882 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXII. No. 574. 



Polypodium (with 73 species). Two species 

 of the interesting and curious ' staghorn 

 ferns ' (Platy cerium grande and P. hiforme) 

 occur on the islands. 



SOME NOTEWORTHY BULLETINS. 



Professor B. M. Duggar's paper on ' The 

 Principles of Mushroom Growing and Mush- 

 room Spawn Making ' has been issued as Bul- 

 letin 85 of the Bureau of Plant Industry, of 

 the United States Department of Agriculture. 

 It covers sixty pages and includes seven half- 

 tone plates. It will be useful to botanists and 

 especially so to the growers of mushrooms. — 

 Bulletin 84 of the Bureau of Plant Industry, 

 entitled ' The Seeds of the Bluegrasses,' con- 

 tains a paper by Edgar Brown on the germi- 

 nation, growing, handling and adulteration of 

 bluegrass seeds, and another by F. H. Hill- 

 man, consisting of descriptions of the seeds 

 of the commercial bluegrasses, and their im- 

 purities. Illustrations in the text add much 

 to the value of the bulletin.- — O. F. Cook and 

 W. T. Swingle discuss the ' Evolution of Cel- 

 lular Structures ' in Bulletin 81 of the Bureau 

 of Plant Industry. It is a discussion of the 

 mode of evolution, and lays particular em- 

 phasis upon symbasis, that is, diversity of 

 descent with normal interbreeding. They say 

 ' species are sexual phenomena ; they have 

 come where they are only through symbasis; 

 that is, as groups of interbreeding individuals, 

 traveling together along the evolutionary path- 

 way.'- — From the same bureau, we have in 

 Bulletin 90, part II., a short paper by G. G. 

 Hedgcock on ' The Crown-Gall and Hairy- 

 root Diseases of the Apple Tree,' in which 

 the author separates the two, establishes the 

 non-contagious nature of the first, says that 

 there is no proof that the second is contagious, 

 and shows by experiments that the first affects 

 the growth of the tree little if any. The 

 paper is in the nature of a report of progress 

 and is very suggestive to plant pathologists 

 and practical orchardists. — Bulletin 64 of the 

 Forest Service, by^ Eaphael Zon, deals with 

 the characteristics, growth, distribution and 

 uses of the loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) in 

 eastern Texas. Especial attention is given to 

 its use in the production of railway ties. — In 



Bulletin 28 of the Bureau of Soils, B. E. 

 Livingston, J. C. Britton and F. R. Reid give 

 the results of their ' Studies on the Properties 

 of an Unproductive Soil,' and reach the rather 

 startling conclusion that the particular soil 

 studied (at Takoma Park, Md.) ' contains a 

 water-soluble, non-volatile substance or sub- 

 stances, probably organic in nature, which are 

 toxic to wheat plants, causing a stunting of 

 their growth.' — From the United States Na- 

 tional Herbarium we have (Vol. VIIL, pt. 4) 

 the fourth of a series of ' Studies of Mexican 

 and Central American Plants ' by Dr. J. IST. 

 Rose, the result of a fourth journey to 

 Mexico, made by the author. It contains 

 many descriptions of new species, and critical 

 notes upon old ones. It is illustrated by ten 

 plates and six text figures. 



Charles E. Bbssey. 

 The Univeksity of Nebraska. 



CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY. 



KITE-FLYING OVER THE TROPICAL OCEANS. 



Reference has frequently been made in 

 Science during the past two or three years 

 to the project for exploring the atmosphere 

 over the tropical oceans by means of kites, 

 suggested by Mr. A. Lawrence Rotch, of Blue 

 Hill Observatory, in 1901. It is pleasant to 

 be able to chronicle, in these notes, the suc- 

 cessful ending of a preliminary expedition 

 undertaken during the past summer under the 

 joint auspices of Mr. Rotch and of Mons. L. 

 Teisserenc de Bort. Preliminary reports have 

 appeared in the Comptes Bendus, October 9, 

 1905, ' Sur les Preuves de I'Existence du 

 Contre-Alize,' by Rotch and de Bort, and in 

 Nature, November 16, 1905, ' The Exploration 

 of the Atmosphere over the Tropical Oceans,' 

 by the same authors. Onq of the chief ob- 

 jects of the expedition was to study the anti- 

 trade winds from the southwest, which, ac- 

 cording to a report by Dr. Hergesell, based on 

 his observations in 1904, do not exist. The 

 work last summer was done on board the 

 Otaria, a steamer equipped with an electric 

 kite-reel already used by de Bort for kite- 

 flying at sea. Messrs. Clayton, of Blue Hill, 

 and Maurice, assistant at the observatory at 

 Trappes, carried out the exploration. 



