178 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. I., No. 6. 



the timber in the State, being greatest where the 

 timber is most abundant." — w. m. d. [376 



GEOGRAPHY. 



{South America.) 

 Brazilian coast. — R. A. Hehl describes the phys- 

 ical peculiarities of this coast, between 21° and 23° 

 south latitude, under the headings of shore-lagoons, 

 rivers, neighboring mountain ranges, and lowlands. 

 — (Peterm. miltheil., 1882, 443.) w. M. D. [377 



Fontana's unsuccessful search for Crevaux. — 

 The Argentine expedition under Fontana, sent last 

 July in search of tlie remains of Creva\ix and his 

 party, who were lost on the Pilcomayo some months 

 earlier, has returned to Buenos Aires without any 

 information of the unfortunate explorers. It is con- 

 cluded that any expedition, to be successful, must 

 attempt the river from its head waters, whence a 

 voyage down stream would require only four or five 

 months; while, in ascending the river, at least ten 

 months would be needed, and many great difficulties 

 would be encountered. — ( Comptes rendus soc. geor/r. 

 Paris, 1882, 466.) w. m. d. [378 



Rumor of Crevaux's survival. — M. Milhome, 

 a French settler in the province of Tarija, Bolivia, 

 wrote last October that he was convinced that some 

 of Crevaux's party were still alive, and held as slaves 

 by the Tobas Indians. He had seen one of the party, 

 named Zeballos, who had escaped the reported mas- 

 sacre, and who had seen another, named Blanco, kept 

 as a prisoner. Moreover a cacique had brought infor- 

 mation to Milhome that the Indians had some white 

 men as prisoners, and were learning the use of arms 

 from them. — (Cotnpt, rend. soc. geor/r. Paris, 1883.) 

 W. M. D. [379 



(Africa.) 

 Wissmann's trip across Africa. — At a meeting 

 of the Khedival geographical society (Cairo) on Jan. 

 19, Lieut. Wissmann read a paper on his recent jour- 

 ney across equatorial Africa, stating, that, in company 

 with Dr. Pogge, he had left Mukenge's town in the 

 Tushilange country on Dec. 1, 1881, and crossed an 

 unexplored country to the eastward as far as the 

 Arab settlement Nyangwe, on the Lualaba, arriving 

 there April 16, 1882. The route led them across the 

 Lulua, Muansangoma, Lubilash, and Lomani rivers ; 

 and to the east of the last they came upon the route 

 that Cameron had followed westward nearly ten years 

 before. None of the large lakes previously reported 

 in this region were found or heard of, except the 

 Munkamba, which proves to be a small lakelet hardly 

 three miles in length. It is fed by springs, and has 

 no outlet, and lies at an altitude of 2,230 feet, in lat. 

 .0° 45' S., long. 22° .55' E. Dr. Pogge at once returned 

 westward from Nyangwe, hut has not yet been heard 

 from. Wissmann, after staying two months on the 

 Lualaba, started eastward by a beaten track to Lake 

 Tanganyika, which he crossed to Udjidji, and then 

 passed by way of Tabora to Zanzibar on Nov. 17. His 

 entire journey from sea to sea occupied twenty-two 

 months. — {Athenaeum, Feb. 3, 1883. ) W. M. D. [380 

 Pogge and "Wissmann. — B. Forster prepares for 

 an account of the journey of these explorers across 

 the Kongo basin and the lake-district by a review of 

 the results of the earlier journeys in the same field 

 by Livingstone (1852-54), Cameron (1874), Stanley 

 (1S76), and the travellers of the German-African 

 association in the southern Kongo basin, within the 

 last ten years. This is followed by a summary of 

 Pogge and Wissmann's observations as far as Mu- 

 kenge. — (^usianci, 1883, 33, 117.) w. m. d. [381 



{Atlantic Ocean.) 



Eruption of Tenerlff e. — C. Piazzi Smyth learns 

 from private advices, that for several months past 

 there has been no snow on the upper part of the peak 

 of Teneriffe, although the rest of the high land has 

 been whitened, as is usual at this season, and that 

 more recently (in January?) 'fire, like three great 

 bonfires,' had been seen on the summit of the peak, 

 and a lava-stream had begun to flow down it. Pre- 

 vious eruptions are recorded about 1582; again in 

 1703 from the side of the peak, giving forth lavas 

 that threatened the town of Guimar, on the south, 

 and destroyed Garachico and filled its bay, on the 

 north; and, finally, in 1798, from the western side of 

 the mountain away from the peak. — (Nature, Feb. 

 1, 1883.) W. M. D. [382 



BOTANY. 



Action of fungi on cane-sugar. — M. Gayon, in 

 experimenting with Mucor circinelloides, found, that, 

 in the absence of free oxygen, this fungus forms 

 spherical cells, which produce alcoholic fermentation 

 in beer-wort, grape-juice, and solutions of glucose 

 and leviilose, precisely like brewer's yeast; but, unlike 

 that ferment, the Mucor produces no change in cane- 

 sugar. But if a band of paper impregnated with 

 inver^ine, or a fungus capable of producing invertine, 

 as Penicillium, is introduced into a solution of cane- 

 sugar, the Mucor is then able to produce an alco- 

 holic fermentation. It is now known that several 

 species of Mucor are not able to invert cane-sugar; 

 and the same is true of Saccharomyces apiculatus. 

 M. Gayon suggests an ingenious method of separating 

 cane-sugar from other sugars, as in molasses, by fer- 

 menting with the Mucor, which leaves the cane-sugar 

 unchanged and crystallizable, while, if brewer's yeast 

 were used, all the sugar would disappear. — (Ann. sc. 

 -/lat., xiv. 46.) w. G. F. [383 



Development of Ascomycetes. — In order to 

 decide the question of the sexuality of the Ascomy- 

 cetes, C. Fisch has studied the formation of the asci 

 and perithecia in the Pyrenomycetes. The principal 

 genera studied were Polystigma, Xylaria, and Clavi- 

 ceps. In the first-named genus he finds that there 

 are ascogous and triehogynes, which bear a strong 

 resemblance to the organs of the same name found 

 by Stahl in the lichen genus CoUenia; but, although 

 spermogonia exist in Polystigma, Fisch could not be 

 certain of a union of spermatia with the trichogyne, 

 as was seen by Stahl in CoUema. In Xylaria and 

 Claviceps, however, he could find no evidences of 

 sexuality, and the asci arose directly from the hy- 

 phae. Adopting the view advanced by DeBary in 

 his paper on Saprolegniaceae, Fisch inclines to the lie- 

 lief that in the Pyrenomycetes we have a family in 

 which apogamy exists as a rule, although in some 

 cases, as in Polystigma, there is a connection witK 

 families in wliich there is a distinct sexuality. — 

 (Bot. zeit., Dec, 1882, Nos. 49-51.) w. G. F. [384 

 Structure and movements of leaves. — The re- 

 lations between particular structural features in cer- 

 tain leaves to the phenomena of nyctitropic or sleep 

 movements, and to those of movements following 

 shock, must receive increased attention on account 

 of recent papers by Gardiner and Cunningham. The 

 former gave an account of his discovery (Quart, 

 jnurn. of micr. sc, Oct., 1882) that the protoplasm in 

 adjacent cells of the jiulvinus, or cushion at the base 

 of the petiole, of Mimosa pudica, is continuous; the 

 continuity being maintained by protoplasmic fila- 

 ments which pass through pits in the cell-walls. In 

 a more recent paper (Proc. roy. soc, Nov., 1882) Mr. 

 Gardiner states that he has now found the same pe- 



