May 28, 1 90S] 



NATURE 



85 



the Aiiglo-Gprman Boundary Commission, between Victoria 

 Nyanza and Mount Ruwenzori. Tlie Gill memoiial to 

 Dr. T. G. Longstaff, for his exploring work in the 

 western Himalayas and Tibet, and especially on his last 

 expedition in the Garhwal Himalayas, when he ascended 

 the summit of Trisul. The Back bequest to Lieut. George 

 Mulock, for his long-continued work, mostly during his 

 own time, in preparing the six sheets of 'the .Antarctic 

 charts, showing the results of the Discovery expedition. 

 The Culhbert Peek grant to Rai Sahib Ram Singh, a 

 native Indian surveyor, who has done excellent surveying 

 work on the expeditions of Captain Deasy, Dr. Stein, 

 Captain Rawling, and Major Ryder. 



.\t the conclusion of a description in part iv. of vol. 

 Ixxxix. of the Zcitschrift fur wissenschaftliche Zoologie 

 of the remarkable land-planarians of the genus Rhyncho- 

 demus, Dr. W. E. Bendl, of the University of Gratz, 

 points out thatVertain curious variations in the secondary 

 genital structures of the members of this and the allied 

 genera appear to be correlated with geographical distribu- 

 tion. In one group the male copulatory organs are found 

 to be of much simpler structure than in a second 

 assemblage, and it appears that while the former type is 

 in the main characteristic of the Oriental and .Australasian 

 species, the latter is dominant in the eastern Holarctic and 

 Ethiopian forms. 



W'e have received a copy of an excellent little bio- 

 graphical pamphlet, by Prof. W. May, of Karlsruhe, 

 entitled " Auf Darwin-Spuren," and forming part xiv. 

 of " Gemeinverstandliche Darwinistische Vortriige und 

 .\bhandlungen," published at Braekwede-i-W. by Dr. W. 

 Breitenbach, the editor. The part before us is illustrated 

 with portraits of Darwin's father and grandfather, and 

 with reproductions of photographs of the Darwin statue 

 at South Kensington, and of the house at Shrewsbury 

 where the great evolutionist was born. Whether by 

 intent or by accident, the fasciculus appears very oppor- 

 tunely in relation to the impending " jubilee " of thi- 

 reading of the " origin-of-species papers " by Darwin and 

 Wallace at the Linnean Society. 



We have been favoured with a copy of a pamphlet 

 (without printer's or publisher's name) describing thi- 

 laboratory established in iqoi at Sutton Broad, Norfolk, 

 by Messrs. Eustace and Robert Gurney for the study of 

 fresh-water biology, in which it is announced that the 

 gentleman last named will be pleased to arrange for the 

 accommodation of naturalists desirous of working on this 

 branch of research, no charge being made for the use of 

 the laboratory. A considerable amount of work has already 

 been accomplished in connection with the tidal system of 

 the district, and its past and present effects on the fauna 

 of the Broad. The crustaceans, beetles, and dragon-flies, 

 and to a certain extent the rotifers and hydrachnids of the 

 district, have formed the subjects of investigation, but 

 much remains to be done in connection with the molluscs, 

 lurbellarians, and protozoans. 



From the Entomological Bureau of the U.S. Department 

 of .Agriculture we have received Circular No. 99, dealing 

 with nut-weevils, and from the West Virginia University 

 .Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin No. no, devoted 

 to the grape-vine root-borer. Two species of weevil do 

 considerable damage to chestnuts, of which large quanti- 

 ties are now grown in the States, and various methods of 

 checking the multiplication of these pests are suggested. 

 Hazel-nuts are attacked by an allied, but shorter-bodied 

 and shorter-beaked, weevil. The grape-vine root-borer is 

 one of the dear-winged moths, and a species indigenous 



NO. 2013, A'OL. 78] 



to North .America, where it doubtless originally infested 

 wild vines. The caterpillars burrow long tunnels in the 

 roots of vines, to which they do very serious damage, for 

 the most part quite unknown to the cultivators. The 

 cultivation of races of vine immune to the attack of root- 

 borers is recommended. 



In a recent number of Records of the Indian Museum 

 (vol. i., part iv.. No. 23, December, 1907), Captain R. E. 

 I.loyd describes and figures, under the name Niidiclava 

 monocanthi, a remarkable new genus and species of 

 hydroids, which has been found parasitic on a fish, Mono- 

 canthiis tomentosus. The hydroid consists of a basal 

 coenosarcal plate attached to the skin of the fish, and from 

 the basal plates arise the hydranths and the gonophores. 

 The hydranths are entirely devoid of tentacles, and have a 

 peculiar histological structure ; thus Nudiclava resembles 

 greatly Hydrichtbys minis, described by Fewkes, but differs 

 in the gonophores being sporosacs, while Hydrichtbys pro- 

 duces free medusae. In the Memoirs of the Indian Museum 

 (vol. i.. No. 2) Captain Lloyd describes the anatomy of 

 the gigantic marine isopod Batliynomiis gigaiiteiis. 



TiiE .April number of the Emu is illustrated by a re- 

 production from a photograph of a nest of the brown fly- 

 catcher (.l/fcrnccrt fasciiutns) containing two eggs laid by 



Nest and Eggs of Brown Fiycatcher, with Egg of Squ.ire-tailcd Cuckoo. 

 (Nearly natural size.) 



the rightful owner, and a third deposited by the square- 

 tailed cuckoo (,Cacomaiitis variolosus). The size of the 

 nest admits of only three eggs ; and it is stated in the 

 same issue by Mr. E. M. Cornwall that in the case of an 

 allied flycatcher (or " flyeater "j and the bronze-cuckoo, 

 the former bird normally lays a clutch of three eggs, but 

 only two of them are found in a nest containing a cuckoo's 

 egg. What becomes of the third egg is not stated. In the 

 case of the nest photographed, the difference between the 

 colour of the cuckoo's and the flycatcher's eggs, as shown 

 in the accompanying reproduction, is very marked, while 

 the small size of both is very noticeable. 



The third volume of Notes from the Royal Botanic 

 Garden, Edinburgh, is devoted to a history of the garden 

 and biographies of the principal gardeners from the year 



