314 



NATURE 



[November 14, 1912 



teresting records and descriptions. Dr. Louis Stappers 

 de.ils with the higher Crustaceans, and attention may 

 be directed to the very fine figures illustrating species 

 of Leptostylis. Prof. Pierre Fauvel reports on the 

 Annelids, of which fifty-two species were collected. 

 It is interesting to notice that only one of these was 

 new. namelv Sphaerodonim philippi. It appears that 

 almost all the boreal .Annelids are represented through- 

 out the circumpolar area, and it is remarkable that 

 some occur so far south as the Azores, the Mediter- 

 ranean, and the Indian Ocean. The Bryozoa are dis- 

 cussed by O. Nordgaard, who reports the occurrence 

 of si.xtv species in the Kara Sea alone. From a single 

 station twenty-seven species were obtained, and the 

 abundance of superb specimens of Reticulipora 

 (Diastopora) intricaria is a conspicuous feature in 

 many places. It seems that Bryozoa fiourish particu- 

 larly well in localities with a rapid current and 

 abundant plankton organisms. The great majority 

 of the species collected by the Belgica are distinctively 

 Arctic, a number are boreal, three are almost cosmo- 

 politan. Dr. Hjalmar Broch reports on the Coelentera 

 — twenty-six Hydroids, five Alcyonarians, and two sea- 

 anemones. In some cases the occurrence is of great 

 interest as regards the geographical distribution of 

 the species. Thus Eunephthya clavaia, reported from 

 the Kara Sea, has also been recorded from the Azores. 



A REPORT on the structure and development of 

 crown gall, a plant cancer, by Mr. E. F. Smith and 

 Misses N. A. Brown and L. McCuUoch, has been 

 issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (Bureau 

 of Plant Industry, Bull. 255). The disease attacks 

 a variety of plants, is infectious, and is caused by 

 bacteria, either one polymorphic species, or several 

 closely related species. k full description of the 

 organism, named the B. tumefaciens, and of its cul- 

 tural and biological characters is given. The develop- 

 ment of the disease is regarded as closely simulating 

 what takes place in cancer of man and animals, though 

 metastases do not occur, and, of course, this disease 

 of plants has nothing to do with mammalian cancer. 

 The report is illustrated with no fewer than 109 full- 

 page half-tone plates. 



From Dr. C. R. Wieland we have received reprints 

 of four papers contributed to The American Journal 

 of Science, containing the results of his further ob- 

 servations on the fossil Cycads, and thus forming a 

 supplement to his great work on "American Fossil 

 Cycads," published in 1906. In a note on seed struc- 

 ture in the Cycadeoideae (Bennettitales), the author 

 remarks that the seed and embryo of these Mesozoic 

 foims are of the most generalised gymnospermous 

 type, while their retention of pronounced cycado- 

 filicinean features further favours inclusion in the 

 Cycadales ; apparently the primitive seed characters 

 of the Cycadeoideae were only slightly obscured by 

 appression in the cone type of fructification, and were 

 by this very appression so much the more surely con- 

 served as to permit free comparison with the ancestral 

 singly-borne leafy seeds of the Palaeozoic forms. 

 Another note is devoted to the mature but pigmy 

 flowers of Cycadcoidea Marshiaiia, and to a discus- 



No. 2246, VOL. go] 



sion of the probable relationships between Cycadeo- 

 ideae, Cycads, Cycadofilices, and Gnetales. A third 

 paper deals with the author's own examination of 

 certain historic fossil Cycads described by earlier 

 writers ; while the fourth contains a general review 

 of the Williamsonia and Cycadeoidea tribe, with 

 special reference to types recently discovered in 

 Europe, and a provisional classification of the forms 

 now known. 



The Patent Office has isued part i. of a "Subject 

 List of Works on Mineral Industries " (Darling and 

 Son, price 6d.), which shows how much good material 

 is available for public consultation in the library in 

 Chancery Lane, London. In this part the geological 

 sciences and coal mining are included, and mineral 

 industries and practical mining come under these 

 heads. The detailed classification adopted prevents the 

 ready discovery of books on a given subject, since 

 several headings may be consulted in vain before the 

 right one is discovered. Rutley's " Felsitic Lavas " 

 thus appears under " Lavas " and not also under 

 "Petrology"; his Brent Tor memoir is found under 

 " Petrology, Igneous Rocks," and not also under 

 " Geology, Descriptive, Devonshire." The division of 

 geology into economic, descriptive, and stratigraphic 

 renders the publications of geological surveys ex- 

 tremely hard to classify. A few repetitions and cross- 

 references are conveniently introduced ; but the 

 memoirs on the South Wales coalfield appear under 

 none of the above headings, not even under 

 "Economic — local — Wales," but only under "Coal, 

 Distribution." Hardman's memoir on the Leinster 

 coalfield seems to have no separate mention, and there 

 is no heading "Carboniferous" under "Geology, 

 Stratigraphic." The miner comes off somewhat 

 better, with good lists of works on nitrates, phos- 

 phates, &c. ; but a far broader classification, with sub- 

 headings alphabetically arranged, will be of much 

 service to the reader when the list is next revised. 



The aggravating contrast between the heavy rain- 

 fall on the rugged eastern highlands of Australia and 

 the arid climate of the rich-soiled plains to the west 

 has led to many projects for the more useful distribu- 

 tion of the water. The most important scheme in 

 New South Wales is that for collecting the winter 

 floods of the Murrumbidgee River for use during the 

 summer by the construction of a vast reservoir with 

 a dam 240 ft. in height. The reservoir will be one of 

 the greatest in the world, as it will hold 33,000,000,000 

 cubic feet of water, or a greater amount than that 

 contained in Sydney Harbour. The water will be con- 

 ducted by channels, which may amount to 1000 miles 

 in length, and be used for the irrigation of a large 

 area more than 100 miles to the west. The reservoir 

 is in a locality hitherto known as Barren Jack ; this 

 is a corruption of an aboriginal name, Burrinjuck, 

 which has been officially adopted. The New South 

 Wales Government is advertising for applicants for the 

 land which can thus be brought into cultivation, and 

 has issued a pamphlet, by Mr. L. A. B. Wade, the 

 chief engineer for irrigation and drainage, on the 

 progress of the w-ork. 



