August 3, 1905] 



NA TURE 



327 



instanco the nanif Amia, so universally in use for the 

 American bow-fin, is employed to designate the perch-like 

 fishes commonly known as Apogon. 



We have recently received five parts of the Procccd- 

 iiif<s of the U.S. National Museum. In the first of these 

 (No. 1408) Mr. T. Gill contributes the results of investi- 

 gations into the life-history of the sea-horses (Hippo- 

 campus), a subject which has hitherto received but little 

 attention. One of the illustrations shows a male dis- 

 charging the young from its brood-pouch. In the second 

 (No. 1400) Mr. B. A. Bean describes and figures an adult 

 specimen of the ' extraordinary Japanese goblin-shark 

 (Mitsukuriiui ozvstoni). The third (No. 1411) contains a 

 li.-.t, by Mr. H. C. Oberholser, of birds collected by the 

 well known traveller Dr. W. L. Abbott in the Kilimanjaro 

 district, several of which are described as new. A de- 

 scriptive list of a collection of caterpillars and chrysalises 

 of Japanese Lepidoptera, by Mr. H. G. Dyar, constitutes 

 the fourth fasciculus (No. 1412) ; while in the fifth (No. 

 1413) Mr. W. H. Asmead records Hymenoptera new to 

 the Philippine fauna, with descriptions of new species. 



Prof. A. Giard, of the Sorbonne, has favoured us with 

 separate copies of three articles by himself from vol. xxxix. 

 of the Bulletin scientifiqiie de la France et de la Helgique. 

 In the first of these, entitled " Poecilogonie," the author 

 discusses whether in the case of organisms of which the 

 adults are more or less similar to one another, while their 

 embryogeny is different, more importance should be 

 attached to the evolutionary dissimilarities or to the 

 similarity of the adults. The title for the phenomenon is 

 new. The second paper will delight the hearts of lovers 

 cf the oyster, the author remarking at the conclusion of 

 this communication, which is entitled "La Pr^tendue 

 Nocivit^ des Huitres," that he " could wish there existed 

 in the world ro other cases of typhoid save those induced 

 by eating tainted oysters." In the third communication 

 Prof. Giard discusses the drift (tendance) of modern 

 morphology and its relations to other sciences. 



.A PAPER on the development of the ascus and on spore 

 formation in the Ascomycetes, by Mr. J. H. Faull, pub- 

 lished as vol. xxxii., No. 4, of the Proceedings of the 

 Boston Society of Natural History, gives a detailed de- 

 scription of the nuclear changes for Neotiella albocincta. 

 Sordaria fimicola, and a species of Hydnobolites. The 

 origin of the asci was in most cases traced to the pen- 

 ultimate or terminal cells of ascogenous hyphse, and it 

 was found that the uninucleate stage of the young ascus 

 was always preceded by a fusion of two nuclei. From his 

 observations of the method by which the spores are de- 

 limited, the author favours the view that the ascus is 

 homologous with a zoosporangium, and would derive the 

 Ascomycetes from such a group as the Peronosporea; or 

 Saprolegnieae. 



Ix a paper forming No. 1405 of the Proceedings of the 

 U.S. .National Museum, Mr. R. MacFarlane, the chief- 

 factor of the Hudson Bay Company, contributes a series 

 of highly interesting notes on mammals collected and 

 observed in the northern Mackenzie River district. North- 

 western Territories of Canada. For two-and-forty years 

 (i852-i8q4) Mr. MacFarlane was stationed as a post and 

 district manager in these territories, and therefore had 

 unrivalled opportunities for observing the fauna in its 

 days of abundance. Unfortunately, as he himself con- 

 fesses, except when stationed at Fort Anderson the author 

 did not take full advantage of these opportunities either in 

 the matter of collecting or observing ; nevertheless, such 

 KG. 1866, VOL. 72] 



observations as have been recorded are of the highest 

 interest and value, and one cannot help regretting that 

 they were not published in a British or colonial serial, and 

 also that the author's services were not long ago enlisted 

 on behalf of the British Museum. The paper was, indeed, 

 it appears, prepared to a great extent for publication at 

 Cumberland House, the headquarters of Cumberland 

 District, in the winter of 1890-1, but for various reasons 

 it was not completed, and several sheets of the MS., 

 together with various memoranda, were subsequently lost. 

 The paper is a perfect mine of information with regard to 

 the fur exports of the Hudson Bay Company in the old 

 days. 



Two memoirs have lately been published by the Carnegie 

 Institution of Washington which contain results of interest 

 in reference to problems of heredity. The first of these, 

 by W. E. Castle, discusses the phenomena of coat 

 characters in guinea-pigs and rabbits. Three alternative 

 pairs of coat characters in guinea-pigs are shown to con- 

 form generally to Mendel's law. These are: — albinism v. 

 pigmentation, smooth v. rough coat, and long v. short 

 coat, the first named in each pair of characters being 

 recessive with respect to the second. The author dis- 

 tinguishes between characters which are recessive and those 

 which are latent ; by the latter he means certain 

 " dominant " features which di'part from Mendel's law 

 in being capable of renewed activity under certain con- 

 ditions even in " recessive " gametes. The facts given in 

 the paper supply abundant illustrations of the variety of 

 conditions under which blended inheritance, as in Mendel's 

 Hieracium experiments, may occur in place of the strict 

 Mendelian segregation. In the second paper, which is by 

 D. T. Macdougal, assisted by A. M. Vail, G. H. ShuU, 

 and J. K. Small, a full account is given of the various 

 forms of Oinothera which have constituted the chief 

 material for De Vries's " mutation " theory, and of the 

 relation between them. It is shown that O. lamarckiana 

 is in all probability a true and independent species native 

 to .America ; and the authors record the re-discovery of 

 the habitat of O. grandifiora, the place of habitat of which 

 in the American flora had become doubtful. Both memoirs 

 are well illustrated by woodcuts and half-tone plates. 



Dr. H. Mioi.ioRATO announces in vol. ii., part ii., of 

 .[nnali di Uotanica that he is preparing an analytical 

 dictionary of vegetable teratology as a subsidiary work to 

 Penzig's " Pflanzen Teratologie, " and requests that workers 

 in this subject will cooperate by sending copies of their 

 papers to him at 8gb rue Panisperna, Rome. 



Prof. F. W. Oliver, in an article in the Biologisches 

 Centralblatt (June 12) on the newly discovered seeds of 

 the Carboniferous ferns, summarises the results of recent 

 investigations in ft s^il botany which have led to the form- 

 ation of a separat.' group, the Pteridospermea;, including 

 the Lyginodendrea- and Medullosa;. The paper is illus- 

 trated with figures cf sections and a model of the seed 

 in its cupule of La^^enostoma Lomaxi. 



We have received from Brazil the first number of the 

 Revista da Sociedada Scientifica de Sao Paulo. It contains 

 the first instalment of a report, written in French, of a 

 voyage made in 1825 by Hercules Florence from the Tiete 

 to the Amazon by the Brazilian provinces of St. Paul, 

 Matto Grosso, and Gran Para. There is also a valuable 

 memoir on the Brazilian Tabanids, written in German, by 

 Dr. .^. Lutz, director of the bacteriological institute of the 

 State of Sao Paulo. Lastly there is a paper, written in 

 Portuguese, by Erasmo Braga, on the gold mines of Ophir. 



