46). A second edition has 

 been issued of the Survey's memoir on the country 

 around Cardiff (1912, price 2S.), with especial reference 

 to the growth of information as to mines. The 

 memoir on the country around Ollerton, by G. W. 

 Lamplugh and others (price 2S.), accompanies sheet 



