225 



NA TURE 



[April 22. 1909 



IBoIetinese of North America, and favours the establish- 

 ment of numerous small genera ; besides adopting Tylo- 

 pilus and Rustkovia of Karsten, he creates four new 

 •genera, one of which, Suillellus, is founded on the species 

 Boletus luridus. Mr. J. B. Rorer communicates a note on 

 a bacterial disease of the peach which is pretty certainly 

 the same as Bacterium Pruni, reported by Dr. E. F. 

 Smith as the cause of leaf spots on plum and peach. 



There is considerable opportunity for critical observa- 

 tions regarding the classification of the Polypodiacese. In 

 this connection an article by Dr. E. B. Copeland in the 

 botanical series of the Philippine Jourtial of Science (vol. 

 iii., No. 5) respecting the limitation of the genus 

 Athyrium merits special attention. The opinion is 

 advanced that Athyrium, Diplazium, and Anisogonium do 

 not form distinct natural genera, and that certain species 

 of Diplazium show closer affinities with certain species of 

 Athyrium than with other species of Drplazium. There- 

 fore it is recommended to unite the species under the one 

 genus Athyrium, and the author has collated with a key 

 the large number of Philippine species that would come 

 under the genus. In the following number of the journal 

 Dr. Copeland makes a similar suggestion with regard to 

 'Cyathea, Alsophila, and Hemitelia, and applies his views 

 in naming a few Philippine species under the generic name 

 of Cyathea. 



Prof. Giglioli, of Pisa, has issued as a reprint a paper 

 published in the BoUettino della Societi degli Agricoltori 

 Italiani in which he discusses some of the newer phases 

 of manurial action. In particular he has collected the 

 results of a number of experiments on the manurial value 

 of manganese dioxide, which has frequently given an 

 increase in crop, although it is not an essential plant food. 

 Indirect manurial actions of this kind are of interest in 

 connection with the idea now being developed in certain 

 quarters that soils contain substances toxic to plants, and 

 a discussion of the phenomena from this point of view 

 is given in the paper. 



Bulletin No. 131 of the Purdue University Agricultural 

 Experiment Station contains a report on the working of 

 'the recent Feeding-Stuffs Act of Indiana, which, like ours, 

 compels the merchant to guarantee the percentages of oil, 

 protein, and the maximum amount of fibre, and imposes 

 penalties in ^case the feeding-stuff does not come up to 

 guarantee. There is some difference in detail, and, on the 

 whole, the Indiana Act is more stringent, but it is said 

 10 have been entirely effective, and to have improved con- 

 siderably the standard of goods supplied to the farmer. 



The report from the Transvaal Government Laboratories 

 for the year 1907-8 shows a decrease in the total number 

 of samples examined, which, however, is more than 

 accounted for by the falling off in the number of plague 

 specimens. A large number of waters, milks, flours, meals, 

 and other food-stuffs were examined, and attention is 

 'directed to the bad state of some of the tinned meats sup- 

 plied. A number of poison cases were investigated, but 

 ■it is pointed out that little or no progress can be looked 

 for in dealing with native poisoning cases until a complete 

 examination has been made of the plants indigenous to 

 South Africa and the poisons they contain. 



Mr. F. V. Emerson contributes a paper, entitled " A 

 Geographic Interpretation of New York City," to the 

 Bulletin of the American Geographical Society (Nos. 10 

 and 12, vol. xl. ; No. i, vol. xli.). An elaborate inquiry 

 into the geographical position of New York, and examina- 

 tion of statistics concerning its position in relation to 



NO. 2060, VOL. 80] 



other towns on the Atlantic coast of the United States, 

 leads the author to the conclusions that the commercial 

 growth of New York is due, primarily, to its easy route 

 to the interior, but that there is some evidence that the 

 " momentum " which it has enjoyed from this cause is 

 decreasing. Business men in New York have realised this 

 danger, hence the enlargement of the Erie Canal. 



In the March number of the Bulletin of the Imperial 

 Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg, Prince Galitzin 

 discusses the records of the Calabrian earthquake obtained 

 at Pulkowa. This observatory is specially devoted to a 

 comparative study of the behaviour of various types of 

 instruments, not to that of the movement of the ground ; 

 some interesting results seem to have been obtained, among 

 which may be counted the value of electromagnetic damp- 

 ing. This is the only form which gives a constant 

 coefficient of damping for all amplitudes of swing, and its 

 efficiency in eliminating the idiosyncrasies of individual 

 instruments is strikingly exemplified by the reproduction 

 of a double record of two similar ZoUner pendula, each 

 recording independently on the same sheet of paper, in 

 which the two curves follow each other with hardly a 

 perceptible divergence in course. It is noticed that all the 

 records indicated an initial movement towards the origin ; 

 Prince Galitzin explains this by assuming that the first 

 displacement was outwards, but that the piers, acting as 

 heavy pendula of short period, were tilted backwards by 

 their own inertia, thus producing an apparent inward 

 movement on the instruments which they supported. 



In the February number of the National Geographic 

 Magazine Captain F. M. Munger, of the U.S. Revenue 

 Cutter Service, gives an account of " the most wonderful 

 island in the world," that near Bogloslof, in the Aleutian 

 Islands, Alaska. In 1886-7 ^ "^w island, named " Fire 

 Island," made its appearance. In 1905-6 a new peak rose 

 between this and the adjoining "Castle Rock." Next 

 year a third elevation, called " McCulloch Island," showed 

 itself in the same area. This seems to have exploded in 

 September, 1907, a heavy fall of ashes having covered the 

 entire region for a distance of sixty miles. At the survey 

 in 1907 the formation of the remaining portions of these 

 various volcanic peaks was found to consist of disintegrated 

 rock, basalt, felspar, scoria, tufa, pumice, obsidian, 

 trachyte, and other igneous rocks, with volcanic mud, all 

 more or less discoloured with a deposit of sulphur. The 

 series of excellent photographs obtained by Captain Munger 

 gives an excellent idea of the successive stages of this 

 remarkable exhibition of volcanic energy. 



The British School at Rome recently issued an appeal 

 for help towards excavations in the western Mediter- 

 ranean, accompanied by a report, by Dr. Duncan 

 Mackenzie, on the mysterious Nuraghi of Sardinia and 

 their west-European relations. At Sena he found the so- 

 called " Giant's Tomb," closely connected with the 

 Nuraghe-castle, and remarks : — " On the other hand that 

 the Nuraghe-villagers should turn out to have buried in 

 constructed chamber-tombs that themselves were imita- 

 tions of the Nuraghe-hut as well as in rock-shelters and 

 rock-cut chamber-tombs would in itself not be a singular 

 phenomenon, but one that has a wide illustration in the 

 Mediterranean Basin and elsewhere in Europe. At the 

 same time an ethnological puzzle of a curious order may 

 well underlie the fact that the people of the Nuraghe- 

 castles should arrogate to themselves for their exclusive 

 use a type of tomb which owes its origin to the primitive 

 dolmen at the same time that they inhabit houses of the 

 same round type as the Nuraghe-huts of the simple 



