4o6 



NA TURE 



[February 3, 1910 



forms at the present day, although in no instance is there 

 specific identity, and it is noteworthy that some of the 

 Florissant generic t\pes are now restricted to Asia. Re- 

 garding the CEningen beds as of Upper Miocene age, the 

 author considers that the Florissant deposits should be 

 assigned to the same epoch. 



To the January number of the Zoologist Prof. Mcintosh 

 contributes an article on the red or precious coral, in 

 which he traces the evolution of our knowledge of this 

 product from ancient times. Red coral was well known 

 to the Romans, and about the beginning of the Christian 

 era was exported in such quantities to India that it was 

 difficult to obtain in the countries where it was produced. 

 After describing the nature of the organism, and then 

 giving a sketch of the mode of fishing. Prof. Mcintosh 

 states that the great bulk of the coral is sold at Messina, 

 Naples, Genoa, Leghorn, and Marseilles, while the pro- 

 ■duct of the Algerian fishery goes to Pisa and Trapani. 

 About 160 tons of coral are brought yearly into Italy, the 

 articles made from which are valued at nearly 500,000?. 

 The total annual value of rough coral has been estimated 

 at 2,000,000/., while after manufacture the value is stated 

 to reach no less than 10,000,000/. The finest quality is 

 of a delicate pinkish or flesh-like colour, uniform in tint 

 throughout, and occurring in large pieces. Inferior samples 

 are sold at 2I. per ounce, and small fragments, used for 

 children's necklaces, at 55. an ounce. Even worm-eaten 

 coral has a value in the East, as the natives of certain 

 districts believe that gods dwell in the holes. 



Dr. Victor Widakowich contributes an important 

 memoir on the inversion of the germ-layers (" Entypie ") in 

 mammals to the Zeitschrift fiir wissenschaftUchc Zoologie 

 (vol. xciv., part ii.). The memoir is very beautifully 

 illustrated, and the drawings of models of various stages 

 in the early development of the rat should be extremely 

 useful to students of this difficult subject. 



In the Zeitschrift fiir wissenschaftliche Zoologie (vol. 

 •xciv., part i.), Prof. B. Bachmetjew makes a very in- 

 genious application of biometrical methods to the solution 

 of the difficult problem of parthenogenesis and sex-deter- 

 mination in bees. From an elaborate statistical study of the 

 variation in the number of hooks on the front margins of 

 the hind wdngs, he finds that the resulting curves show 

 either one or two maxima of frequency. He maintains 

 that fertilisation of the eggs determines two maxima and 

 parthenogenesis one. Thus queens always show two 

 maxima of frequency in each hind wing; they are pro- 

 duced from fertilised eggs. Drones produced by workers 

 show only a single maximum; they are produced from un- 

 fertilised eggs. With regard to sex-determination in bees, 

 Tie adopts the preformation theory of Schultze and 

 Lenjioss^k, but with the addition that drones may develop 

 from unfertilised " female " eggs, and that the fertilisation 

 of " male " eggs does not prevent the development from 

 them of drones. He finds that one-year-old queens produce 

 drones from unfertilised eggs — this appears to be the 

 normal method. Queens of two or three years produce 

 ■drones partly from unfertilised and partly from fertilised 

 eggs, because, with advancing age, the closing mechanism 

 of the seminal reservoir no longer works properly, and 

 some of the drone eggs get fertilised, as it were, accident- 

 ally. Queens of four years and older produce drones from 

 unfertilised eggs only, because all the spermatozoa have 

 been used up. Several polymorphic forms of drones occur 

 in the same colony, the form depending upon whether they 

 are produced from fertilised or unfertilised eggs. Workers 

 are produced only from fertilised eggs. 

 NO. 2I0I, VOL. 82] 



The correct botanical nomenclature of the plants yield- 

 ing commercial cottons has provided much subject for 

 controversy. A recent paper communicated by Mr. F. 

 Fletcher to the Cairo Scientific Journal (November, 1909) 

 discusses the botany and origin of American upland cotton. 

 Evidence is adduced for the opinion that this well-known 

 plant does not show the characters indicated by Miller's 

 type of the species hirsiitum, but conforms to the descrip- 

 tion and drawing issued by Tenore for Gossypium 

 siamense. The author states that Gossypium religiosutn 

 of Linnaeus also refers to the upland plant, but gives 

 reasons for disregarding this specific name in favour of the 

 former. 



The twentieth number of Notes from the Royal Botanic 

 Garden, Edinburgh, completing the fourth volume, contains 

 several short papers on abnormal developments in plants. 

 Mr. A. J. Gray records an irregular condition in the sporo- 

 carp of Salvinia natans, where megasporangia were dis- 

 covered in a microsporangial fruit, and Miss B. Chandler 

 describes cases of anomalous branching at the end of 

 aerial roots of Tihotichina moricandiana consequent upon 

 the arrest in growth of the apical meristem. There is also 

 an article, contributed by Mr. F. Darwin, referring to 

 John Hope, a professor of botany in Edinburgh in 1780, 

 and directing attention to certain of his drawings which 

 indicate a knowledge of the light sensibilities of plants 

 much in advance of the published references on the subject. 



An important paper by Dr. M. Greshoff, collating a large 

 number of phytochemical investigations carried out by 

 him in Kew Gardens, is published in the tenth and final 

 index number of the Kew Bulletin for 1909, where there 

 also appears the announcement of the author's sudden 

 death. Dr. Greshoff had previously studied the occurrence 

 of alkaloids and hydrocyanic acid in plants, and instituted 

 the investigations here described with the object of dis- 

 covering new plants of medicinal value, and of testing the 

 presence of chemical constituents as a character of 

 systematic value. The majority of the notes refer to the 

 occurrence of saponin or hydrocyanic acid. Among the 

 plants yielding saponin reactions are several genera of the 

 Leguminosje, notably Astragalus, which provides some of 

 the American poisonous loco-weeds, and Acacia, of which 

 several species furnish fish poisons ; also four genera of 

 the Caprifoliaceffi, three of the Polemoniaceae and Phyto- 

 lacca are included. The cyanogenetic list contains, among 

 others, several genera of the Compositae, Oxytropis, 

 Drosera, Dionaea, Cystopteris, and Davallia. 



The wine industry of South Africa is discussed in a 

 recent number of the Agrictdtural Journal of the Cape of 

 Good Hope. Vines were introduced by the Huguenots, 

 and found congenial soil and climate ; the industry has 

 remained in some districts, but is practically stationary, 

 only 6,000,000 gallons of wines and 1,500,000 gallons of 

 brandy being produced. It is urged that these figures are 

 capable of very material improvement. In 1874 Algerian 

 production was no more than that of South Africa, but is 

 now, as the result of careful development, more than 

 130,000,000 gallons. Cape Colony, it is urged, could pro- 

 duce the light wines of France and Germany and the 

 heavier wines of Spain and Portugal, and there seems to 

 be no insuperable difficulty in the way of creating a 

 flourishing industry. 



The last series of excavations at the amphitheatre known 

 as Maumbury Rings, near Dorchester, has been conducted 

 under the supervision of Mr. St. George Gray, of Taunton 

 Castle, who asks for further support in this undertaking. 

 One remarkable discovery has been made, that of the 



