October 4, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



441 



thor introduces fifty-seven practical tests for 

 their experimental demonstration. Some of 

 these experiments are familiar to every stu- 

 dent of plant physiology, while others are new, 

 and in many cases quite novel. Some of. them 

 are to he performed in the laboratory, while 

 others take the student out into the fields and 

 forests. 



The ninth chapter, on the origin of new 

 forms, is again a philosophical presentation, 

 including a summary discussion of the law of 

 evolution, stability and plasticity, constant and 

 inconstant forms, origin by adaptation, origin 

 by variation, origin by mutation, natural 

 selection, isolation, polygenesis, etc. Several 

 instructive pages are given to Darwin and 

 his predecessors and followers. 



The remaining chapters include methods of 

 studying vegetation, the plant formation, ag- 

 gregation and migration, competition and 

 eeesis, invasion and succession, alternation 

 and succession. Even in these chapters some 

 experimental work is suggested, so that the 

 student will not depend wholly upon observa- 

 tion and camera-pictures for his conclusions ! 

 It is safe to say that the student who learns 

 his ecology in the way it is presented in this 

 book will not do as much guessing at his facts, 

 and drawing of inferences from landscape 

 photographs, as has been the habit of some of 

 the " ecologists " of the immediate past. 



Charles E. Bessey 

 The Univebsity of Nebbaska 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES 

 The Journal of Comparative Neurology and 

 Psychology for September contains two 

 articles on animal behavior. Dr. C. H. 

 Turner writes on " The Homing of Ants : An 

 Experimental Study of Ant Behavior," con- 

 cluding from an extensive series of field and 

 laboratory experiments that ants find their 

 way to and from the nest neither by tropisms 

 nor by a homing instinct, but that they learn 

 their way by experience. The elements which 

 enter into this experience were subjected to 

 experimental analysis. The second paper is 

 by Dr. E. H. Harper, on "The Behavior of 

 the Phantom Larvse of Corethra plumicornis 



Fabricius." These larvse have a very char- 

 acteristic mode of locomotion in the water. 

 They conform neither to the conventional 

 mode of orientation laid down in the tropism 

 scheme nor to the trial and error type of 

 reaction, but rather to a unique type of reac- 

 tion system of the larva. 



The last number of Symons's Meteorological 

 Magazine contains the, following note : " The 

 five hundredth number of Symons's Meteor- 

 ological Magazine is now before our readers, 

 a fact of no little interest when the smallness 

 of the public to which such a journal appeals 

 is taken into account. When Mr. Symons 

 produced No. 1 in February, 1866, he had 

 already issued a " monthly rain circular," as a 

 supplement to " British Eainfall " for several 

 years, so that a greater antiquity might 

 plausibly be claimed for the magazine than 

 the numeral implies. The magazine, though 

 small, has grown, and is not, we trust, ■ in- 

 capable of further growth without departing 

 from the original lines on which it was 

 planned. As an independent organ of opinion 

 in meteorological matters, it has, we believe, 

 been of use in the past, and we hope that this 

 usefulness will continue. We heartily thank 

 the many friends who have helped us hitherto, 

 and we look forward with confidence to a 

 wider circle of readers. 



DISGVSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



THE PARASITISM OP NEOCOSMOSPORA 



In Science for September 13, 1907, Dr. 

 Erwin F. Smith, of the Bureau of Plant 

 Industry, U. S. Department of Agriculture, 

 makes certain criticisms on work which the 

 writer published some time ago in a bulletin 

 of the Missouri Agricultural Experiment Sta- 

 tion and in a note in Science. 



My purpose in writing the papers men- 

 tioned was to record in permanent form ob- 

 servations which I had made in course of a 

 study of the ginseng fungus. I submitted 

 some conclusions which it seemed proper to 

 draw, because there has been more or less dis- 

 agreement on the parasitism of these fungi 

 among mycologists. 



