NovKMHRlt l(i, l!SH:!.] 



SCIENCE. 



663 



Putnam, who was lost on the ice during the Jean- 

 nette search. They were said to have come from the 

 body of a drowned white man. Tlie natives of this 

 region are fond of inventing such stories, especially 

 since the searcli expeditions, as they suppose they 

 will be paid for tliem. Navy brass buttons have been 

 an article of tr.ide on this coast for many years. The 

 fact that Putnam had no such buttons on his cloth- 

 ing when lost, settles the case in regard to these 



particular objects. Bove discusses in the bulletin 



■of the Italian geographical society the meteorologi- 

 cal observations made on board the Vega during her 

 voyage in Siberian seas. His article is a resume of 

 the work of Ilildebrandsson, elsewhere published. 



In till' Bulletin of the Paris socieli de geo- 



yraphie, A. Hellot summarizes the history of the 

 Jeannette expedition, and the distribution of the in- 

 ternational polar stations. His paper is accompanied 

 liy a map. — w. ir. T). [365 



{Aula.) 



Population of Japan. — The last census (January, 

 1S83) gives a total population of 30,700,118 souls, 

 ■nearly equally divided between the sexes, the males 

 being about one per cent in excess. Kioto, the im- 

 perial city, contains 709,000, and Tokio, the capital, 

 1,004,000 inhabitants in ronnd numbers. — (Bull. hoc. 

 iieii;/r. Marx.. .June.) w. H. D. [366 



Petroleum in the Caucasus. — According to the 

 British vice-consul at Datum, Mr. Peacock, the oil- 

 region of the Caucasus covers some 1,200 square 

 miles. The most productive locality is the Apcheron 

 peninsula, where the wells far exceed those of Penn- 

 sylvania. The total production has risen from 500,000 

 barrels in 187:5, to about 4,000,000 barrels in 1881. 

 The export from Baku has increased at the rate of 

 1,2.')0,000 barrels in two years. According to the 

 daily paper-", a pipe-line is projected from the oil- 

 region to Baku; and the American producer must 

 rely on the (|uality of his product, rather than on its 

 cheapness, for the future of our export trade. — 

 (Bn7. cnrm. rep., 1SS2.) W. n. n. [367 



BOTANY. 

 Observations on yeast fungi. — The fifth part 

 of lirefeld's ' ISutanische untersucliun(ien' forms a vol- 

 ume of over two hundred pages, with thirteen quarto 

 plates, and treats of the development of the Uslila- 

 gine.ae. The author considers principally the germi- 

 nation of different species of Ustilago, Thecaphora. 

 Geminella, an<l Tilletia; and. besides sowing the 

 spores in water, he sowed them in nutritive fluids, 

 and by this means was able to get more luxuriant 

 growths than other students of this order of fungi. 

 The germination of the different species may be 

 classed under two different types. In the one, a 

 short promycelium is given off by the spore, and the 

 sporidia are borne laterally; while, in the second type. 

 a whorl of cells is borne at the tip of the promy- 

 •cellum. Hy using nutritive fluids instead of water, 

 Brefeld was able not only to obtain luxuriant growths 

 of sporidia, l)ut also to keep them alive for several 

 jnontlis, or even a year. He believes that the sporidia 



are merely conidia, and in his cultures they produced 

 fresh crops of conidia for an indefinite period. He 

 further considers that the so-called conjugation of 

 the secondary cells of species belonging to the second 

 type, as Tilletia, is not a sexual process at all, but 

 merely a fusion such as exists in other orders of 

 fungi. When cultivated in nutritive fluids, the whorls 

 of secondary cells do not conjugate or fuse, but pro- 

 duce conidia directly; while in water, which is not 

 favorable to further growth, a fusion takes place. He 

 calls the conidia ' hefe,' from their resemblance to the 

 forms of Saccbaromycetes; the difference being, that 

 in one case, although the yeast-like form can be made 

 to propagate itself in fluids indefinitely, we know 

 th.at it came originally from some species of Ustila- 

 gineae, whereas, in the other case, illustrated by the 

 beer ferment, we cannot tell of what form it was 

 originally the conidia. He refers to other hefe-forms 

 in the Hymenomycetes and Ascoraycctes. In Ex- 

 oascu.i aureus he states that the polysporic condition 

 of the so-called asci is nothing more than a hefe-like 

 growth of a few round spores within the ascus. In 

 short, he believes that all yeast-like forms are merely 

 conidia, and denies the autonomy of the Saccbaromy- 

 cetes ; nor does he believe that they are closely related 

 to the Ascoraycetes. — w. G. F. [368 



Insect fungi. — Hoffmann figures an interesting 

 branched variety of the rare Torrubia cinerea Tul., on 

 an adult Carabus from Germany, under the name of 

 var. brachiata. The typical form occurs on Carabid 

 larvae. — ( Flora, Aug. 21. ) w. T. [369 



ZOOLOGY. 



Uollnsks. 



Landsbells of Gibraltar. — Kobelt reports, that 

 the fauna of the Rock of Gibraltar is very peculiar, 

 many characteristic species of the Mediterranean 

 being wanting. The genus Lcucochroa, for instance, 

 is represented neither in Gibraltar nor on the oppo- 

 site coast of Morocco. Certain species of Cyclostoma 

 and Pomatias are equally absent from both shores. 

 Twenty species of landsbells, including three unde- 

 scribed species and two new varieties, were obtained 

 on the Kock in May, ISSl ; but it is supposed that 

 this is a more or less incomplete exhibit, the season 

 of the year being not the most favorable. The 

 locality is peculiarly interesting on account of its 

 intermediate position between Spain and Morocco. 

 The sea-fauna of the Bay of Gibraltar is also very 

 rich, and contains many rare or peculiar forms. — 

 (Journ. cancli., iv. no. 1.) w. n. D. [370 



Absorption of the shell in Aurj.culidae. — 

 Crosse and Fischer illustrate and de-cribe the pecul- 

 iar absorption of the inner parts of the upper whorls 

 of the shell in this fainily, and also in the genus 

 Olivella. These animals appear to have the power 

 of dissolving entirely the internal partitions of the 

 shell, from a point some distance inside the aperture 

 to the very apex. The only exception in the family 

 Auriculidae is the genus Pedipes, in which the par- 

 titions were found intact. The absorption is not 

 always complete, nor are the same parts invariably 



