June 24, 1909J 



NATURE 



501 



It will be readily understood that bacteria do not lend 

 themselves to ordinary standards of classification. Accord- 

 ing to two systems adopted, they have been massed into 

 certain main groups or ha\e been arranged according to 

 their reactions in a few standard media. Mr. C. E. A. 

 Winslow contributes an article on the subject to the 

 Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club (vol. xxxvi.), in 

 which he advocates a statistical method derived from the 

 analysis of quantitative measurements extending over a 

 large series of cultures. The characters or properties 

 employed for discrimination are first selected by means of 

 a preliminary survey. A special point in the paper is the 

 argument in favour of a classification based on physio- 

 logical as opposed to morphological characters. 



Two communications dealing with the flora of Prince 

 Charles Forelartd, Spitsbergen, are published in the Trans- 

 actions and Proceedings of the Botanical Society of Edin- 

 burgh (vol. xxiii., part iv.). Mr. R. N. R. Brown deals 

 with the flowering plants and ferns collected by Dr. W. S. 

 Bruce on the island in the years 1906 and 1907. Saxifraga 

 oppositifolia is the first plant to flower as soon as the 

 snow disappears in June ; in early September the autumn 

 falls of snow begin and close over the flowers of Cardamine 

 pratensis, Saxifraga aizoides, and other late bloomers. 

 The genera Saxifraga and Ranunculus supply thirteen out 

 of a total of fifty-five species. Gamopetalous plants are 

 limited to two composites, a Campanula and a Pedicularis. 

 The mosses and liverworts are described by Mr. J. Hagen. 

 Owing to the short growing period, only one species, 

 Oncophorus Wahlcnbergii, was found in fruit, and three 

 others bearing antheridia or archegonia. 



Reference has already been made in N.:VTURE to the 

 method brought forward by Prof. H. Molisch for using 

 a warm-water bath as a means of forcing plants when in 

 a dormant condition. In response to inquiries, the author 

 has elaborated his paper for publication, with additional 

 illustrations, as a separate pamphlet published by Mr. 

 Gustav Fischer, Jena (price 1.20 marks). The method 

 consists in plunging the plants, preferably inverted, so as 

 to immerse the stems but not the roots, into a water bath 

 maintained at a temperature ranging, according to the 

 plant, from 15° C. to 30° C. After soaking in the bath 

 for about ten to fifteen hours, the plants are placed in 

 a warm, moist chamber, and eventually transferred to 

 the greenhouse. Forsythia, Spiraeas, Syringas, and other 

 plants that are usually forced give good results. Azalea 

 mollis and Camellia japonica did not respond to treatment. 

 and there was no practical result in the case of Narcissus 

 bulbs. The precise nature of the action has not been 

 determined, although it is suggested that the stimulus 

 may be compared with that produced by ether vapour. 



The ninth volume of the Bulletin du Jardin imperiale 

 hotanique, St. Petersburg (parts i. to iii.), contains, 

 amongst other papers, a preliminary communication by 

 Mr. A. A. Elcnkin on the plankton, mosses, and lichens 

 in and aroiuid Lake Selguer, in the government of Tver. 

 The more important alga; collected in the lake included 

 species of Anabivna, Ceratiiim hirudinella, Tabellaria 

 fenestrata, and Staurastrum gracile. Some rare lichens 

 were found, notably Rhizocarpon posttimum and Acaro- 

 spora oUgospora growing on rocks, and the type of a new 

 genus, Placynthiella arcnicola, gathered on sandv soil. 

 A short notice is communicated by Mr. N. A. Busch of a 

 botanical expedition in the Caucasian province of Kuban, 

 when he determined the north-western limit of Fagus 

 orictitalis and the western limit of Acer iataricum. 



NO. 2069, VOL. 80] 



In the Fortnightly Review for June Mr. E. Clodd dis- 

 cusses the pre-animistic stages in savage religion. He 

 finds these in the conception of the Algonquin Manatou,. 

 the Oki or Orenda of the Iroquois, and in the better- 

 known Mana of the Melanesians, which last is defined by 

 Dr. Codrington to mean a supernatural power or influence- 

 which operates to effect everything beyond the ordinary 

 power of men, outside the common processes of nature^ 

 .At the back of the barbaric mind Mr. Clodd finds that 

 in the evolution of the idea of God the passage is made 

 from a vague, inchoate Naturism to a definite, concrete- 

 Animism, which draws its support from divers causes, 

 among which he groups " the Opinion of Ghosts, Ignor- 

 ance of second causes. Devotion towards what men fear, 

 and taking of things Casuall for Prognostique " — to use- 

 the classification of the philosopher Hobbes. He does not 

 go farther, as recent speculation is inclined to do, \n^ 

 tracing the origin of the savage conception of Deity to a 

 primitive Monotheism, while Animism is held to explairh 

 only the dead material of savage religion — that which con- 

 cerns the human, the natural, the world of the dead,. 

 animated nature, ancestor worship, and so on. 



The Huxley memorial lecture by Prof. W. Z. Ripley,, 

 on the subject of the European population of the Unitet? 

 States, is published in the current number of the Journal 

 of the Royal Anthropological Institute. He observes that,, 

 in contrast to the population of Europe, the white race in. 

 .America is " artificial and exotic. It is as yet unrelated' 

 to its physical environment. A human phenomenon unique 

 in the history of the world is the result." At present the 

 information is too scanty to enable us to judge of the 

 tremendous effects of the introduction into a new country 

 of about twenty-five millions of immigrants since 1820- 

 These hosts have been drawn, not only from the higher 

 races, " but we have tapped the political sinks of Europe, 

 and are now drawing large numbers of Greeks, Armenians,, 

 and Syrians." The primary question is whether these 

 various racial groups are to coalesce to form a more or 

 less uniform American type, or whether they are to main- 

 tain a separate existence as members of a single govern- 

 ment. The process of fusion is aided by the mobility of 

 the .American population and by the inequality of sexes 

 among the immigrants, some 70 per cent, of whom are- 

 males, a fact which encourages alliances between them 

 and .American women. On the other hand, there is con- 

 siderable concentration among some of the foreign 

 colonies. After an interesting discussion of the problems- 

 of race amalgamation, the lecturer points out that the 

 " white man's burden " imposed upon the rulers of India 

 and the .Americans in relation to negroes and Filipinos is 

 much less serious than that laid on the statesmen of 

 Canada and the United States of maintaining amidst this 

 engulfing flood of foreigners the ideals of Anglo-Saxon 

 culture and civilisation. 



In an interesting paper entitled " Reflexions d'une- 

 .Artiste sur les Dessins de la Caverne d'.Altamira," M. 

 Lotus P^ralte reviews the artistic character of the walL 

 paintings in this cave as described by MM. E. Cartailhac 

 and H. Breuil. He dwells with enthusiasm on these- 

 admirable delineations of animal forms as contrasted with, 

 the infantile productions of the Hyperboreans, Australians,, 

 and Bushmen. The Magdaleneans who produced these 

 drawings are, in his view, the successors of a long- 

 established art school, the " ethnical ddbris " of a pro- 

 foundly cultured race, of which the last vestiges dis- 

 appeared before the inroad of the Neolithic people. The 

 artistic capacity of this earlier race may be readily 



