434 



NA TURE 



[October 7, 1909 



ment of Agriculture of the Federated Malay States, and 

 published at Kuala Lumpur. No. i, by Mr. H. C. Pratt, 

 the Government entomologist, deals with termites found in 

 rubber-plantations; No. 4, by the same author, is devoted 

 to a zygfenid moth {Brachartona catoxanlha), the larva of 

 which infests cocoanuts ; while in No. 5 Mr. W. J. 

 Gallagher discusses the best means of destroying the rats, 

 which do serious damage to rice-fields. 



Mr. H. M. Leake has followed up his first paper on 

 the experimental breeding of Indian cottons by a second, 

 published in the Journal and Proceedings, Asiatic Society 

 of Bengal (vol. v., No. i). The author's object is to 

 discover characters which behave as units under artificial 

 crossing. In the present paper he records the constancy 

 for Indian cotton plants of the position of the accessory 

 bud on the main stem, i.e. certain plants regularly pro- 

 duce the accessory bud to the right, others to the left, of 

 the main bud, but this character does not follow the 

 Mendelian laws. Similarly, the main stem is always a 

 monopodium, but the subsequent branching may be mono- 

 podia! or sympodial ; these are two distinct types, of which 

 the sympodial is dominant. Further, it was observed that 

 early flowering is a feature of the sympodial type, and 

 herein lies the importance attached to a differentiation of 

 Indian cottons according to their mode of branching. 



The thirty-fourth series of contributions to the flora of 

 Africa, published under the direction of Dr. Engler, 

 occupies the bulk of Engler's Botanische Jahrbiicher (vol. 

 xlii., parts i. and ii.). An important revision of .\frican 

 species of the genus Impatiens is supplied by Dr. E. Gilg, 

 and Dr. Engler contributes descriptions of several new 

 species, notably of the genus Mesembrianthenium. The 

 classification of .African species of the polymorphic genus 

 Senecio is discussed by Dr. R. Muschler. Five subgenera, 

 comprising about 500 .African species, are demarcated. The 

 subgenus Eusenecio is further divided into many sections, 

 of which twenty are added by the author. The sections 

 crassuli and kleinioidei are succulents, similar in this respect 

 to the subgenus Kleinia ; the section tuberosi is based on the 

 production of large tubers ; a large group is that of climb- 

 ing plants, scandentcs ; other sections are the piiiifolii, 

 rhhomatosi, and arborei. the latter being represented by 

 Senecio ]ohtisioitii, a tree attaining a height of 45 feet. 



A SECOND set of studies of tropical American ferns, by 

 Mr. W. R. Maxon, is published in the Contributions from 

 the United States National Herbarium (vol. xiii., part i.). 

 The first paper deals with ferns collected in Guatemala 

 by Baron von Turckheim, principally in the humid moun- 

 tainous region of Alta Verapaz. The determinations in- 

 clude several new species, notably an interesting Campylo- 

 neuron and an epiphytic Lycopodium, also the species 

 Diplasium ternatum, formerly recorded from Mexico. The 

 author also supplies a revision of the West Indian species 

 of Polystichum, with a key for determination. Diagnostic 

 characters are sought in the presence or absence of a 

 proliferous bud upon the rachis. Where present, it may 

 arise immediately above the uppermost pinna, as in the 

 species heierolepis, or on a whip-like prolongation, as in 

 P. decoratitm. 



The Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company, Ltd., 

 has recently issued a new catalogue explanatory of its 

 microtomes and accessory apparatus. The ingenious rock- 

 ing microtome is, of course, universally known ; the 

 present-day instrument shows several improvements on the 

 original pattern, notably in the fitting of the rocking arms. 

 A second type of microtome, also a rocker, cuts flat 

 sections, and is suitable for objects up to a diameter of 

 NO. 2084, VOL. 81] 



30 mm., while a larger microtome has been recently de- 

 signed which will take objects up to 40 mm. diameter, 

 and with which hard substances, such as bone or cartilage, 

 can be manipulated. 



The Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital for .'\ugust 

 (xx.. No. 221) is devoted to tuberculosis. The subjects 

 dealt with are tuberculin treatment of dispensary patients, 

 report of the work of the Phipps Dispensary for Tubercu- 

 losis, Marmorek's serum in the treatment of pulmonary 

 tuberculosis, and the kind of employment suited to arrested 

 cases of the disease. In the last it is concluded that farm- 

 colonies are the best possible means for the after-care of 

 consumptives. 



The July number of the Journal of Comparative Neuro- 

 logy and Psychology consists of a monograph, by Mr. 

 M. E. Haggerty, on imitation in monkeys. To the lay 

 mind there will appear no question as to the power of 

 monkeys to learn by imitation. The experimental evidence, 

 on the other hand, has not always been on the side of 

 popular opinion. It is true that Hobhouse obtained ex- 

 perimental evidence of the imitation of human behaviour 

 by monkeys, and that Kinnaman observed two cases in 

 which one monkey, after watching another monkey that 

 had learnt to get food by manipulating a mechanical 

 device, itself repeated the performance ; but Thorndike was 

 unable to find any such imitation of one monkey by 

 another, and in neither of the two monkeys studied by 

 Watson was there evidence that the watching animal 

 learnt to get its food by seeing how the other animal got 

 it. Mr. Haggerty bases his observations on no fewer than 

 eleven monkeys. Following previous workers, he places 

 the animals " in the presence of simple mechanical devices, 

 the manipulation of which opened doors, disclosed open- 

 ings, or dropped food into the experiment cage." The 

 important feature of his paper consists in the extra- 

 ordinarily detailed record of the movements of the monkeys 

 while under experimental conditions. The seven mechanical 

 devices with which the monkeys were at various times 

 confronted yielded sixteen cases of successful imitation 

 (three of which were immediate), five cases of practically 

 successful imitation, and five failures. Seven of the 

 monkeys imitated in every form of test, two failed abso- 

 lutely, while two succeeded in some tests but failed in 

 others. The statistical results, however, are of less interest 

 than the valuable description of the facts of behaviour, 

 inasmuch as there is doubt as to what shall be allowed 

 to count as imitation. In the present state of the subject 

 it is observation that is needed, and this Mr. Haggerty's 

 paper supplies in abundance. 



The June number of Petermann's Mitteilungen contains 

 a short paper on the climate of Siam, by Dr. W. Gerbing, 

 which deals specially with the observations made by Dr. 

 Hosseus during journeys in iq04 and 1905. Little is 

 known of the meteorology of the mountainous regions of 

 the Laos States, where Dr. Hosseus spent most of his 

 time, and the observations are therefore of considerable 

 value. They consist chiefly of seven months' records kept 

 at the mission station at Djeng Mai by Dr. Harris, and 

 temperature observations made en route and during halts 

 in climbing expeditions on the Dai Sutep. 



The Bulletin of the American Geographical Society 

 (vol. xli.. No. 8) contains an article on the Sfonington 

 Antarctic explorers, by Mr. E. S. Balch. The article is 

 based on letters and papers belonging to Mrs. Richard 

 Fanning Loper, of Stonington, Connecticut, who inherited 

 them from her father, Captain Alexander Smith Palmer. 

 These papers are few in number, as most of the Antarctic 



