'■,28 



NATURE 



[August 6, 1908 



ment to the Transactions of the Cardiff Naturalists' 

 Society. 



As in forest management we have much to learn from 

 our Continental neighbours, it is well to ascertain the 

 practice adopted in those countries. Mr. J. F. Annand 

 contributes to the Transactions of the Scottish Arbori- 

 cultural Society (vol. xxi., part ii.) his impressions of 

 forestry in the Schwarzwald, observed during a course of 

 training in the province of Baden. The silver fir generally 

 provides the main crop, except at the higher altitudes, 

 when spruce is the prevailing species. K small proportion 

 of beech is found useful, but is carefully restricted. It 

 is interesting to compare the observations recorded by Mr. 

 Annand with the notes on the cultivation of hardwoods 

 offered by Mr. J. Boyd. The latter, although he recom- 

 mends growing coniferous and hardwood forests on 

 separate areas, recognises that successful results can also 

 be obtained with a mixture of both classes. 



A NOTE in the Trinidad Bultetin (April) directs attention 

 to the fact that the tree Spathelia simplex, belonging to 

 the order Rutacese, is similar to the .Agaves in so far as 

 the plant grows for several years before it flowers, and 

 then exhausts itself in the flowering and dies. A specimen 

 that recently flowered belonged to the second generation, 

 since the tree was introduced twenty-two years previously. 

 In the same number will be found a detailed description 

 of the pollination of the papilionaceous flower Clitoria 

 arboresccns that points to its being a complex process. 

 Put shortlv, the pollen from the stamens falls or is brushed 

 bv hairs on the stigma into a carinal pouch ; the movement 

 of bees and w-asps searching for nectar causes the shedding 

 of the pollen on to the vexillum ; thence it is transferred 

 by ants or other insects to the stigma. The flowers are 

 inverted, and it has been demonstrated that they are self- 

 sterile. 



The enormous advantages gained by the introduction of 

 rapid methods for fat determination in milk has led 

 E. B. Hart to describe in a special Bulletin (No. 156 of 

 the University of Wisconsin) a rapid method for estimating 

 casein in milk. The milk is mixed with chloroform to 

 dissolve the fat, and dilute acetic acid to coagulate the 

 casein ; it is then rapidly rotated in an apparatus not un- 

 like that used in the ordinary Gerber test, and the 

 percentage of casein directly read off by measuring the 

 space occupied by the clot. The trial analyses are very 

 satisfactory, the results agreeing well with those obtained 

 by the official method ; if further work shows that the 

 method is trustworthy, it will prove verv useful to dairy 

 chemists. 



Following up his past work on the haustorium of 

 Sautalum album, Mr. C. A. Barber, in No. 4 of the 

 Memoirs of the Department of .Agriculture in India, 

 describes in detail the parasitism of Olax scandens. This 

 plant is a sprawling shrub growing in the midst of 

 thickets, thorny, with whitish sweet-scented flowers, and 

 occurs all along the east coast of the Madras Presidency 

 and for a considerable distance inland, chiefly at low eleva- 

 tions. It develops at first like an ordinary non-parasitic 

 plant, and is capable of living for a long period on the 

 nutriment stored in its endosperm, and, later, in its swollen 

 stem and tap-root. There is a well-developed root system 

 with abundant root-hairs even in old plants, and this 

 fact, coupled with the comparative rarity of haustoria in 

 the earlier stages of growth, suggests that the parasitism 

 is in a somewhat elementary stage. The memoir is very 

 well illustrated. 



NO. 2023, VOL. 78] 



In connection with an account of the observation of local 

 earthquakes at Mt. Tsukuba in 1905 (Publications of the 

 Japanese Earthquake Investigation Committee, No. 22 A), 

 Prof. Omori discusses the least limit of motion which is 

 sensible, and finds that the lower limit was a double ampli- 

 tude, or range of motion, of 0-013 mm. for earthquakes un- 

 accompanied by sound ; where the earthquake was accom- 

 panied by sound, and the vibration probably more rapid, 

 this limit fell to below 001 mm. In an earlier investiga- 

 tion of artificial vibration he had determined the minimum 

 acceleration, which was sensible as 17 mm. per sec. per sec. 

 These quantities give a numerical value of the feeblest 

 earthquake which is ordinarily sensible to human beings 

 favourably situated for noting the shock. 



In the Bulletin of the Japanese Earthquake Investigation 

 Committee, vol. ii.. No. 1, Prof. Omori deals with the 

 annual variation in the frequency of earthquakes at Tokio 

 and Kioto. Of the eighteen destructive and semi- 

 destructive earthquakes which have been recorded at Tokio, 

 seven occurred in summer and five in winter, but only 

 three each in winter and spring ; small earthquakes, on 

 the other hand, are most frequent in winter and spring, 

 and least frequent in summer and autumn. At Kioto the 

 greatest frequency of small earthquakes is in March, the 

 minimum in September ; of great earthquakes, the maxi- 

 mum frequency is in August and the minimum from 

 February to April, no destructive earthquakes having been 

 recorded in these months. It will be seen that, as regards 

 great and small earthquakes respectively, the frequency at 

 Kioto is the reverse of that at Tokio, but in each case 

 the frequency of one class of earthquakes is greatest when 

 that of the other is least. The author has found that the 

 same relation holds good for the earthquakes of Japan 

 as a whole, and for the submarine earthquakes off the 

 coast of Japan. 



The Geological Survev of Canad.'i has issued a bulletin 

 (No. 979) containing a report by Mr. R. G. McConnell 

 on work done in the Klondike during the past season. 

 The object in view was to estimate the recoverable values 

 remaining in the high-level gravels along Bonanza and 

 Hunker creeks, and in a portion of the Klondike valley, 

 and also to obtain as much information as possible in 

 regard to the values remaining in the low-level or creek 

 gravels. The author estimates that gold to the value 

 of 18,950,000/. has been produced in the past, and that the 

 value of the recoverable gold remaining is 10,728,524!. 

 While it is unlikely that any large area of rich gravel 

 has escaped detection, minor discoveries may be expected 

 so long as mining lasts, and on this account anv estimate 

 is apt to be somewhat under rather than over the mark. 

 The report is accompanied by a large coloured contoured 

 map of the auriferous gravels on Bonanza and Hunker 

 creeks on a scale of 40 chains to the inch. In another 

 bulletin (No. 992) issued by the Survey, Mr. \\'. H. Collins 

 gives a report on a portion of north-western Ontario 

 traversed by the National Transcontinental Railway 

 between Lake Nipigon and Sturgeon Lake. All the rocks 

 of the territory explored are pre-Cambrian and almost 

 wholly crystalline. The Keewatin green schists are the 

 most interesting series in that they are gold and iron 

 bearing. Gold is mined on Sturgeon Lake, and very 

 promising iron-ore deposits have been opened up near 

 Lake Nipigon. The report is accompanied by a large 

 coloured geological map of the district on a scale of 

 4 miles to the inch. 



Mr. a. J. Phiup contributes to the July number of the 

 Reliquary a useful article on the dene-holes of Kent and 



