466 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. I., No. 16. 



the stratifipd deposits were laid down, and tlie double 

 or treble alternation of these with sheets of unstrati- 

 fied drift. — (Keitler^s zeitschr. wUs. (jeogr., iii. 1882, 

 101, 138.) w. M. D. [938 



BOTANY. 



{Physiological.) 

 Formation of cystoliths. — These concretions 

 are very abundant in the tissues- of many families of 

 plants ; notably, the nettles, hops, and elms. Chareyre 

 traces what be considers a plain connection between 

 these epidermal concretions in this group and the 

 hairs over them. In some cases the calcification be- 

 gins high up in the hair, and, having proceeded as 

 far as its base, gives rise to a concretion at the sur- 

 face of the leaf, but in most cases goes on to form a 

 calcareous mass below this. This subepidermal con- 

 cretion is the cystolith. It is an interesting fact that 

 similar concretions should occur in perfectly smooth 

 leaves of closely allied plants. Did these once possess 

 hairs of like character? — {Comptes rendus, April 9.) 



G. L. G. [939 



Rate of gro-wth of desert-plants. — Capus has 

 added some interesting facts to our knowledge of 

 the vast influence of plenty of water upon growth. 

 In the botanic garden at Samarcande, Turkestan, he 

 found that Ailanthus glandulosus grew, during the 

 first year, .21 of a metre; it grew .33 in the second, 

 and .89 in the third, — all of which were years in 

 which no irrigation-water was furnished. In the 

 fourth year, wilh water, the growth was 10 metres. 

 He thinks that this tree, together with Gleditschia 

 triacanthos and Robinia, is particularly adapted to 

 desert-culture on account of its possessing tissues 

 in which water is easily retained ; but he gives no 

 anatomical details to support his view. — ( Compje.s 

 rendus, April 10.) G. L. 6. [940 



{Systematic.) 



The Pomaceae. — Wenzig of Berlin gives a con- 

 spectus of the genera and species of this grouj) as 

 defined by him, — an abstract of his previous papers 

 in Linnaea and elsewhere. According to his views, 

 our species of Pirus appear under Malus and Sorbus, 

 while Crataegus is merged in Mespllus. Crataegus 

 spathulata, C. aestivalis, and C. arborescens, how- 

 ever, are referred to Cotoneaster; and for C. cor- 

 data he forms the genus Phalacros. He admits four 

 American species of Amelanchier. — (Jakrb. hot. 

 rjart. Berlin, 1883.) s. w. [941 



The Turneracae. — A very complete monograph 

 of this order lias been made by Urban of Berlin. 

 Bentham and Hooker recognize three genera (Turn- 

 era, Erblicliia, and Wormslcioldia), which are all 

 united by Baillon under Turnera. Urban defines five 

 genera, restoring Piriqueta (of which Erblichia is 

 made a section) and Streptopetalum, and adopting 

 Balfour's recent genus, Mathurina. Piriqueta is char- 

 acterized mainly by the presence of a corona upon 

 the throat of the calyx, — an organ not previously 

 observed, and important as confirming the close rela- 

 tionship of the order to the Passifloraceae. Eighty- 

 three species are described, mostly belonging to 

 Tui'nera and Piriqueta and to the warmer regions 

 of America, from Carolina and Mexico to the La 

 Plata, but chiefly Brazilian. The other small genera 

 are confined to Africa; the monotypic Mathurina, to 

 Rodriguez Island. The single species found within 

 the United States, but occurring, also, in the West 

 Indies and Brazil, is referred to Piriqueta (P. Caro- 

 liniana, Urban). In Mexico are found one species 

 of Piriqueta and three of Turnera, the 'Damiana' 

 (T. aphrodisiaca. Ward) being made a variety of the 



widely distributed T. diffusa of Willdenow. — (Jahrb. 

 bot. rjart. Berlin, 1883. ) s. w. [942 



ZOOLOGY. 



Tentacles of the Physalia. — Commodore Phelps, 

 U.S.N., is contributing a series of articles under the 

 title ' Reminiscences of the old navy,' one of which 

 contains a notice of a Portuguese man-of-war cap- 

 tured in the harbor of Porto Grande, St. Vincent's 

 Island, Cape de Verdes, whose tentacle was a hundred 

 and seventy-five feet long. Notes are also given on 

 the steamer-duck, the enormous spider-crabs of the 

 Straits of Magellan, and on the life of the albatross. 

 A fine large specimen of the latter was caught off the 

 La Plata River in 1844, and marked. It was again 

 caught in 1868. — ( United sen. rev., March. ) c. E. m. 



[943 

 Protozoa, 



Parasitic monads in the blood of fishes. — 

 Mitrophanow has found two species, which he de- 

 scribes as new flagellate monads. They were obtained 

 — one from Cobitis fossilis, the other from Barassius 

 vulgaris — by letting the animal's blood flow into a 

 half-per-cent salt solution. The parasite of the first- 

 named fi'sh occurs in several varieties, and is named 

 Haeraatonionas cobitis. It is worm-shaped, pointed 

 at both ends, has a flagellum on the front end, and 

 an undulatory membrane on the side. It is .30 to 40 // 

 long, and 1 to 1^ ,u thick, and is very active in its 

 movements. The second species is named H. carassii, 

 and differs from the first by its greater length and 

 more developed membrane. 



In connection with this subject, the author criti- 

 cises Gaule's views regarding the cytozoa observed in 

 the frog's blood, and expresses his agreement with 

 Lankester's description of them as parasites, given 

 in the Quart, joum. microsc. sc, Jan., 1882. — (Biol, 

 centralbl., iii. 35.) c. s. M. [944 



A social Heliozoon. — Dr. Joseph Leidy exhibited 

 drawings, and described a singular Heliozoon recently 

 sent to him from Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey. It 

 occurs mostly in groups composed of numerous indi- 

 viduals, one of the bunches, of an irregular cylindroid 

 shape, containing upwards of a hundred. They 

 reminded one of a mass of tangled burrs. They re- 

 mained nearly stationary even for twenty-four hours, 

 and exhibited so little activity, that, without careful 

 scrutiny, they might readily be taken for some in- 

 animate structure. Tbe individuals composing the 

 groups appeared to be connected by mutual attach- 

 ment of their innumerable rays, and none w'ere ob- 

 served to be associated by cords of x^rotoplasra extend- 

 ing between the bodies of the animals, as seen in 

 Raphidiophrys elegans. Some of the individuals 

 were in an encysted, quiescent condition. The active 

 specimens resembled the common sun-animalcule, 

 and measured from 0.024 to 0.036 mm. in diameter. 

 They were observed to feed on two species of Actino- 

 phrys. After some hours a few individuals appeared 

 to iiave separated from the surface of one of the 

 groups, but they were as stationary and sluggish as 

 when in association with the others. — (Acad. nat. sc. 

 Philad. ; meeting April 24. ) [945 



MoUnsks. 



Italian Limaces. — These form the subject of a 

 monograph by I^essona and Pollonera. Tbe authors 

 find nine Arionidae and twenty-nine Limacidae exist- 

 ing in Italy which have hitherto been much confused 

 in publications on the subject. Of the thirty-eight 

 species, twenty-two properly belong to Italy, which 

 possesses thirteen of the others in common with the 

 continent of Europe. One is common to all the 



