May io, 1906] 



NA TV RE 



39 



in the course of a few hours. A wind velocity of 120 miles 

 in the hour (old factor 3) was recorded in this storm. 

 Diagrams of depressions moving across the British Isles 

 were also shown, and an ingenious explanation was given 

 of the usually heavy rainfall in the central portion of the 

 storms. 



The contents of the .April number of the American 

 Naturalist, which include three articles, are chiefly interest- 

 ing to specialists. The first, by Mr. A. S. Pearse, is de- 

 voled to the fresh-water copepod crustaceans of Massa- 

 rhuselts, of which several new species are described. In 

 the second Dr. J. B. Pollock discusses variations in the 

 pollen-grain of Picea excclsa, while in the third Mr. 

 A. M. Reese describes in considerable detail the anatomy 

 of the American salamander. Cry ptohranchus alleghenietisis, 

 comparing and contrasting it with that of its larger relative 

 of Japan and China. 



The Journal nf Anatomy and Physiology for April is 

 mainly devoted to anatomical subjects. Dr. Bertram 

 Windle contributes a valuable report (the sixteenth) on 

 lecent teratological literature. 



The new catalogue (thirty-third edition) of microscopes 

 and appliances issued by Messrs. Carl Zeiss, of Jena, gives 

 a complete list of apparatus manufactured by this eminent 

 firm. Some new and improved microscope stands are in- 

 cluded, and the majority of achromatic objectives are 

 reduced in price. 



In the Rivue Scicntifiquc (March 31) Dr. Remlinger dis- 

 cusses the role of the rat and mouse in the propagation of 

 rabies. These animals are very susceptible to rabies, and 

 Dr. Remlinger adduces evidence which suggests that certain 

 cases of hydrophobia in man, apparently spontaneous, may 

 be due to this source of infection. 



.According to the Pioneer Mail (Allahabad, March 23), 

 the Plague Research Commission has established beyond 

 question the validity of the theory of plague transmission 

 by rat-fleas. A room was selected in which had been 

 found the dead body of a rat suffering from plague. 

 -Animals were placed in this room, some protected by fine 

 metallic wire screens against the attacks of rat-fleas, others 

 unprotected. It was soon found that the unprotected 

 animals were attacked by plague, while the protected 

 animals enjoyed a complete immunity. 



We learn from tne Pioneer Mail that snakes and other 

 wild animals accounted for the death of 2195 persons in 

 the Madras Presidency last year, or twenty-six more than 

 in 1904 ; and they caused the death of 14,899 cattle in 

 IQ05 as compared with 14,146 in the previous year. Of 

 the fatalities among human beings, no fewer than 1S96, or 

 more than 80 per cent., were caused by snakes; while of 

 those caused by other wild animals 155 were due to tigers, 

 eighty to panthers, ten to wild pigs, nine to bears, eight to 

 wolves, and five to wild dogs. The elephant only accounted 

 for four deaths and the bison for only one, while the hyajna 

 caused the death of two — presumably children. The total 

 number of wild beasts destroyed, for which rewards were 

 paid during the year, was 809, or four more than in the 

 previous year. Included in this total are ninety-two tigers, 

 666 leopards and panthers, and fifty bears. The only 

 method of reducing danger to life by snakes is apparently, 

 according to our contemporary, the removal of prickly pear 

 and noxious undergrowth. 



Brvologists who have had experience of Jameson's 

 " Guide to Mosses " will be glad to know of a similar 

 work, wherein Mr. Symes M. Macvicar provides a revised 

 NO. 1906, VOL, 74] 



key to the liverworts of the British Isles. It differs con- 

 siderably from the key that was originally published in 

 the Journal of Botany five years ago, although drawn up 

 on the same lines. It contains merely the tables for de- 

 termining the genera and keys to the species, without any 

 further details. It is not apparent why the specific names 

 are not given for the monotypic genera, as was done in the 

 earlier issue. 



In a contribution to the Annates Mycologici, vol. iii.. 

 No. 6, 1905, Mr. E. S. Salmon describes three well-marked 

 varieties of the fungus Pliyllactinia corylea, two of them 

 distinguished by the characters of the conidiophore and 

 the third by the special shape of the conidia. To a certain 

 extent the characteristic features of the varieties appear 

 to be associated with certain hosts, and Mr. Salmon hopes 

 to discover further new varieties in the examination of the 

 conidial stages of the fungus on other host plants; for this 

 purpose he requests the cooperation of mycologists to supply 

 him with material. Should such new varieties be found, it 

 is probable that Phyllactinia, like other genera of the 

 Erysiphacea;, will prove to have developed special biologic 

 forms on different hosts. 



At the meeting of the scientific society of the Kaiserliche 

 .Akademie der Wissenschaften, in A'ienna (February i). Prof. 

 F. Krasser and Mr. Kubart contributed a paper on the 

 fossil flora of Moletein, in Moravia ; the list of fossils 

 includes Gleichenia Kurriana, Sequoia Reicbenbachi, Aralia 

 formosa, and Eucalyptus Geinitzi. Prof. O. Richter has 

 confirmed the observation recorded by Molisch and others 

 that seedlings, notably vetches and peas, respond more 

 readily to the stimuli of light and gravity in the impure 

 air of the laboratory than in the purer air of a greenhouse. 

 .An account of the nature of the mucilage in the fruit of 

 the mistletoe and Loranthus Europaeus was presented by 

 Prof. J. Wiesner at the subsequent meeting on February 8. 



The occurrence in the United States of three fungi 

 belonging to the Hypocreales or Perisporiales forms the 

 subject of two papers by Prof. G. F. .Atkinson. In the 

 Botanical Gazette, December, 1905, he discusses the species 

 velutacea, formerly referred to the genus Hypocrea, but 

 now assigned to Podocrea or Podostroma. Tulasne and 

 Winter stated that it was parasitic on Clavaria, but Prof. 

 .Atkinson agrees with Schroter that it is an autonomous 

 plant, and adduces the evidence that he has obtained speci- 

 mens in pure cultures from ascospores. In the Journal of 

 Mycology, November, 1905, Prof. Atkinson describes a 

 species of Balansia, a genus differing from Claviceps in the 

 formation of a stroma without a sclerotium, found grow- 

 ing parasitically on Danthonia spicata, and another fungus, 

 p.irasitic on .Andropogon, for which he proposes a new 

 genus, Dothichloe, allied to Hypocrea and Hypocrella. 



Within the last five years much has been written on 

 the subject of the disposal of towns' refuse by fire. The 

 more technical points have, however, received slight atten- 

 tion, and in this direction a paper contributed to the 

 Transactions of the Institution of Engineers and Ship- 

 builders in Scotland (vol. xlix., part vi.) by Mr. H. Norman 

 Leask throws much light. The forms of furnace in use 

 .ind their accessories are described, and the results obtained 

 in various parts of the world are considered. The results 

 of careful tests show that, with a destructor of modern 

 type, a high efficiency, both as regards evaporation and 

 burning, is not more costly to work than a destructor 

 burning at a lower rate and giving lower evaporative 

 efficiencies. 



