March 23, 1883.] 



SCIENCE. 



201 



estimated at about 1,000,000, Chervin finds that the 

 populaliou increased with extreme slowness, or even 

 remained stationary, when compared with the enu- 

 merations of 1872 and 1876. Departments showing 

 an increase have grown by immigration. Decrease 

 of population is found even in some of the rich and 

 well situated departments, as parts of Normandy; 

 and the same districts show a large percentage (40 

 or 50) of i-ejections from the conscripts for recruiting 

 the army. Both these marks of a lack of healthy 

 growth are ascribed to the effects of drunkenness, 

 which is unfortunately prevalent in some of the 

 communes of this region. — {Comptes rendus soc. 

 geogr. Paris, 1883, 40. ) w. m. d. [436 



Geographic -work in Spain. — According to a 

 summary by Ferreiro, the geographical and statistical 

 institute of Spain liave the past year determined the 

 force of gravity at Madrid, and the latitude and lon- 

 gitude (telegraphic) of Madrid and Bajadoz. The dif- 

 ference of level between the Atlantic and Mediterra- 

 nean is found to be -1-0.662.5 metre: for more accurate 

 determination of this in the future, automatic tem- 

 perature, pressure, and wind registers have been es- 

 tablished at Alicante, Santander, and Cadiz. — {Bol. 

 soc. geog. Madrid, xiii., 1882, 317.) w. m. d. [437 



(^Atlantic Ocean.) 

 Cape Verde Islands. — This seldom - visited 

 group was examined by Dr. C. Doelter of Graz in 

 the autumn of 1880. The islands do not consist 

 exclusively of volcanic rocks, but contain also 

 gneiss, mica and clay slates, and limestones, lending 

 support to the view that they make part of a con- 

 tinental mass once of considerable extent. Their 

 former direct connection with the mainland is, how- 

 ever, questionable, as the opposite shore of Africa 

 does not contain similar formations in their latitude. 

 (A connection would seem more probable north-east- 

 ward to the Atlas range.) Doeltei''s geological re- 

 sults are given in Die vulkane der Kapverden und 

 Ihre producte (Graz, 1882). This is to be followed by 

 a general narrative including his journey to western 

 Africa, with the title Nach den Kapverden und dem 

 Kio Grande (Leipzig, Frohberg). — {Peterm. mitlh., 

 1883, 72.) w. M. D. [438 



Atlantic Soundings. — The brothers Siemens 

 have established a broad reputation by their tech- 

 nical as well as scientific worlc, ranging from their 

 copper-works in the Caucasus to the construction 

 of cables and telegraph-lines through oceans and 

 wildernesses, as well as to practical researches in 

 electricity. It has not, however, been generally 

 known, that, since 1874, they have undertaken deep 

 soundings in the North Atlantic from one of their 

 own vessels, in connection with their work of cable- 

 laying. Their results have lately been published 

 (Stanford, London) in three charts, giving a valuable 

 addition to our knowledge of the relief of the sea- 

 floor in the cable-zone between Ireland and New- 

 foundland. The soundings were made with Sir 

 William Thomson's steel wire apparatus, and, by re- 

 peated measures in the same place, are found accu- 

 rate within a few fathoms, even in depths of two 

 miles. The charts are of limited areas; one includ- 

 ing the ' Faraday Hills,' N. lat. 49° 20' to 50°, W. 

 long. 28° .^0' to .30° 15'; tiie other two, in the region of 

 the Vliimio cape, east of the Newfoundland banks. 

 — (Peterm. jnitt/i., 1883, 39.) w. M. D. [439 



The ' Travailleur's ' cruise in 1882. — Lieutenant 

 Parfait reports that the Travailleur spent July and 

 August of last summer in following near the coast 

 of Spain and Morocco as far as the Canaries, and 



back by Madeira to Lisbon and Rochefort. The 

 weather was much worse than was expected ; but 

 71 dredgings were made in depths from 50 to 1,800 

 fathoms. The 100-fathom plateau was found along 

 the northern coast of Spain, with a width of about 

 twenty miles; beyond its border the depths were 

 very variable, as had been the case in the previous 

 cruises. With this rapid change of deptli, the char- 

 acter of the bottom changed also, and the fauna was 

 local. Off Morocco, the bottom was more even, and 

 was covered with a soft reddish mud ; the fauna was 

 new and interesting. Among the Canary islands 

 the depths were variable; the bottom was almost 

 barren of life, and was strewn with volcanic dust 

 and ashes. By Madeira, the dredge was often 

 brought up torn by the corals on the bottom. — 

 (Comptes rendus, soc. geogr. Paris, 1883, 55, map.) 

 [An account of the outfit and previous soundings of 

 the Travailleur is given by Milne-Edwards (Bull, 

 soc. geogr., 1882, 93.)] w. m. d. [440 



BOTANY. 



Cryptogams. 

 Marine algae of Germany and Austria. — 



The first three parts of the second volume of Kaben- 

 horst's Kryptogamen-flora contain an account of the 

 marine algae of Germany and Austria by Hauck, 

 illustrated with numerous and excellent woodcuts, 

 showing the structure of the fronds and fruit of the 

 different genera, and three full-page photolithographs 

 of species of Corallineae. The parts already pub- 

 lished include the lower orders of Florideae, from 

 Porpbyraceae to C'ryptonemiaceae. The descriptions 

 are clear and full, and the synonymy carefully ar- 

 ranged ; and the work will be of great value to 

 American algologisfs, as it gives the best compre- 

 hensive account of the European genera of red sea- 

 weeds, the greater part of which have representatives 

 on our own coast. — w. G. F. [441 



Reproduction in Saprolegniaceae. — The Bo- 

 tanische zeitung contains a reply of DeBary to the 

 remarks of Pringsheim in the Berlin Monatsbericht, 

 in which he questioned the accuracy of some of De- 

 Bary's statements in his work, Bei/raege zvr mor- 

 phologie der pilze, heft 4. DeBary regarded those 

 forins in which ripe spores were produced in oogonia 

 without the intervention of pollinodia (which, in most 

 of the species, make their way into the oogonia) as 

 instances of apogamy, and considered that the forms 

 in question were originally derived from some form 

 having proper pollinodia, but had gradually lost their 

 sexuality. Even in the species of Achlya in which 

 jjoUinodia are present, DeBary failed to see any direct 

 communication between the contents of the oogonia 

 and pollinodia. Pringsheini, on the other hand, de- 

 scribes bodies which he calls sperraamoeljae, which 

 are contractile masses of protoplasm formed in the 

 pollinodia, and which may be discharged through the 

 walls of the pollinodia without any apparent open- 

 ing, and unite at once with the oospheres when the 

 pollinodia are in the oogonium; or, in case they do 

 not reach the oogonia, as in some species of Achlya, 

 the spermamoebae are discharged into the water, and 

 then make their way into the oogonia. In the Bo- 

 tanisches centralblatt, Zopf maintains that Pring- 

 sheim's spermamoebae are amoeboid parasites. De- 

 Bary believes, that, even on the supposition that the 

 spermamoebae are not parasites, there are species of 

 Achlya and Saprolegnia in which sexuality is entirely 

 wanting, and that one cannot assume, as Pringsheim 

 has done, that, in the forms in which the oospores 

 are produced without any apparent formation of pol- 



