436 



NA TURE 



[April 2, 1874 



Mr. Thomas Meehan detailed at lengtli the discoveries of Dr. 

 Engelmann and Prof. Riley in regard to the fertilisation of the 

 Yucca by the aid of a small night moth, Promiba yuccasdla of 

 Riley, and observed that in this region the fertilisation was 

 effected by this insect every year. In the Rocky Mountains of 

 Colorado in 1 871, he saw the YuKa n 11^11 i/ifolia everywhere 

 seeding in great abundance ; but in his journey in 1873 he saw 

 not a solitary seed-vessel in any of the plants, and he suggested 

 that perhaps some periodical insect might take the place of the 

 Froimba in that country. — Note on a r'\nigoid Root Parasite. 

 Mr. Thomas Meehan exhibited a small Norway spruce, in which 

 the branches and leaves were all of a golden tint. He explained 

 that when plants had little food, or lost their fibres in wet soil 

 by which they could not make use of food, the yellow tint was 

 generally exhibited in the leaves of plants. The similarity of 

 the appearances suggesting, he examined and found the roots 

 thickly enveloped by the mycelia of a fungus, which destroyed 

 the young fibres as fast as they were developed. He had sup- 

 posed it was one of the small microscopic forms of fungi ; but 

 in October of the present year the mycelia developed into a 

 brown agaric with a pileus about two inches broad, but the exact 

 species of which he could not positively determine. 



Dec. 9. — Mr. Vaux, vice-president, in the chair. — On the Ex- 

 pansion of the Coma in Asclepiadacea. Mr. Thomas Meehan 

 exhibited some seed-vessels of Gonolobus obliquus, and remarked 

 that, though the hairy appendage to the seed known as the coma 

 in asclepiadaceous plants was of course well understood, he 

 knew of no one who had placed on record any observation in 

 regard to the suddenness of the expansion after the seed left the 

 capsule. It was indeed so very rapid, that the common expres- 

 sion of "like a stroke of lightning," was scarcely an exaggera- 

 tion. It was only with difficulty that the eye cjuld follow the 

 motion. In the seed-vessel each set of long silky hair was 

 drawn up into a close linear fascicle ; but on the instant of the 

 seed being relieved from its case, the coma expanded into a 

 perfect hemisphere. Some of the hair formed a right angle, 

 and others more or less acute ones, each seeming to have its 

 fixed place to fall back to. It was generally supposed that these 

 hairy appendages, and others of a similar character in seeds, 

 were for the express purpose of aiding in seed distribution by 

 wind ; ! it he had failed in so many instances to see the advan- 

 tages, luat it often seemed as if it were the seed profiting by de- 

 veloped organs, rather than that these were especially formed 

 for an express purpose. In the case of the Gonolobus, it did 

 seem as if there were better grounds than perhaps in any other 

 case for believing that the hairy appendage is designed expressly 

 to facilitate distribution by wind or air currents. The seeds are 

 heavy, and are borne on the plant but a few feet from the 

 ground ; they would fall there in a few seconds on the opening 

 of the capsule, if the mass of hair remained long in its closely 

 compact condition. — On Lingula in a Fish of the Susquehaima. 

 Prof. Leidy. 



Paris 



Academy of Sciences, March 23. — M. Bertrand in the 

 chair. — The following communications were read ; — Thermal 

 study of the phenomena oi solution ; reaction of water upon 

 nitric acid, by M. Berthelot. As the result of his investigations 

 the author finds that the heat evolved by the addition of an 

 equivalent of water to acids and bases generally decreases in 

 accordance with a law analogous to a geometrical progression 

 when the equivalents of water («) increase in arithmetical pro- 

 gression. A formula Is obained approaching Q = — where the 



quantity of heat is Q and p, a number near unity. The author 

 discussed the relationship between this formula and the analogous 

 one obteiined by M. Becquerel for the electromotive force of acid 



and alkaline solutions, viz., 



-On an operation of trans- 



fusion of blood performed by M. Behier at the Hotel 

 Dieu: note by M. Bouley. — On the origin of the Muscado 

 mace and of mace in general, by M. H. Baillon. — On 

 the pathogenetic role of ferments In surgical maladies ; new me- 

 thod of treatment for amputations : note by M . A. Guerin. — 

 On the plane distribution of pressures in the interior of isotropic 

 bodies in the state of limited equilibrmm ; mode of integration 

 of the differential equations : note by M. J. Boussinesq. — On 

 the law of astionomical attraction on the masses of the different 

 bodies of the solar system, and particularly on the mass and 

 duration of the sun, by M. E. Vicaire. The author seems to 



think it far from being demonstrated that the number called the 

 mass of the sun is a real measure of the quantity of matter con- 

 tained in it. — Pvogrammeof a system of geography founded on the 

 exclusive use of decimal measures, of an international meridian 

 o", and of stereoscopic and gnomonic projections, by M. B. 

 de Chancourtois. — On the refraction of compressed water, note 

 by M. Mascart. — Reply to the critical observations of M. 

