296 



NA TURE 



[July 26, 1906 



At the request of Prof. Armstrong, I have summarised 

 already what seems to me the electrical evidence for the 

 dissociation theory, and I will not repeat what appeared 

 in your columns of May 31; but I wish again to express 

 a hope that someone who rejects the theory will put for- 

 ward an alternative scheme to explain the mechanism of 

 electrolytic conduction. W. C. D. Whetham. 



Trinity College, Cambridge, July 13. 



The Fertilisation of Pieris. 



On May 20, near Chindi, in the State of Suk(5t, North- 

 Western Himalaya, 1 was able to make notes on the 

 pollination of Pieris ovalifolia by Pieris brassicae, Pieris 

 SLtracta, and other insects. Pieris ovalifolia, D. Don, at 

 Chindi, grows to be a small tree in forests of Piniis 

 liiiijJifolia and Pinus excelsa on hill-sides about 6000 

 fppt, where in May thousands of Pieris soracta, and hun- 

 dreds of Pieris brassicae, flit through the trees. 



My first observations were made about 6 a.m., before 

 Ihe sun was fully on the hill-side; and then the Pieris 

 (lowers were visited by Bomhus haernorrhoidalis, Smith, 

 in a very diligent way. Later, after the sun was well 

 up, came Pieris brassicae, Schrank, to the flowers, and 

 then many individuals of Pieris soracta, K. Moore, which 

 is in May a most abundant butterfly. With the butter- 

 flies a large steel-blue and orange wasp came to the 

 Pieris bushes, and bit holes in the corollas, which later 

 little Aphids also used for stealing the honey. 



Pieris branches stand horizontal, with the leaves on a plane 

 above the racemes of flowers. There are twenty to thirty 

 flowers on a raceme, and the topmost open as the lowest 

 die. Each flower is a bell, like that of one of our common 

 English Ericas, 10 mm. long, and very slightly con- 

 stricted at the middle ; the mouth is only 2 mm. in 

 diameter. Pierids and Bombus suck honey hanging jinder 

 the bells, except where some fortuitous circumstance brings 

 the flowers of one branch close to the leaves of another ; 

 rmd then the butterflies are very ready to try to get the 

 honey without having to hang back downwards to reach 

 into the bells. When once back downwards they walk 

 as on a causeway along the long, regular racemes, gener- 

 ally from younger to older flowers, i.e. towards the base. 



Pieris anthers are two-horned, as are so many of the 

 anthers in the Ericaceje, and with the help of their fila- 

 ments make an entanglement at the constriction of the 

 bell. The filaments are much more bent into an S than 

 is usual in the Ericacea;, and form a spring which, by 

 pressing with the lower curve of th' letter against the 

 corolla, holds the anther pores against the style, in such 

 a firm manner that they can only fre? the powdery pollen 

 when the pressure of the spring is interfered with. This 

 Ihe visiting insects do, and receive a shower of pollen on 

 their heads or probosces. Aj it is impossible to slit 

 the corolla without causing pollen to fall, the part 

 it plays in keeping closed the anther pores is evident ; 

 and it is also impossible to push a needle past the ring 

 of anthers without liberating pollen. The stigma is close 

 to the mouth of the flower, and is bound to be touched 

 by an insect's tongue before it touches the anthers. When 

 mature it is 4-5 mm. beyond the aniher-ring. The slign'.-i 

 matures after the opening of the flower, and the style 

 grows 1-5 mm. between the opening of the bud and its 

 maturity, but the anther-pores appear in the bud. Honc\ 

 is secreted verv abundantly behind the slightlv broadened 

 bases of the filaments. The duration of the flowers is 

 several days. A'ter the fall of the corolla, the sepals close 

 over the ovary, and the pedicel ultimately turns upwards. 



I have communicated the above actual observations to 

 Nature in the hope that both zoologists and botanists may 

 read them, and be reminded of the possible inconveniences 

 resulting from using the same generic name for two even 

 very distinct organisms. I admit that we are not at pre- 

 sent at all likely to rule that a previous use of a name 

 in zoology or botany precludes its use in botany or 

 zoology ; but it is desirable to do what one can to avoid 

 using used names, and to forward that end indexes like 

 Durand's " Index Generum Phanerogamarum " become 

 the more and more wanted, especially from the zoologists. 



