112 



SCIENCE. 



IVoL. II., No. 25. 



no northern outlet, Bering Strait affording no real 

 access for ocean-currents into tlie Arctic Ocean. — 

 {Bxdl. Amei: geogr. soc, ii. 1SS3.) w. H. D. [117 

 The Connecticut River in the glacial period. — 

 Professor J. D. Dana continues his studies on the 

 former lines of flow of the flooded Connecticut at 

 the end of the ice time, and finds evidence, from the 

 height and coarseness of the terraces, that some of 

 the river's waters found their way southward along 

 the Farmington valley (where the Farniington Paver 

 now runs northward), down the upper course of the 

 Quinnipiac, and thence directly southward along the 

 present Mill Eiver channel, to the Sound at New 

 Haven, and not all the way along the Quinnipiac, 

 as was formerly supposed. — {Amer. journ. sc. xxv. 

 1883, 440. ) ^Y. M. n. [118 



GEOGRAPHY. 



(4.9ia.) 

 New Gruiuea. — A ten-days" trip inland from Port 

 Moresby, made by W. G. Lawes and two others, 

 with a party of natives, led them over the Veriata 

 Mountain, about two thousand feet high, and up the 

 valley of the Laloke River. From the mountain-sum- 

 mit, they had a fine view of sea and coast, hill and 

 valley, intersected by many winding streams. In the 

 valley, they visited the Kouua Falls, — about two hun- 

 dred and fifty feet in height, and a hundred and fifty 

 feet wide. The travellers saw many of the natives 

 of the Koiari tribes, and found them- all friendly and 

 honest. They are smaller, darker, and more hairy 

 than the coast tribes, and it was not uncommon to find 

 a man. with beard and mustache. They have a super- 

 stitious belief, that, when a man dies, he has been 

 bewitched by a spirit belonging to a neighboring 

 tribe, who then must pay for the loss: fighting, 

 therefore, always follows the death of a man of any 

 consequence. Fruit is very plentiful and in great 

 variety. Salt is highly prized, and makes a very ac- 

 ceptable present. The native method of getting fire 

 is peculiar: a. piece of dry, pithy wood is split a little 

 way, and held open with a stone; some tinder is put 

 in the cleft, and a strip of rattan or bamboo is passed 

 through it, and then pulled rapidly one way and the 

 other till smoke and fire appear. In the ' Sogere ' 

 district, the villages consist of only eight or ten 

 houses, and two or three ' tree-houses ' which serve 

 as forts. The occupants prepare for an attack by 

 carrying up a supply of stones into the tree-houses; 

 and as they are sometimes over one hundred feet 

 high, and command the whole village, they are not 

 easily taken. Travelling was not easy, as there were 

 numerous streams to cross, and leeches were very 

 plentiful in the wet grass. — (Proc. roy. geogr. soc, 

 V. 1883, 35.5. ) w. m. d. [119 



Indian surveys. — A general report on surveys in 

 India- during 1881-82, by Gen. J. T. Walker, an- 

 nounces the completion of the triangulation of all 

 India on the lines long ago marked out by Col. 

 Everest and sanctioned by the East India company. 

 The latest part of this Great trigonometrical survey 

 was the eastei-n frontier series of triangles extending 

 from Assam to Tenasserim, where it was brought to 



a close on a base line of verification at Mergui. The 

 topographical survey has continued its work in vari- 

 ous parts of the peninsula, turning out maps on sev- 

 eral scales embracing nearly twenty-five thousand 

 square miles, besides forest and town surveys on large 

 scales. A new survey of the Hoogly is begun, as the 

 existing maps are out of date and on too small a scale 

 for utility in so densely populated and valuable a 

 region. 



The chief geographic interest in the volume is 

 found in the reports on trans-Himalayan explorations 

 by trained native travellers, and in the reports of vari- 

 ous executive officers of the survey on their districts. 

 — {Proc. roy. geogr. soc, v. 1883, oQS.) w. m. d. 



[120 

 BOTANY. 



New TTstilagineae. — Cornu gives an account of 

 the anatomy and germination of the spores in several 

 curious Ustilagineae. Ustilago axicola. Berk, and 

 Curt., is made the type of a new genus, Cintractia, 

 characterized by the formation of the spores in suc- 

 cessive concentric circles. The curious Testicularia 

 Cyperi from the United States is figured, and a 

 second species of Leersia is described. The new 

 genus Doassansia, in which the spore masses ar6 sur- 

 rounded by a peculiar envelope, has one represen- 

 tative from North America which is figured by 

 Cornu. — {Ann. sc nat, xv. 2fi9.) w. G. F. [121 



Zygospores of Mucors. — Bainier has studied 

 the conditions which favor the production of zygo- 

 spores in Mucors, and finds that the conditions vary 

 in the different species. The absence of free oxygen or 

 of light is not a necessary condition, nor is a deficient 

 supply of nourishment always required for the pro- 

 duction of zygospores. Bainier cites a considerable 

 number of cases where he has cultivated different 

 species, and gives the manipulations required in each 

 case for securing sporangia and zygospores ; and he 

 adds some observations on the chemical action of 

 certain species. It appears that Phycomyces nltens, 

 which usually grows on fatty substances, which it 

 decomposes, can also be cultivated on cochineal, caus- 

 ing it to assume a deeper color, and rendering it moi'e 

 valuable commercially. Mucor racemosus, and a 

 new species, M. tenuis, are described and illustrated 

 in full. — {Ann. sc nat, xv. 342.) w. o. F. [122 



Lignification of epidermal membranes. — Be- 

 sides cutinization, the change which characterizes 

 epidermal cell-walls in general, the exposed wall may 

 undergo two others : it may be converted into muci- 

 lage, thereby becoming weakened, or it may be ren- 

 dered firm by the deposition or infiltration of mineral 

 matter's. To these well-known transformations of 

 epidermal cells, Lemaire now adds lignificalinn, hith- 

 erto supposed to be confined to internal tissues. For 

 the detection of lignine, he uses the useful reagent 

 suggested by Wiesner, phloroglucine. A section of 

 epidermis is transferred from an alcoholic solution 

 of the agent to hydrochloric acid, when the lignified 

 membranes assume a rose color, the other parts re- 



