20 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. I., No. 1. 



Yalliferc goius l>y Miirgula and KuinakUana, and 

 Gallieni crossing eastward to the Ba-iile, to meet 

 again at Bammako on tbe Niger. Vallitire accom- 

 plished his journey successfully; but the commandant 

 was attacked at Dio, on May 11, by 1,500 Bambaras, 

 and after a hard fight and heavy loss escaped, leav- 

 ing his supplies, and joined Valliere as planned. 

 Then crossing to the right bank of the Niger, the 

 whole party descended toward Segu, but were de- 

 tained at Nango, some leagues from the capital, for 

 ten months, by order of the Sultan.. Here they suf- 

 ered greatly from privation and fever, till at last, 

 concluding a favorable treaty with the Sultan after 

 ra&ny palabvas, they turned back March 21, 1881, re- 

 turning as Vallifere had entered, and reaching St. 

 Louis on May 12. The country was found to be but 

 moderately mountainous : the highest point was by 

 Kumakhana, 750 met., the divide here between the 

 Ba-khoy and Niger being 450 met. The Niger, where 

 followed, was about 300 met. above sea-level. The 

 rainy season lasts from June to December, the rest of 

 the year being dry. Many details are given concern- 

 ing the best routes for road-construction into the in- 

 terior. — [Bull. xoc. rjeoyr. Paris, ma,y\.) w. M. D. [35 



Expedition to the Kuengo. — This westernmost 

 of the large southern branches of the Kongo has 

 been visited by v. Mechow between hits, 5° ami 8° S. 

 He entered and returned by S. Paolo de Loanda. On 

 reaching the river, he descended it to within about 

 100 miles of its junction with the Kongo, when he 

 was obliged to return by the fear his men felt for sup- 

 posed cannibals beyond. Tlie river was 1,000 to 1,800 

 paces broad, enclosed by luxuriant forests in a well- 

 marked valley. Von Mechow returned to Germany 

 early in 1881. — ( Verh. geselUch. erdk. Berlin, ix. 

 1882, 475. ) w. M. D. [36 



Reported lake west of Albert Nyauza. — Mr. 

 F. Lupton, governor of the Egyptian i^rovince Bahr 

 el Gliazal, writes on July 27, 1882, of the reported 

 existence of a great lake, as large as Victoria Nyanza 

 (Ukerewe), about lat. 3° 40' N., long. 23° E. The 

 Barboa people, living on its eastern shores, are said 

 to maiie a three-days' voyage across the lake, and 

 obtain from the tribes on the western side beads and 

 wire of European make. Mr. Lupton thinks the Uelle 

 flows into this lake, and that itsoutlet joins the Kongo. 

 — (Proc. r/eof/r. .soc. io7i,(i, Nov., 1882. ) w. M. n. [37 



BOTANY. 



{Stnictura/ aittl p/it/siotogical.) 

 Chemical character of living protoplasm. — 

 In 1881 Loew and Bokorny published an interesting 

 paper on the effect produced by very dilute solutions 

 of gold and silver on living cells. The protoplasm 

 soon becomes distinctly colored by reduced gold or 

 silver, whereas dead protoplasm gives no such re- 

 action. The present paper by the author first named 

 adds a few details, and attempts a fuller explanation 

 of the phenomena. A single milligram of a salt of 

 silver or gold is dissolved in a litre of water; and the 

 minute object — for instance, a few threads of a fila- 

 mentous Alga — is placed in the whole amount of 

 liquid. The reactions described by the authors are 

 not seen when tbe object is treated with the reagents 

 in a more concentrated form, or in a smaller quantity 

 of liquid. Under conditions wholly favorable to the 

 reaction, the pi-otoplasm becomes tinged with faint 

 color in a short time. When, however, a cell contain- 

 ing protoplasm which has been destroyed by chemical 

 or mechanical 'means is subjected to the same condi- 

 tions, no change of color is observable. The reaction 

 is assumed to be due to the x^resence of one or more 

 members of the aldehyde group in the living proto- 



plasm. Tlie authors call attention in their first paper 

 to the singular fact that certain Algae failed to give 

 this reaction. — {Bot. zeit., Dec. 1, 1882.) G. L. G. ^38 



Some leaf-movements and light. — To ex- 

 press the greater longitudinal growth upon the upper 

 than the lower side of a part, by which the part 

 bends downward, the term epinasty has been used. 