NO. 191 7, VOL. 74] 



I give here just a few instances of the double use of a 

 generic name. Liparis is the nun moth of Europe and an 

 orchid of Europe ; Iris is an insect and the well-known plant ; 

 Ljelia is a moth and an orchid ; Adesmia is a beetle and 

 a shrub; Castalia is a beetle of India and the water-lily, 

 while Castalius is an Indian butterfly ; Graeffea is a Phasmid 

 of Fiji and a plant of Fiji ; Empusa is an insect and an 

 insect-killing fungus ; Prosopis is a bee and a plant ; 

 Stilbum is a Chrysid and a fungus ; Acrocephalus is a 

 bird and a herb ; Taphria is an insect and the legitimised 

 form of Taphrina, a fungus. To emphasise my point il 

 will be my endeavour to ascertain if a fungus of the genus 

 Empusa can destroy the insect Empusa, if Castalius visits 

 Castalia, and if Acrocephalus eats the seed of Acrocephalus. 

 I. Henry Burkill. 



Indian Museum, Calcutta. 



AUSTRALIAN ORIGINS.' 



IF the enthusiasm which leads a man of science 

 to travel at midsummer to one of the hottest 

 regions of the world may be talcen as evidence, 

 geology will soon have much to say on Australian 

 anthropological problems. Prof. Gregory, at the 

 instigation of Dr. Howitt, visited the Lake Eyre 

 region, with a prospect of encountering a temperature 

 of some 120° F. , in order to throw light on the 

 legends of the aborigines and the problem of their 

 original home. All over Australia are found stories 

 of monsters like the Bunyip ; but in the Lake Eyre 

 region they present peculiar features ; the animals, 

 called Kadimakara, are said to be extinct, and are 

 represented as arboreal in their habits according to 

 one form of the legend, aquatic in another. The 

 latter is of no special interest, but it is diflicult to 

 see how the idea of sky people and animals could 

 have originated in Australia, the vegetation of which 

 is not apt to suggest the idea. Prof. Gregory sees in 

 it evidence of migration, either of legends or of their 

 narrators, froin tropical parts. 



It is certain that at the present day transmission 

 of the dramatic performances known as corroborees 

 is very common. The expedition saw on the Peak 

 Station, west of Lake Eyre, a corroboree known to 

 have travelled from North-west Central Queensland 

 since the year 1893. From a photograph in the 

 possession of the present writer it is certain that the 

 dance called Molongo in Queensland and Tji-tji- 

 ngalla near Lake Eyre was known to the Arunta at 

 Alice Springs in 1903 or 1904; but whether it came 

 via the Peak or from the north-east cannot be deter- 

 mined. From Dr. Howitt and others we learn that 

 new songs are passed from tribe to tribe, their mean- 

 ings being forgotten ; and the tendency seems to have 

 existed in the 'thirties of the last century, so that it 

 cannot be put down to European influence and easier 

 communication. There is, however, no similar 

 evidence of transmission of myths; prima facie, there- 

 fore, there is no ground for suoposing that the 

 Kadimakara storv is of foreign origin ; to raise the 

 presumption it would be necessary to find its analogue 

 elsewhere. 



The argument for the foreign origin of this myth 

 rests in part on the assumption that the geographical 

 conditions of the region have been unchanged since 

 its present, or rather, in only too many cases, late 

 occupiers reached it. In proof of this Prof. Gregory 

 quotes legends explaining the origin of natural 

 features and representing them as the same when 

 they were first known as they are at the present day. 

 But it is clear that we are not entitled to assume the 



1 " The Dead Heart of Australia ; a Tourney round Lake Eyre in the 

 .Summer of 1901-?, with some Account of the Lake Eyre Basin and the 

 Flowing Wells of Central Australia." By Prof. J. W. Gregory, F.R.S 

 i Pp. xvi-f384. (London: John Murray, 1906.) Price 165. net. 



