482 



NATURE 



[April 22,, 1874 



Kafirs, that " an American Quaker, West, took the statue 

 of the Belvedere Apollo for the representation of a Mo- 

 hawk Indian." Having made Mr. Wood talk this extra- 

 ordinary nonsense, he then reviles him for being illogical. 

 This is not the treatment Mr. Wood merits. No one de- 

 nies the faults of his work, especially the unhappy strain- 

 ing after the picturesque which has made so many of his 

 artist's illustrations worse than worthless. But his genial 

 and suggestive descriptions of South African native life 

 give a permanent value to his popular volume, while in 

 his special line as a student of savage arts and imple- 

 ments, Dr. Fritsch can hardly expect to rival him. 



Edward B. Tylor 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



[ The EJitor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents. No notice is taken of anonymous 

 commiinications.l 



Flowers of the Primrose destroyed by Birds 

 For above twenty years I have observed every spring in my 

 shrubberies and in the neighbouring woods, that a large number 

 of tlie flowers of the primrose are cut off, and lie strewn on the 

 ground close round the plants. So it is sometimes with the 

 flowers of the cowslip and polyanthus, when they are borne on 

 short stalks. This year tlie devastation has been greater than 

 ever ; and in a little wood not far from my house many hundred 

 flowers have been destroyed, and some clumps have been com- 

 pletely denuded. For reasons presently to be given, I have no 

 doubt that this is done by birds ; and as I once saw some green- 

 hnches flying away from some primroses, I suspect that this is 

 the enemy. The object of the birds in thus cutting off the flowers 

 long perplexed me. As we have little water hereabouts, I at 

 one time thought that it was done in older to squeeze the juice 

 out of the stalks ; but I have since observed that they are as fre- 

 quently cut during very rainy, as during dry weather. One of 

 my sons then suggested that the object was to get the nectar of 

 the flowers ; and I have no doubt that this is the right explana- 

 tion. On a hasty glance it appears as if the foot-stalk had been 

 cut through ; but on close inspection, it will invariably be found 

 that the extreme base of the calyx and tlie young ovary are left 

 attached to the foot-stalk. And if the cut-off ends of the flowers 

 be examined, it will be seen that they do not flt the narrow cut- 

 off ends of the calyx, which remains attached to tlie stalk. A 

 piece of the calyx between one and two-tenths of an inch in 

 length, has generally been cut clean away ; and these little bits 

 of the calyx can often be found on the ground ; but sometimes 

 they remain hanging by a few fibres to the upper part of the 

 calyx of the detached flowers. Now no animal that I can thmk 

 of, except a bird, could make two almost parallel clean cuts, 

 transversely across the calyx of a flower. The part which is cut 

 off contains within the narrow tube of the corolla the nectar ; 

 and the pressure of the bird's beak would force this out at both 

 the cut-offends. I have never heard of any bird in Europe feed- 

 ing on nectar ; though there are many that do so in the tropical 

 parts of the New and Old Worlds, and which are believed to 

 aid in the cross-fertilisation of the species. In such cases both 

 the bird and the plant would profit. But with the primrose it 

 is an unmitigated evil, and might well lead to its extermination ; 

 for in the wood above alluded to many hundred flowers liave been 

 destroyed this season, and cannot produce a single seed. My 

 object in this communication to Nature is to ask your corre- 

 spondents in England and abroad to observe whether tlie prim- 

 roses there suffer, and to state the result, whether negative or 

 affirmative, adding whether primroses are abundant in each dis- 

 trict. I cannot remember having formerly seen anything of the 



kind in the midland counties of England. If the habit of cutting 

 off the flowers should prove, as seems probable, to be general, 

 we must look at it as inherited or instinctive ; for it is unlikely 

 that each bird should have discovered during its individual 

 life-time the e.xact spot where the nectar lies concealed within 

 the tube ol the corolla, and should have learnt to bite off the 

 flowers so skilfully that a minute portion of the calyx is always 

 left attached to the foot-stalk. If, on the other hand, the evil is 

 confined to tnis part of Kent, it will be a curious case of a new 

 habit or instinct arising in this primrose- decked land. 