 Detmer, by experiments on germinating plants, has 

 become convinced that the epinastic movements of 

 leaves are wholly dependent on light ; and he pro- 

 poses a new term, photo-epinasty, in part place of the 

 older one. — [Bot. zeit. , Nov. 17, 1882. ) G. L. G. [39 



Epinasty of leaves results, according to E. Mer, 

 from the more rapid development of the palisade cells 

 of tbe upper surface under the influence of light. — 

 (Compteti rendus, Dec. 11, 1882.) G. L. G. [40 



Development of poUeu in cycads and conif- 

 ers. — By Jura'iiyi: in part, a reply to Treub of Bui- 

 tenzorg (Java). The formation of the pollen in Abies 

 and Pinus is almost preci.selv that of the cycads. — 

 {Bot. zeit., Nov. 24 and Dec. i, 1882.) g. l. g. [41 



Colors of flowers, and light. — According to 

 Schnetzlar, the blue coloring matter in the corolla of 

 Platycodou grandiflorum can be seen to come from 

 the breaking-up of chlorophyl granules pre-existent 

 in the cells. The blue nectaries develop their color 

 even in unopened flowers, and therefore in partial 

 darkness ; but the upper part of the ovary becomes 

 blue only iu full light. — (Arch. gc. phys. nat., Nov. 

 15, 1882.) G. L. G. " • [42 



Colors of flovirers. — Dr. Miiller, in reviewing the 

 subject of floral colors from a biological standpoint, 

 gives abstracts of the contributions to our knowledge 

 of their uses. Readers who confine themselves chiefly 

 to books and papers published in the English language 

 will find that much of what they have been accustomed 

 to treat as original with some of our favorite writers, 

 on the inter-relations between flowers and insects, is 

 here traced to the earlier contributions of German 

 investigators.— (JTosfJiOS, 1882, 117.) w T. [43 



Floral forms. — In his 'Across lots," Mr. Gibson 

 gives us a little pleasantly written philosophizing 

 suggested by the variety in the forms of flowers. — 

 (Httrper'sjiia^., Nov., 1882.) w. T. [44 



Season of flowering. — Australian acacias, trans- 

 planted across the equator into northern India, have 

 been found to gradually adapt their time of flowering 

 to the changed springtime of their new home. For 

 about twenty years, according to Dr. Brandis, no 

 change was noticed; but since it began they have 

 bloomed earlier each successive year imtil now, 

 twenty years later, they bloom in June instead of 

 October. — {Indian forester, l?<^'2.) w. T. f45 



{SyaU'matic.) 



American asclepiads. — Fournier begins an 

 enumeration of the Asclepiadaceae of America, ex- 

 cluding for the most part the United States ayd Bra- 

 zil, with notes and descriptions of some new genera 

 and species. — (Ann. sc. nat., ISS2, Mi.) s. w. [46 



Indian species of Primula and Androsace. — 

 Professor G. Watt describes and figures twenty-four 

 species of Primula and six of Androsace from the 

 Himalaya, most of them new or previously unde- 

 scribed. The paper has undergone revision by Sir 

 J. D. Hooker, and includes notes on the geographical 

 distribution of Primula, remarkable inasmuch as the 

 nearly one hundred species are confined to the tem- 

 perate and cold regions of the northern hemisphere, 

 with the exception of a single species that abounds 

 in Fuegia and the Falkland Islands. — (.Journ. Linn. 

 ,soc. iontZ., Dec, 1882.) s. w. [47 



