June 22, 1883.] 



SCIENCE. 



583 



interior. Dr. Colin of the French navy has been 



charged with a mission to the Senegal; his instruc- 

 tions are to search for golil, to obtain concessions of 

 the auriferous regions from the local chiefs, or at 

 least protection for those who may go there, and to 

 make geogi'aphic and scientific observations as far as 

 possible. He expects to return to France next April. 

 — w. M. D. [1122 



{Tn(iian Ocean.) 



Heard Island. — The U.S. S. Marion, Commander 

 Terry, last year went to this seldom-visited island in 

 the southern Indian Ocean (lat. .53° 20' S., long, to" 

 10' E.) to search for the crew of the whaler Trinity, 

 not heard from for eighteen months. The rescue 

 was successful; and on Jan. 13, 1882, the men were 

 taken from the island after over a year's endurance 

 of excessive hardships. Ensign Chambers gives an 

 Interesting account of the expedition. The inland 

 was discovered in 1853 by an American, Capt. Heard, 

 who believed it to be afloat, as he ' had sailed over its 

 position repeatedly on former voyages; ' but its firm 

 anchorage is pretty, well established by the presence 

 of an active volcano, about six thousand feet high, 

 seen in moderate eruption by the crew of the 

 Trinity ; and its antiquity is proved by marks of 

 former glacial action which date somewhat before 

 Capt. Heard's voyages. The climate of the island is 

 extremely severe. Snow-squalls were of daily occur- 

 rence even in midsummer, and the air was seldom 

 clear enough to show the mountain summit. Sea- 

 currents pass the island from north to south. It is 

 supposed fr-om the appearance of clouds, and from 

 the flight of birds and departure of sea-elephants, 

 that an uncharted island must lie sixty or one hun- 

 dred miles south of Heard; and it is even said that 

 a certain sealing-captain has discovered an island in 

 that direction, the position of which he keeps a 

 secret in the interest of his trade. — (Proc. U. S. 

 7iaval inst, ix. 1883, 121.) w. m. d. [1123 



Indian Ocean. — On his return from Jajian in 

 April-May, 1881, G. Liebscher took samples of the 

 water in the Bay of Bengal (about lat. 5° N.) and 

 Arabian Sea (near lat. lb° N.), finding the specific 

 gravity of the former at 60° F., 1.02.5.5 to 1.02.58, and 

 its percentage of salt 3.29 to 3.34; for the latter, 

 1.02(34 to 1.0276, and 3.40 to 3.52. — {3mth. erdk. 

 Salle, 1882, 139.) w. m. d. [1124 



BOTANY. 



Diseases of the vine. — The Observations sur le 

 Phylloxera et sur les parasitaires de la vigne, pub- 

 lished under the direction of the French academy, 

 contains a long and valuable paper by Cornu on 

 Perouospora viticola B. and C, which has within a 

 few years been introduced into the vineyards of 

 Europe from this country. After an elaborate state- 

 ment of the history of the discovery of the Perouo- 

 spora and its spread to Europe, there follows a full 

 account of the development and pathological action 

 of the fungus, beautifully illustrated. The work con- 

 cludes with an account of the treatment and preven- 

 tion of the disease, and a comparison of the grape- 

 mould with those of the potato and lettuce plants. — 

 w. G. r. [1125 



Glycogen in fungi. — In a thesis entitled ' I'fipi- 

 plasme des Ascomycetes,' Dr. li^o Errera demon- 

 strates, that apart from the Myxomycetes, whose 

 vegetable nature is not beyond question, glycogen 

 occurs in undoubted plants, especially in the Ascomy- 

 cetes, an order of fungi. It also appears to exist in 

 the yeast-plant and Pilobolus, a small mould. The 



glycogen of Peziza vesiculosa is identical with that 

 found in the livers of mammalia. In the Ascomycetes, 

 it is at first diffused throughout the whole young 

 plant, but afterwards accumulates in the asci, and is 

 ai>parently transformed during the maturing of the 

 spores. When not in too small quantities, glycogen 

 may be recognized microchemically by its semi-fluid 

 consistency, the absence of any reaction with osmic 

 acid. Millon's reagent, and iron salts, and by the 

 reddish-brown or mahogany color on the application 

 of iodine, which color disappears on heating, and re- 

 appears on cooling. — w. G. F. [1126 



Spores and spore-cases in Brian rocks. — Dr. 

 J. W. Dawson spoke of the discovery many years 

 since, by the geological survey of Canada, in a pyro- 

 schist or bituminous shale at Kettle Point on Lake 

 Huron, — referred to thehorizon of the Marcellus beds 

 of the Xew-York series, — of vast numbers of mi- 

 nute disks, which were recognized as the spore-cases 

 of some cryptogamous plant, and were by liim named 

 Sporangites huronensis. More recently Profs. Orton 

 of Columbus, O., Williams of Cornell university, 

 and Clarke of jSTorthampton, Mass., have found, in 

 the Brian (Devonian) and lower carboniferous shales 

 of Ohio and New York, beds replete with these organ- 

 isms ; and Prof. Orton has shown reasons for believ- 

 ing that they are connected with filamentous stems 

 found in the same layers, and, moreover, that they 

 have contributed largely to the bituminous matter 

 present in the shales in which they occur. Similar 

 bodies have also been found associated with the curi- 

 ous plants known as Psilophyton and Trochophyllum. 

 Still more recently specimens from the Erian of Bra- 

 zil have been sent to the author by Mr. Derby of 

 the Brazilian geological survey, which seem to throw 

 additional light on the bodies in question. These 

 specimens present oval or rounded bodies in the form 

 of flattened sacs, containing numbers of rounded 

 disks similar to those above referred to, and so 

 closely resembling the utricles, or spore-sacs, of the 

 rhizocarps as to make it extremely probable that they 

 belonged to plants of this class. Should this conjec- 

 ture be sustained by subsequent inquiries, it would 

 show that this peculiar group is of much greater 

 antiquity than hitherto supposed, and that these 

 plants were extremely abundant in the shallow 

 waters of the Erian period. Dr. Dawson further 

 suggested probable relations of these singular fruits 

 not only with Psilophyton, but also with other 

 Erian aid Silurian plants. — {Royal soc. Cnnniin : 

 meeting May 23. ) [1127 



ZOOLOGY. 

 Mollusks. 



Laud-snails from Bering Strait and Alaska. 

 — Drs. Aurel Krause and Eeinhardt enumerate and 

 describe the land-snails obtained by the Krause 

 brothers in the Chukchi peninsula and in south- 

 eastern Alaska. Seven species were obtained from 

 the former locality, and nineteen in the latter. Most 

 of them are common to both shores. As a matter of 

 much interest to American conchologists, the species 

 new to the fauna of the United States, as determined 

 by them, may be mentioned. Omitting mere varie- 

 ties, these are : Limax hyperboreus West., Conulus 

 pupula G-ould (originally described from Japan), 

 Pupa Gredleri Cless., P. Krausiana Eeinh., P. arc- 

 tica Wall., Sncoinea chrysis West., Vallonia asiat- 

 ica Xeville (Yarkand, described by Neville as a 

 variety of V. costata), and Pupa edentula Drap. 

 (probably). Dr. Eeinhardt also describes, under the 

 name of Vallonia gracilicosta, a small shell obtained 

 by Krause on the Little Missouri Eiver, while 