Down, Beckenham, Kent, April iS Cn. Darwin 



Signer D'Albertis' and Dr Meyer's Discoveries in 

 New Guinea 



Having just returned to Europe, I read in Nature, vol ix. 

 p. 77» a communication which contains an assertion of Dr. A. 

 B. Meyer, to the effect that I did not cross New Guinea at all, 

 and that he claims tlie honour of having done so himself 



From what Dr. Meyer s.iys, the public are led to believe that 

 I have claimed the honour of crossing this unknown and little- 

 explored island ; if he had read " A Month among the Papuans 

 of Mount Arfak," he might easily have ascertained that I never 

 asserted this. There the reader will see that I only claimed to 

 have penetrated the country to a distance of thirty miles, and to 

 have ascended to a height of between 3,000 and 4,000 feet ; but 

 I was the first European to see alive and shoot many rare Birds 

 of Paradise peculiar to New Guinea. One of these was entirely 

 new to science, and has been called Drepanornis alberiisi by 

 Dr. Sclater (N atuke, vol. \iii. p. 305) ; it may be the same bird 

 subsequently described as new by Dr. Meyer. 



I have no wisli to deprive the last-named gentleman of the 

 honour of having crossed a greater or lesser portion of New Gui- 

 nea, but I object most decidedly, either indirectly or by insinua- 

 tion, to being deprived of the credit of being the first European 

 to penetrate into the interior of that interesting country. 



April 20 LuiGt Maria D'Albertis 



Spontaneous Generation 



Mr. Ray L.\nicester's letter in last week's Nature affords 

 fresh evidence of his lack of acquaintance with the several stages 

 through which the "spontaneous generation " controversy has 

 passed, or he would not now cite as a " most important result" 

 only made known by recent experimentation, a fact which has 

 been well known and repeatedly verified since the time of 

 Spallanzani. I allude to the influence of the prolongation of 

 the period of exposure to heat in relavding or altogether 

 arresting the putrefactive tendencies of organic solutions. I have 

 not thought it needful on previous occasions to point out the 

 various misconceptions and the apparent ignorance of facts shown 

 by Mr. Lankester in his querulous communications to your 

 columns on the subject of "Spontaneous Generation." There 

 are one or two points, however, to which I will now venture to 

 solicit his attention, and that of your readers generally. 



Mr. Lankester says : — "It is probably now familiar to those 

 interested in the matter, that the experiments of Dr. Sanderson 

 have established the fact tliat in an infusion of turnips and 

 cheese prepared as directed by Dr. Baslian, heating to a tem- 

 perature of 102" C. is sufficient to prevent the subsequent 

 development of life (Bacteria) in the infusion, even when the 

 exposure to that temperature is only maintained ioi a few minutes." 

 To this statement I have to add that since tlie publication of 

 the experiments above alluded to by Dr. Sanderson, I have 

 heated flasks, sealed in the ordinary way and containing the 

 fluid above mentioned, to a temperature of 105° C. for ten 

 minutes in a chloride of calciiftn bath, and have found these 

 fluids swarming with Bacteria after six days. I have also 

 heated in the same manner simple neutralised turnip-infusion 

 (filtered through cotton-wool instead of filtering paper) to a 

 temperature of 105° C. for ten minutes, and by suljsequently 

 keeping these less putrescible fluids at a higher temperature 

 (about 35° C.) they became turbid and swarmed with Bacteria 

 in three days. Neither Dr. Sanderson's experiments nor those 

 of Mr. Lankester and Dr. Pode have, therefore, the cogency 

 which Mr. Lankester imagines them to possess. But, as I have 

 endeavoured to point out on a previous occasion (Nature, 

 vol. viii. p. 548), experiments of this kind at the present stage 



