fo 



NA TURE 



[July 15, 1909 



area of the State, and 100,000 acres more than in the 

 previous year. South Australia was at one time the 

 granary of Australia, but here, as elsewhere, there is a 

 strong tendency for other branches of husbandry to be 

 talcen up, and for wheat to lose in relative importance. 

 The exports of wool were nearly 51 million pounds, again 

 a considerable increase on the previous year. The acreage 

 under barley and oats is the highest on record, while the 

 fruit industry has made very rapid progress. Perhaps the 

 best indication of improvement in method is found in the 

 "increasing use of artificial manures. Not many years ago 

 the use of artificial manures was practically unknown. 

 In 1897 it is estimated that 3000 tons were used for cereal 

 crops ; the consumption then steadily increased, and has 

 "been unifornih' greater every year ; in 1906 no fewer than 

 S9,ooo tons were used. In another article there is an 

 account of the Roseworthy Agricultural College, an institu- 

 tion which not only provides instruction, for those intend- 

 ing to be farmers, but also conducts investigations in the 

 area it serves. 



.A. FRIENDLY, and for the most part favourable, criticism 

 ■of forest practice is provided by an American forester, 

 Mr. B. Moore, in an article on the forests of northern 

 India and Burma, published in the .\pril and May numbers 

 ■of the Indian Forester. He expresses a very decided 

 ■opinion in favour of a regulated fire policy for forests of 

 young teak and sal where the forests are situated in a 

 moist climate, as in Assam. He also agrees with those 

 who consider that Indian foresters in training should gain 

 their practical experience in India. 



A SERIES of papers by Dr. B. L. Robinson, Miss A. 

 Eastwood, and Mr. H. H. Bartlett, describing chiefly new 

 ■or little-known Mexican and Central .\merican plants, are 

 collected in vol. xliv., No. 21, of the Proceedings of the 

 American .Academy of Arts and Sciences. The most 

 Important is the synopsis of Mexican species of Castilleja, 

 ■with diagnoses and clavis compiled by Miss Eastwood ; 

 seventeen new species contribute to a total of fifty-four 

 species for the genus. Dr. Robinson furnishes a revision 

 •of the genus Rumfordia with six species, and diagnoses 

 of various tropical .American phanerogams. New identifi- 

 cations are presented by Mr. Bartlett in a synopsis of 

 American species of Litssea and other articles. 



Mr. G. Massee is responsible for two articles in the 

 Kew Bulletin (No. j), the one being a list of exotic fungi, 

 the other a note on witches' broom of cacao. The latter 

 Is produced by a Colletotrichum receiving the specific 

 name hixificum. Both vegetative and flowering branches 

 are attacked, with the consequent production of hyper- 

 trophied shoots and flowers and diseased pods. The fungi 

 are all new species of Boletus — except one Strobilomyces — 

 collected by Mr. Ridley in Singapore. .Another article in 

 the bulletin is devoted to notes, by Richard Spruce, on 

 the vegetation of the Pastasa and Bombonasa rivers, pro- 

 viding a description supplementarv to chapter xvii. of the 

 second volume of " Notes of a Botanist on the .Amazon 

 and Andes." 



We have been favoured with a copy of the address 

 •delivered by Prof. J. W. Moll before the members of the 

 Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen te .Amsterdam 

 •when presenting the dissertation of Dr. K. Zijlstra on the 

 transport of carbon dioxide in leaves. Prof. Moll pre- 

 sents an excellent summary of the investigations, which 

 ■prove that, to a limited extent, the transport of carbon 

 •dioxide is possible through the intercellular spaces ; but 

 It is obvious that such transport, if it takes place under 

 •natural conditions, is of no appreciable advantage to the 

 NO. 2072, VOL. 81] 



plant, and could not enable the plant to absorb carbon 

 dioxide from the soil. Thus the primary conclusion of 

 Prof. Moll's original investigations is confirmed. 



The prosperity of Egypt depends largely on the 

 successful cultivation of the particular types of cotton 

 known as "Egyptian." During the last twelve years, 

 however, the yield of cotton has steadily and appreciably 

 diminished, the loss amounting at current rates to about 

 5J. per feddan (i.i09 acres). Many causes have been 

 suggested as contributing to this result, and in " Cotton 

 Investigations in 1908 " (Cairo Scientific Journal, 

 February, 1909) Mr. W. Lawrence Balls puts forward the 

 view, for which there is some direct evidence, that a rise 

 in the water-table in Egypt has been an important factor. 

 Owing to improvements in irrigation, the supply of water 

 in Egypt is greater than formerly, whilst the natural loss 

 remains more or less constant. Artificial drainage is 

 lacking, and in his view Egypt is in danger of becoming 

 water-logged, in which condition the soil is rendered 

 impervious to the roots of most plants. The remedy 

 advocated is e.xtension of the drainage system, an expensive 

 proceeding, but justifiable if the reduced yield is due to 

 the rise in level of stagnant water. Another important 

 matter dwelt on in Mr. Balls's paper is the depreciation 

 of cottons grown in Egypt owing to the hybridising of 

 the Egyptian varieties by the less valuable " American 

 Upland " races, cultivated because of their heavy yield. To 

 combat this he proposes the breeding of a cotton bearing 

 flowers in which the stigma is buried deeply amongst the 

 stamens, thus reducing to a minimum the risk of natural 

 crossing. The report is accompanied by a photograph of 

 a section of such a synthesised flower. Egypt is leading 

 the way in the practical application of Mendel's discoveries, 

 for 1909 has seen the establishment by the Khedivial 

 Agricultural Society of a Mendelian experiment station. 



In the June number of Folk-lore Mr. T. C. Hodson, 

 author of a valuable monograph on the Meithei tribe in 

 Manipur, describes the custom of head-hunting among the 

 hill tribes of .Assam. The custom is, in the first place, 

 ancillary to and a part of the funeral rite, which is 

 affected b> the social status of the deceased and the 

 manner of his death. The funeral of a Kuki chief is in- 

 complete without the head of a victim. The corpse is 

 placed within the trunk of a tree, where it remains until 

 it is sufficiently desiccated to allow of the preservation of 

 the bones. The heads, again, are presented before piles 

 of stones, the abode of the Lai, a powerful, mysterious 

 entity, not always or necessarily anthropomorphised. The 

 rite of deposition of the head of the victim is thus partly 

 piacular, intended to propitiate the spirit of the deceased ; 

 partly religious, inasmuch as it is devoted to the vaguely 

 conceived tribal spirit. The custom has also its social 

 side, as success in a raid is held to be a proof of manli- 

 ness, marking the transition from adolescence to maturity. 

 It is also protective, because the spirit of the owner of 

 the head becomes guardian of the village ; and hence, as a 

 necessary corollary, the head of a stranger is most highly 

 valued, because, being ignorant of its surroundings, it is 

 less likely to escape from the village of which, perforce, it 

 has become protector. 



An account of the life and philosophical doctrines of 

 Henri Poincarf5 is given in the Revue dcs Idees for June 15 

 by M. Jules Sagret. 



Prof. Garhasso, writing in the Atti delta Societa 

 italiana per il progrcsso delta Scienza (Rome : G. Bertero, 

 1909), discusses the structure of the atom, and gives a brief 

 account of the theories of Briot, Kirchhoff, Bunsen, Helm- 



