NATURE 



[April 15, 1909 



Agricultural News. The two parasites dealt with are 

 Chalets ovata and a Spirochalcis. The latter was found 

 to be parasitic on the Sarcophagidse, which in turn are 

 parasitic on the cotton-worm, but whether they attacli 

 healthy or only damaged pupse is not yet clear. 



The February number of the Journal of Agriculture of 

 South Australia contains the results of manurial experi- 

 ments on wheat made at certain centres in South Australia. 

 Small dressings of superphosphate were found to give 

 remarkable increases in crop, but neither nitrate of soda 

 nor sulphate of potash had niucli effect. These results are 

 so unusual that it would be interesting to l<now the com- 

 position of the soil and the meteorological data at the 

 various centres. 



A PAMPHLET was recently issued by the Midland Pub- 

 lishing Company, Cradoclc, Cape Colony, on lucerne, in 

 which the characteristics of this valuable crop are set 

 out in detail. The methods of cultivation and of dealing 

 with the pests to which it is liable are described; sections 

 are also devoted to discussing the value of lucerne as food 

 and as green manure. For the South African farmer 

 lucerne has the double advantage of being a leguminous 

 crop, and therefore increasing the amount of nitrogenous 

 organic matter in the soil, and of withstanding drought, 

 because of its deep-rooting habit. 



The rainfall conditions of many districts of the Transvaal 

 are not altogether favourable for vegetation ; the fault does 

 not lie so much in the amount of the rainfall as in its 

 irregular distribution. Similar conditions exist in parts of 

 the United States, but have been overcome by special 

 methods of cultivation, and " dry farming " is now 

 extensively practised. The essential part of the scheme is 

 to plough the soil deeply and cultivate the surface fre- 

 quently, but to keep the subsoil compact ; in these circum- 

 stances the water is found to remain near the surface, and 

 is not readily dissipated by evaporation. Mr. Macdonald, 

 the official of the Transvaal Agricultural Department who 

 devotes himself to dry farming, has given in the current 

 number of the Transvaal Agricultural Journal an interest- 

 ing account of the various methods adopted and the prin- 

 ciples on which they are based. 



Bulletin No. ,5 of the Sleeping Sickness Bureau con- 

 tains a summary of various papers on the development of 

 trypanosomes in, and mode of transmission of trypanosomes 

 by, tsetse-flies, on treatment, on human trypanosomiasis, 

 &c. Now that so much is being written on this subject, 

 it is very useful to have a summary of this kind. 



Tuberculosis is the subject of two papers in the March 

 number of the Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital 

 (xx., No. 216). One, by Dr. Kober, deals with the in- 

 fluence of sewerage and general sanitation on the pre- 

 valence of the disease ; the other, by Dr. Moss, outlines 

 a plan of study of tuberculosis in all its bearings, and is 

 well worthy of consideration. The place of protozoology 

 in the medical curriculum is also discussed by Dr. Schultz, 

 and the ground such a course should cover is indicated. 



The influence of radium rays o.n germination and other 

 life. processes in plants is discussed by Prof. C. S. Gager 

 in the Popular Science Monthly (March). Experiments 

 were made with sealed glass tubes .containing radium 

 bromide of different degrees of activity, and with a rod 

 coated with radium bromide. It was found that radium 

 of strong activity or a long exposure produced .retardation 

 of growth, or even, killed the, plants, but emanations of 

 less activity, in certain cases, produced acceleration of 

 growth. 



NO. 2059, VOL. 80] 



An article on sand-binding plants is published in the 

 Indian Forester (February), in which the author, Mr. V. 

 Subramania Iyer, furnishes an ecological account of the 

 plants growing on the Coromandel coast. The ten species 

 noted as typical sand-binders are Spinifex squarrostis, 

 Cyperus arenarius, Ipomoea biloba, Canavalia obtusifolia, 

 Hydrophylax maritima, Spermacoce hispida, Launaea 

 pinnatifida, Pupalia orbiculata, Pandanus odoratissimus, 

 and Casuarina eqiiisetifolia. It is mentioned that Cyperus 

 arenarius throws out shoots to a distance of 50 feet, and 

 an underground stem of Ipomoea biloba measured 40 feet, 

 with internodes averaging 6 inches in length. 



The hardness of oil-palm kernels might well be pro- 

 verbial, so that the reported discovery on the West Coast 

 of Africa of a variety with soft shells has aroused much 

 interest. Information on the subject, received from various 

 British and foreign colonies along the coast, has been 

 collated in the Kew Btilletin (No. 2). The reports con- 

 firm the existence of such a variety in the various countries 

 from the Gold Coast to the Cameroons, and point to its 

 being a botanical variety, tnicrosperma, of Elaeis 

 guineensis. It is doubtful whether this variety comes true 

 to seed, and in this connection experiments are necessary 

 to ascertain whether the plants are generally self-pollinated 

 or if cross-pollination occurs. 



The account of a South African bamboo, contributed by 

 Dr. O. Stapf to the same number of the Kew Bulletin, 

 illustrates the difliculty of naming some of these grasses. 

 It has been known for seventy years that a bamboo grows 

 in Cape Colony, but the reference to a genus was un- 

 certain until flowering specimens were collected recently 

 on the Drakensberg above an altitude of 5000 feet, when 

 it proved to be an Arundinaria. Mr. J. M. Hillier sup- 

 plies an article on the lalang grass, Imperata arundinacea, 

 distributed through Ceylon and parts of Asia, where it 

 is regarded as a veritable pest. In the search for plants 

 which might provide the material for paper pulp, samples 

 of lalang were submitted to analysis and manufacture. 

 The paper produced was very suitable for a wrapping 

 paper, and was somewhat improved by the addition of 

 cotton. 



In the April number of the Reliquary Mr. W. Turner 

 describes a collection of Roman metal-work found at Deep 

 Dale Cave, about three miles from Buxton. The objects 

 seem to have belonged to a party of Roman-Britons who 

 were massacred here by some invading host, possibly Picts 

 or Scots. It is almost certain that the victims met a 

 violent death, because in the. talus of the cave hundreds 

 of human • teeth were found, but very few interments, 

 indicating that the bodies were devoured by beasts and 

 birds. The objects discovered consist of various fibulae, 

 one of Celtic origin, with the head of a dragon, or, as 

 some say, of a sea-horse; a lady's toilet appliances hung 

 on a ring; a Celtic penannular brooch; a ring and 

 tweezers — all these articles being of bronze. An iron spear- 

 head- was found in a part of the cave near a human inter- 

 ment. The collection, which belongs to Mr. Micah Salt, 

 of Buxton, resembles in many respects the articles found 

 by Prof. Boyd Dawkins at the Victoria Cave, near Settle, 

 and it is believed to be the largest assortment of Romano- 

 British remains found in any single cave in England. 



The Francis Galton Eugenics ' Laboratory (University 

 College, London) has commenced the issue of a new 

 periodical under the title of the Treasury of Human 

 Inheritance, in which will be given collections of pedigrees 

 Ulustrating , the inheritance of various characters in man. 

 In the first double part, which is before us, the pedigrees. 



