June 26, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



923 



It is to be regretted that Dr. Peter has not 

 yet published the results of his observations of 

 other stars. One would have supposed that the 

 first publication of observations made with a 

 new instrument would include the results ob- 

 tained for stars observed elsewhere. Thus a 

 comparison with the work of other observers 

 would have furnished a certain check upon Dr. 

 Peter's own work. The stars whose parallaxes 

 have been observed by Dr. Peter, but still re- 

 main unpublished, are : 



Eta Cassiopeite, Theta Ursae Majoris. 



Mu CasaiopeifE, Beta Coma Berenicis. 



Lai. 15290, Lai. 18115. 



The Astronomical Journal of June 4th con- 

 tains a determination, by Mr. Eric Doolittle, of 

 the secular perturbations of Mercury by the 

 Earth. The computations were made accord- 

 ing to the method of Gauss. There is also an 

 orbit of Gamma Coronae Borealis by Dr. See. 

 Prof. Comstock calls attention to the fact that 

 his observations for the determination of the 

 constant of aberration by Loewy's method show 

 evidence of the existence of systematic error 

 depending on magnitude in the observation of 

 the right ascensions of the fundamental stars 

 with the meridian circle. H. J. 



HONEY ANTS. 



An interesting paper by Mr. W. W. Frog- 

 gatt, of the Australian Museum, on Australian 

 honey ants, has just been reprinted from the 

 ' Report of the Horn Expedition to Central Aus- 

 tralia ; Part II., Zoology.' 



Camponotus inflatus, Lubbock, has long been 

 known (since 1880) to possess an inflated form 

 of worker which the other ants in the colony 

 use as store houses for the preservation of sac- 

 charine substance, just as is the case with the 

 honey ants of Mexico, Colorado and Sarawak. 

 The present paper describes two new species, 

 Camponotus coiolei and C. midas, both congeneric 

 with Lubbock's species and both possessing the 

 honey-storing habit, though in less marked de- 

 gree than C. inflatus. In fact, C. cowlei seems 

 to be, to a certain extent, a transition form, or 

 a form in which the ditFerentiation into the 

 honey-bearing workers has not proceeded to "its 

 fullest extent. Even in C. inflatus there is 

 little or no structural difference between the 



honey-bearing workers and the ordinary worker, 

 but the honey bearers are quite incapable of 

 movement and must be fed by the ordinary 

 workers. With C. cowlei, however, the honey 

 bearers, although considerably swollen, seem to 

 be; able to move about slowly. It is possible 

 that the only colony observed was a young 

 colony and that the ' rotund ' had not reached 

 its full individual development. There is no 

 hint by the writer that with the Camponotus 

 honey ants there is any tendency towards the 

 change to honey bearers on the part of certain 

 of the workers by reason of any peculiar struc- 

 ture or form of intestine or abdominal walls, as 

 has been suggested by Dr. McCook in the case 

 of our Colorado Myrmecocystus. The develop- 

 ment of this extraordinary habit in certain 

 species which are perfectly congeneric with many 

 other species in other parts of the world in 

 which there is no tendency in this direction is 

 not the least interesting phenomenon connected 

 with this extraordinary subject. L. O. H. 



scientific contributions feom the missouei 

 botanical garden. 



The American Walnuts and Hickories.^ The 

 present paper, which in the main accepts the 

 sisecific limitations and nomenclature of Prof. 

 Sargent's Silva of North America, is devoted 

 mainly to an analysis of the characters by 

 which the hickories and walnuts and butternut 

 may be distinguished in their winter condition, 

 it being claimed that the characters afforded 

 during that season are even more satisfactory 

 than those obtainable during the earlier period 

 ofgroAvth. The twig and bud characters and 

 the characters of a great variety of fruits are 

 illustrated in detail, and reproductions are 

 given, direct from photographs, of the bark of 

 a number of the species. Several interesting 

 hybrids are also discussed in detail. 



The Agaves of the United States. \ About 



* Juglandaceie of the lluitecl States. By William 

 Trelease. Issued May 26, 1896. Reprinted from 

 the Seventh Annual Report of the Missouri Botanical 

 Garden. Pages 25-46, plates 1-24. 



t The Agaves of the United States. By A. Isabel 

 Slulford. Issued May 26, 1896. Reprinted from 

 the Seventh Annual Report of the Missouri Botanical 

 Garden. Pagts 47-100, plates 26-63. 



