November 4, 1909] 



NATURE 



17 



that are assigned to the filicinean family Marattiaceae. 

 Seven genera and seventeen species are confirmed by Dr. 

 Krasser, of which one genus, Speirocarpus, and ten species 

 are new to science. Five of the genera go back to the 

 Palieozoic, but Speirocarpus and Bernoullia have only 

 been found in Mesozoic strata. The article appears in the 

 Sitziingsbcriihte der kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissen- 

 scliaften, Vienna (vol. cxviii., part i.). 



Further information regarding the curious herbaceous 

 Ecanda rubber plant, Raphionacmc utilis, is published in 

 the Kew Biillclin (\o. S). The plant grows abundantly on 

 a plateau in the district of Bih6, Portuguese West Africa ; 

 it produces a short leafy shoot and a good-sized tuber, from 

 which the rubber is obtained. The tubers vary in weight up 

 to 5 lb., and occasionally exceed this measure. It seems 

 probable that there may be more than one species. The 

 plants can be propagated from seed, but take several years 

 to reach a marketable size. In the same number of the 

 Bulletin there appears a short note, by Mr. J. M. Hillier, 

 with reference to a new rubber plant, Asclepias stellifera. 

 The identification refers to samples of root rubber for- 

 warded by Mr. J. Burtt Davy from the Transvaal, one of 

 which was reported to be of good quality. 



A FACT of peculiar interest in connection with plant dis- 

 tribution is presented by Dr. Engler in the discovery, 

 announced in his Boiaiiische Jahrhilcher (vol. xliii., 

 part iv.), of an African plant referred to the family 

 Triuridaceae. The plants of this family are saprophvtes of 

 such a reduced nature that there is some doubt whether 

 they are correctly classed with monocotyledons. Several 

 species, under two genera, have been discovered in tropical 

 .America and tropical Asia ; also a new species from the 

 Seychelles islands was described by Mr. Botting Hemsley 

 in 1907. The latest species was collected in West Africa, 

 in the Cameroons, so that the genus Sciaphila is now 

 recorded from three continents. It is quite unlikely that 

 the seeds of a plant which is a saprophytic inhabitant of 

 virgin forest should be transported by water, and the 

 problem of its existence in these distant isolated localities 

 is exceedingly puzzling. An anatomical examination of the 

 stem showed a reduced structure not inconsistent with a 

 monocotyledonous position. 



Under the subtitle " Les Districts littoraux et 

 alluviaux," the Jardin botanique de I'Etat has issued, 

 with the authority of the Belgian Minist^re de I'lnt^rieur 

 et de I'Agriculture, the first portion of a work on " Les 

 .'\spects de la V^g^tation en Belgique," by Profs. C. 

 Bommer and J. Massart. The studies of these two 

 authors in this field, the results of which have appeared 

 in the pages of the Bulletin dc la Societi royale de 

 Botanique de Belgique. are already well and favourably 

 known. In a brief resume Prof. Th. Durand, director 

 of the Brussels Botanic Garden, explains the object the 

 authors have in view, and informs us that the work, in 

 its complete form, will include some 400 plates distributed 

 in five parts, as follows : — i.. Districts littoraux et 

 alluviaux, by Prof. Massart; ii.. Districts flandrien et 

 campinien, by the same author; iii.. Districts argilo- 

 sablonneux et cr^tac^, by Prof. Bommer; iv., Districts 

 calcaire et jurassique, by Prof. Massart; and v., District 

 ardennais, by Prof. Bommer. The work will include in 

 its scope the illustration both of the cultivated and of the 

 uncultivated portions of Belgian territory, and will 

 endeavour to give a complete picture of the vegetation of 

 the whole country. The method adopted by the authors 

 in preparing their illustrations has involved their securing 

 photographs on plates measuring 30 cm. by 40 cm. With 

 NO. 2088, VOL. 82] 



the object of rendering available for independent use the 

 more important of these plates, it has been resolved ft> 

 issue a reduced edition containing about one-fourth of the 

 plates in the complete work. The copy of this reduced 

 edition of the first volume, now under notice, contains 

 twenty-four plates as against eighty-six plates in the 

 complete edition of the same volume. These plates are 

 excellent reproductions from photographs of great beauty. 

 They largely explain themselves, and are highly instructive. 

 The accompanying letterpress is reduced to a brief ampli- 

 fication, in three pages, of the systematic summary of 

 the plates, whereof i and 2 illustrate the District des 

 Estacades et Briselames ; 3-9, the District des Dunes 

 littorales; 10-13, the District des Alluvions marines; 14 

 and 15, the District des .Alluvions fluviales ; 16-22, the 

 District des Polders argileux ; while 23 and 24 illustrate 

 the District des Polders sablonneux et des Dunes internes. 



The thirty-first and thirty-second reports of the Con- 

 necticut .Agricultural Station for the years 1907-8 form 

 a volume running into nearly a thousand pages. A con- 

 siderable amount of space is devoted to the reports from 

 the analytical laboratories, where large numbers of food- 

 stuffs intended for human consumption are investigated 

 in addition to the ordinary agricultural materials. Ir> 

 accordance with the .American system, resuhs of the 

 analysis are published, together with the trade name of 

 the article, the manufacturer, the dealer, the price, and 

 the guaranteed composition, so that one can see at a 

 glance which articles are above and which below their 

 guarantees. Dr. Osborn, head of the laboratory for the 

 study of proteids, reports that he has isolated a new sub- 

 stance from one of the wheat proteins, a di-peptide of 

 proline and phenyl-alanine. This substance is important^ 

 not only in connection with the structure of wheat protein, 

 but in connection with the chemistry of proteins in general. 

 Quantitative determinations have also been made of the 

 amounts of decomposition products of various vegetable 

 proteins. The entomological department has spent much- 

 efl'ort in subduing the gypsy moth at the only place in- 

 the State where it was found. The infected area was 

 isolated by destroying the shrubs and bushes on all sides 

 of it as far as possible ; within the area all larvae, pups, 

 and egg-masses discovered were destroyed ; 14,000 trees 

 were banded and inspected daily. .A new orchard pest, the 

 peach saw-fly, which threatened great injury, was com- 

 pletely controlled by spraying with lead arsenate. In the 

 agricultural department a number of experiments are re- 

 corded on the hybridisation of potatoes. The botanist 

 records studies of the " calico " disease of potatoes, and 

 chlorosis in other plants, the downy mildew of Connecti- 

 cut, the root rot of tobacco caused by the fungus Thielavia 

 hasicola, and of certain heteroecious rusts of Connecticut 

 having a peridermium for their oecial stage. The forester 

 has carried out experiments on the economical planting 

 of white pine, on different methods of seeding and plant- 

 ing forest trees, on the fertilisation of young trees by 

 growing cow peas, on the progress of the white pine 

 disease, and on methods of treating the pine weevil. The 

 increased interest in forest planting in Connecticut is 

 shown by the fact that about 100,000 forest trees were 

 planted in 1906, 350,000 in 1907, and 600,000 in 1908. A 

 forest survey is in hand, and a fire service has been 

 organised. 



Prof. L. Dup.arc, assisted by Dr. Francis Pearce and 

 Madame Tikanowitch, his colleagues in the Universitv of 

 Geneva, has issued the third and concluding part of his 

 " Recherches g^ologiques et petrographiques sur I'Oural 



