530 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LV, No. 1429 



througli a doubling or trebling of the normal 

 number of segments or joints. As a result, 

 some have antennae twice as long as the body. 

 Each segment is a unit and though the com- 

 parison may not be a stiictly accurate one, we 

 are inclined to regard the antennal segments 

 as linked in multiple units. 



It is well known that the antennas of many 

 insects have very efficient olfactory and aud- 

 itory structures. The latter may be simple 

 hairs springing from sensory pits, whorls of 

 hairs or even more complex structures. 



The radio enthusiast would certainly be inter- 

 ested in an aerial or antenna of the multiple 

 inverted umbrella type, the arms of the um- 

 brellas being loops and in some forms greatly 

 extended on one side, presumably for directive 

 receiving; the umbrellas arranged in double 

 or triple series in multiple units mounted with 

 flexible connections and an articulate base per- 

 mitting limited rotation. Such structures are 

 found in gall midges. 



We would call attention to the peculiar cir- 

 cumfila or encircling threads supported by 

 numerous short stems entering sensory pits or 

 detectors, the latter within the antennal seg- 

 ments. The simplest type of circumfilum is a 

 low thread or circle, not a coil, near the base of 

 the segment and frequently connected by a 

 filament on one face Avith a similar circle near 

 the opposite extremity. These threads may be 

 modified and follow a sinuous or wavy course 

 instead of a straight one; they may be greatly 

 increased in number to form an enclosing net 

 work, suggestive of the bed spring aerial; the 

 portions between the supporting stems may be 

 greatly stretched or drawn out as it were to 

 form relatively enormous loops and in some 

 we have the loops on one side of the antenna; 

 very greatly produced. We may even find in 

 some antennaB a combination of the low and 

 simple type together with highly developed 

 loops. There is one group where these struc- 

 tures are modified in such a curious way as to 

 resemble miniature horse shoes upon opposite 

 sides of each segment; the supporting stems 

 suggesting the nails used for the attachment of 

 hoi-se shoes. 



There are over a thousand variations in gall 

 midge antennie, presumably for cause. Solo- 

 mon advised some of his fellow mortals to con- 



sider the ant. May we suggest to radio enthu- 

 siasts a similar attitude toward gall midges — 

 master builders of antennse which are both the 

 admiration and despair of man. 



Concluding, may we register faith in radio 

 and radio antennae, anticipating through them 

 closer and more helpful relations with fellow 

 men. 



E. P. Felt 



State Entomologist 

 OF New York 



JOHN CASPER BRANNER 



The following resolution Avas passed at a 

 meeting of the Academic Council of Stanford 

 University held April 7, 1922: 



As witness of our affection for Dr. Branner 

 and respect for "his memory, we desire to make 

 our own and incorporate (in part) in the minutes 

 of the Academic Council the appreciation pre- 

 pared for the Illustrated Review by his friend 

 and colleague, Professor Stillman: 



"In the death on March first of President 

 Emeritus John Casper Branner, Stanford Uni- 

 versity loses one of its most distinguished schol- 

 ars, one of its greatest teachers and most respect- 

 ed and beloved personalities. 



' ' Dr. Branner was born in New Market, Ten- 

 nesee, on July 4, 1850. He attended school at 

 Maury Academy in Dandridge, Tennessee, and 

 later enrolled at Maryville College. At the age 

 of eighteen he entered Cornell University, where 

 he received his bachelor 's degree. 



' ' While still an undergraduate he was selected 

 (1875) by Professor Charles F. Hartt to assist 

 him in a geological survey of Brazil, which occa- 

 sioned several years of work in Brazilian geology, 

 In 1882 he was again commissioned, by the 

 United States Government, to go to South America 

 to investigate insects injurious to cotton and 

 sugar-cane industries. From 188.3 to 1885 he was 

 engaged by the Pennsylvania Geological Survey 

 to make a topographic map of the Lackawanna 

 Valley. 



' ' When David Starr Jordan became president 

 of the University of Indiana in 1885, he ap- 

 pointed his Cornell college and fraternity mate 

 to the professorship of geology at that institution, 

 a position he held until again called by Dr. 

 Jordan to the similar chair in Stanford Univer- 

 sity. In the meantime he acted (1887-1892) as 

 state geologist of Arkansas, while retaining his 

 chair at Indiana. 



"From 1891 until his retirement from the uni- 



