742 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 410. 



become poisonous to plant life, as the great 

 French chemist Pasteur would have it. Now 

 humio acid has the same effect both in plant life 

 and in the soil — for all nature was torn off the 

 same bolt. 



While it must not be inferred that the whole 

 book is on a par with the extract quoted, there 

 is enough of such reckless writing in it, espe- 

 cially regarding scientific matters, to render it 

 almost worthless from a scientific standpoint 

 and to impair seriously its usefulness from a 

 practical point of view. W. H. Beal. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 



The Botanical Gazette for October contains 

 the following papers : Dr. E. B. Copeland con- 

 cludes his paper on ' The Rise of the Trans- 

 piration Stream.' It is based upon a series 

 of experiments conducted by the writer in the 

 Hull Botanical Laboratory. Water moved 

 upward in an artificial ' tree ' of plaster of 

 Paris more than forty feet high, but no defi- 

 nite conclusions could be obtained. The 

 paper, therefore, is rather an historical and 

 critical discussion of the subject. The theo- 

 ries which ascribe the rise of water in trees to 

 . either the cohesive power of water or the 

 activity of living cells are thoroughly invalid. 

 There is some sound evidence in support of 

 the view that the pressure of the atmosphere 

 forces the water upward. The water travels 

 a large part of the way in a film between 

 bubbles and the wall of the conducting vessels ; 

 but the physical properties of such a film are 

 unknown. Not the least valuable part of the 

 paper is the complete bibliography of the sub- 

 ject containing one hundred and seventy-four 

 titles. Mr. W. J. G. Land publishes an ac- 

 count of the essential morphology of Thuja, 

 which throws additional light upon the pecul- 

 iar morphology of the Coniferfe. No ventral 

 canal cell is organized, but its nucleus appears 

 and is not separated from the egg cell by a 

 cell wall. This nucleus remains in the upper 

 part of the egg and may divide and give rise 

 to several nuclei, the group resembling a pro- 

 embryo. These results make Arnoldi's conclu- 

 sions in regard to the absence of ventral canal 

 cells in Cupressinese very doubtful. In the 

 formation of the proembryo eight free nuclei 



are formed before cell walls appear. Miss 

 Laetitia M. Snow publishes the results of 

 her studies of the ecology of the Delaware 

 coast in the region of Eehoboth Beach. This 

 paper is designed to fill a gap in our knowl- 

 edge of the vegetation of the Atlantic coast, 

 connecting the work of Harshberger in New 

 Jersey with that of Kearney in Virginia and 

 North Carolina. There is general agreement 

 with their conclusions, as with the work of 

 Cowles on the Lake Michigan dune flora. 

 Several characteristic northern species reach 

 here their southern limit. The formations 

 and character species are the usual ones of 

 dune regions. Dr. J. M. Greenman describes 

 a new western Camasia from Washington. 



In The American Naturalist for September 

 V. L. Kellogg discusses at some length ' The 

 Development and Homologies of the Mouth 

 Parts of Insects ' and Carlo Emery furnishes 

 ' An Analytical Key to the Genera of the 

 Formicidse, for the Identification of the 

 Workers.' C. E. Preston describes some ' Pe- 

 culiar Stages of Foliage in the Genus Acacia' 

 and C. C. Trowbridge considers the subject 

 of ' The Relation of the Wind to Bird Migra- 

 tion,' the author believing that temperature 

 is a less important factor than is usually be- 

 lieved and that wind is more important. 



The Popular Science Monthly for October 

 has as frontispiece a portrait of the late Ru- 

 dolf Virchow. The first article, by J. W. 

 Tourney, is ' A Study in Plant Adaptation,' 

 with special reference to the choUa, Opuntia 

 fulgida. O. F. Cook discusses ' The Amer- 

 ican Origin of Agriculture,' adducing evi- 

 dence in support of his theory of a westward 

 migration from America to the Pacific Islands. 

 F. A. Woods continues his study of ' Mental 

 and Moral Heredity in Royalty ' and John 

 Waddell discusses ' The (Commercial) Com- 

 petition of the United States with the United 

 Kingdom.' Arthur E. Bostwick offers a study 

 of ' Scientific Reading in a Public Library ' ; 

 Alja R. Cook describes ' An Ascent of Mt. 

 Orizaba ' and David Starr Jordan reviews the 

 various theories of the ' Origin of the Fins 

 of Fishes,' considering that none of them is 

 yet definitely proved. Calvin M. Woodward 

 has a good discussion of ' Domestic and Inter- 