 H. Sainte-Claire Deville, on a method for the determination 

 of vapour densities, by M. Croullebois. The author attempted 

 to defend the apparatus, of which a description had previously 

 been communicated to the Academy, — On the compounds of 

 hydrogen with the alkaline metals, by MM. L. Troost and P. 

 Ilautefeuille. The authors have obtained compounds of potas- 

 sium and sodium with hydrogen, having the formulas K.jH and 

 Na^H, and have studied the tensions at every 10° of the hydro- 

 gen evolved on heating these compounds from 330° to 430°. 

 K.H dissolves a further quantity of hydrogen ; Na„H dissolves 

 only a very small quantity of this gas. The authors find that 

 lithium heated to 500° in hydrogen gas at 760 mm. pressure ab- 

 sorbs seventeen times its volume of the gas, while thallium under 

 the same conditions absorbs only three times its volume. — On 

 some bronzes from China and Japan, by M. H. Morin. — On the 

 exotic terrestrial lombricians of the genera Urocheta and Peri- 

 cheta, by M. E. Perrier. — -On some general facts whicli arise 

 from comparative androgenesis, by M. A. Chatin. — Atmospheric 

 dusts, by M. G. Tissandier. The author has determined the 

 suspended matter in the air of Paris and made analyses of atmo- 

 spheric dust. — Researches on the formation of superphosphate 

 of lime, by M. J. Kolb. — On the systems of curve-planes, alge- 

 braical or transcendental, defined by two characteristics, by M. 

 Fouret. — Explicit condition that a conic may have a fifth-order 

 contact with a given curve, by M. Painvin. — Two new theorems 

 on the wave surface, by M. A. Mannheim. — On a Greek sun- 

 dial found by M. O. Rayet at Heracleum of Latmos. — On the 

 magnetisation of steel, by M. E. Bouty. — Calorific effects of 

 magnetism in an electro-magnet with several poles, by M. A. 

 Cazin. — Researches on trichloracetates and their derivatives, by 

 M. A. Clermont. The author has obtained trichloracetyl-urea, 

 by acting upon trichloracetateof ureawith p hosphoric anhydride, 

 and also by the action of trichloracetyl chloride upon urea. The 

 same substance was obtained by this last reaction by Tommasi 

 and Meldola in this country in January. — On some endosmotic 

 properties of the membrane of the shell of birds' eggs, by M. U. 

 Gayon. — On 'the red colouring-matter of the blood, by M. 

 Bechamp. — On the employment of potassium bisulphate for the 

 distinction of native sulphides, by M. E. Jannettaz. — Observa- 

 tions on the spermatophores of decapod Crustacea, by M. Brocchi. 

 — Differentiation of induced and spontaneous movements. — Study 

 of the action of some reputed ansesthetic agents on the func- 

 tional irritability of the stamens in Mahonia, by M. E. Haeckel. 

 — Experimental study upon " ammoniemie," by MM. V. Feltz 

 and E. Ritter. 



CONTENTS p 



Mary Somerville 



Extinct Vertebrate Fauna OF THE United States 



Our Booic Shelf 



Letters to the Editor : — 



Prof. Tail and Mr. Spencer. — Herbert Spencer 



Herbert Spencer versus Sir I. Newton 



An Experiment on the Destructive Effect of Heat upon the Life of 



Bacteria and their Germs.— E. Ray Lankester 



Animal Locomotion.— J. Bell Pettigrew 



Electric E.\periment.—D. M'Farlane (J^'j/A/Z/iw/ra^/o/i) . , 

 Fertilisation of the Fumarlaceae. — St. George Mivart ; J. Tra- 



HERNK MoGGRIDGE 



Ocean Currents. By William B. Carpenter 



The Death of Dk. Livingstone 



Report of Prof. Parker's Huntekian Lectures *' On the Struc- 

 ture AND Development of the Vertebrate Skull" {IViik 

 Illmtrations) 



Notes 



Celestial Cheiiiistry, IL By J. Norman Lockvek, F.R.S. (With 

 lUustrations) 



Scientific Serials 



Societies and Acadimies . • 



