September 23, 1909] 



NA TURE 



1 -7 'i 



were six days with tlie shade temperature above 70° at 

 Greenwich, and in 1907 there were nine such warm days, 

 whilst in 1906 there were as many as eleven days with 

 the thermometer above 70°, and on each of the first three 

 days the shade temperature exceeded 90°. The rainfall 

 for September is so far generally somewhat below the 

 average, and the duration of bright sunshine is about 

 normal. During the greater part of the period the United 

 Kingdom has been under the influence of a region of high 

 barometer readings, and this has warded off very greatly 

 the inroad of cyclonic disturbances from the Atlantic. 



We have received from the editor (Dr. Ziegeler, Spandau 

 Jagowstrasse 4) a copy of the Wochcnschrijl filr Aquarien- 

 uitd Terrarien-kunde, containing several articles of interest. 

 The chief of these refers to the successful importation into 

 Germany from Mexico of that rare Cyprinodont fish 

 Xiphophorus, so called on account of the pointed process 

 borne on the caudal fin of the male. \ good description 

 is given of the habits and appearance of both sexes. Notes 

 on the common viper, on the reproduction of the frogs 

 and toads of Germany, and sketches of fishing and of 

 hunting make up an attractive number. In a covering 

 letter the editor points out that his Tl'ochenschrift is inter- 

 national in scope, and he invites those who are interested 

 in the cult of the aquarium to assist him in realising this 

 object by contributing to its pages. The subject is not 

 merely one for amateur fanciers, but is capable of for- 

 »varding research in genetics. 



The second number of vol. ii. of " Memoirs of the Indian 

 Museum " is devoted to the first portion of an account 

 of the Indian Cirripedia Pedunculata, by Dr. N. Annan- 

 dale, the stalked barnacles of the family Lepadidas, in its 

 modern restricted sense, forming the subject of this section. 

 The collection of Indian cirripedes of this group in Calcutta 

 is unusually rich both in the matter of specie^' and in- 

 dividuals, and since it has been supplemented by speci- 

 mens from various European museums Dr. Annandale 

 has had before him a wealth of material which ought to 

 render his monograph well-nigh complete. In the 

 author's opinion, the primitive cirripede was provided with 

 a large number of calcareous plates or valves, and from 

 this ancestral type evolution has taken place along several 

 lines, both as regards the structure of the internal parts 

 and the various appendages, and as regards the valves. 

 In each division occur partially parasitic types in which 

 the valves have undergone more or less complete degenera- 

 tion. 



To the September number of the Popular Science 

 Monthly Dr. H. S. Colton contributes a specially interest- 

 ing article on Peale's Philadelphia Museum. Charles 

 Willson Peale, who was born in 1741, was at first a 

 portrait-painter, but about the year 17S5 set about the 

 formation of a natural-history museum, which was, 

 indeed, opened in Philadelphia, with the addition of 

 grounds where a certain number of live animals were 

 kept. In the exhibition-cases Peale attempted, with the 

 aid of artistically painted backgrounds, to show his zoo- 

 logical specimens amid their natural surroundings, a prac- 

 tice which, after long disuse, has of late years come into 

 favour in inuseums on both sides of the Atlantic. Peale's 

 greatest achievement was the recovery and reconstruction 

 of the first skeleton — or rather two skeletons — of the 

 American mastodon. In the spring of iSoi Peale was 

 informed that the bones of a mastodon had been discovered 

 in a marl-pit near Xewburg, in New York State, and he 

 ■proceeded to the , spot and purchased from the owner 

 for 300 dollars the bones already disinterred, and the right 

 NO. 2082, VOL. 81] 



to drain and excavate the morass for the purpose of en- 

 deavouring to recover the remainder of the skeleton. With 

 the aid of pumps and other machinery lent by Govern- 

 nient, the recovery of the missing bones was successfully 

 carried out, and the skeleton, lacking the lower jaw and 

 part of the crown of the skull, was eventually mounted, 

 with additions in wood of the missing parts, from a second 

 skeleton obtained in the neighbourhood and likewise 

 mounted. These skeletons are noticed by Cuvier in his 

 memoir on the great mastodon. At the sale of the Peale 

 Museum in 1850 the second skeleton was probably bought 

 by P. T. Barnum, and, if so, may have been burnt in the 

 destruction of his museum by fire in 185 1. The first 

 skeleton, after having been taken by Peale and his brother 

 to London in 1S03, where it was e.xhibited before the 

 Royal Society, eventually found a home in the American 

 Museum of Natural History at New York, where it is 

 known, from having been in the museum of the latter 

 city, as the Baltimore mastodon. 



I.v the Journal of Morphology for July (vol. xx.. No. 2) 

 Mr. O. P. Dellinger makes an interesting contribution to 

 the discussion on the physical structure of protoplasm. 

 There is still, in spite of the elaborate researches of 

 Biitschli and others, much difference of opinion on this 

 question. The present author makes the cilium the start- 

 ing point of his investigations, and brings forward evidence 

 to show that all contractile protoplasm has a fibrillar 

 structure. He demonstrates, in an apparently satisfactory 

 manner, that the cilia of Stylonychia are composed of 

 spirally coiled fibrils, and that the flagella of Euglena, 

 Chilomonas, and Spirillum consist each of four spiral 

 filaments, which will account for the complexity of their 

 movements. He finds that by using those methods and 

 reagents by which cilia are best preserved it is possible 

 to demonstrate the existence of a finely meshed reticulum 

 in Amoeba, and maintains that such a reticulum of con- 

 tractile fibres would explain all the facts of amoeboid 

 movement. Osmic acid appears to be the most satis- 

 factory reagent for fixing the contractile structures in- 

 vestigated. 



An investigation of the epiphytic mycorrhiza that invests 

 the roots of Monotropa Hypopilys forms the subject of a 

 paper contributed by Dr. J. Peklo to the Bulletin Inter- 

 national, Prague (1908). He points out that there is a 

 marked difference between the amount of mycorrhiza in- 

 vesting Monotropa roots in clay or humic soils, and that 

 specimens in clay soils may be entirely free from the 

 fungal covering. As is generally known, the fungus pene- 

 trates only into the epidermal cells, and for this reason 

 is termed epiphytic. The plant secretes tannin products in 

 these cells, which serve, in the author's opinion, to prevent 

 the fungus from penetrating further within the root. 



The first of an announced series of pamphlets providing 

 information on special Indian timbers deals with the 

 timber yielded by Diospyros Kurzii, and known as Anda- 

 man marble or zebra wood. As the name implies, the 

 wood is streaked in bands ranging from black to a 

 brownish or pinkish grey, and it has been described as 

 one of the handsomest timbers in the world. The pamph- 

 let, compiled by Mr. R. S. Troup and published by the 

 Government of India as Forest Pamphlet No. 7, supplies 

 details regarding the qualities, available size, and amount 

 of timber ; it also contains an actual specimen of the 

 wood. 



Arising out of an inquiry addressed to the director of 

 Kew Gardens, Dr. O. Stapf supplies in the Kevt) Bulletin 

 (No. 7) an article on the identification and properties of 



