156 
Fixed and properly imbedded, the cells retain their normal 
condition and position; the intercellular spaces are just 
as they were in the living plant. 
The embryos of other plants afford quite as distinctive 
structural characters and often as interesting functional 
adaptations. . 
The correct interpretation of tissue modifications in 
plants has led to the conclusion that plant diseases may 
be caused by improper conditions of moisture, etc. 
Dropsy in plants has been caused by too great activity in 
the root-system of the plant, and thereby unbalancing the 
equilibrium between absorption and transpiration. This 
disease was first discovered by a careful examination of 
the structural details, and the fact that the disease was so 
discovered leads to the opinion that much light may be 
thrown upon the diagnosis and cure of plant diseases by a 
careful study of the minute structure of the plant. 
NATIONAL PARK PROTECTION. 
BY GEO. BIRD GRINNELL. 
THE recent slaughter of twenty or more of the Na- 
tional Park buffalo has excited widespread comment and 
calls attention anew to the fact that, although the Yel- 
lowstone Park was established twenty-two years ago last 
March, no law for its protection has ever been enacted. 
The organic act by which the Park was set aside says 
that the Secretary of the Interior shall make rules and 
regulations for its protection and the preservation of its 
natural wonders, but nothing in this act nor in any other 
provides any form of government, gives jurisdiction to 
any court, appoints any law officers or defines and fixes 
penalties for any crimes or misdemeanors committed 
within the boundaries of the reservation. 
There are now pending before Congress—in the House 
of Representatives and in the Senate as well—several bills 
which provide for the cutting off from the area of the 
Park about 1,200,000 acres of land, largely forest 
covered, and one or two which contain some needed gov- 
ernment and police provisions. It is of the utmost im- 
portance that one of these last named bills should be 
passed. Nomatter how efficient and energetic the com- 
mander and his troops, to whom the care of the Park has 
been given, it is impossible for him efficiently to protect 
it so long as no punishment awaits the man who violates 
the regulations established by the Secretary—shoots down 
the buffalo or fires the forests. As things exist to-day 
no such punishment can be meted out. Government 
scouts may capture a poacher red-handed, having just 
slain some of America’s largest wild animals, but it is 
certain that soon after the prisoner has been brought to 
the guard house, he will be set free, because no law takes 
cognizance of his crime and provides that he shall be 
given a trial and punished if found guilty. The Yellow- 
stone Park has been set apart from the states in which it 
lies, and put under the authority of the Secretary of the 
Interior. The laws of those states, therefore, do not 
apply to crimes committed within its borders, and Con- 
gress has given the Secretary of the Interior no authority 
to punish crime. 
No class of men comprehend better than the readers of 
Science the importance of preserving the Yellowstone 
Park and all it contains as nearly as possible in a state of 
nature. Nor is there any class among our population 
who can exercise more influence toward inducing Con- 
gress to pass the much needed laws. It is earnestly to 
be hoped that each reader of Scence will do his part 
toward bringing influence to bear on Congressmen and 
SCIEN Ci: 
Vol. XXIII. No. 581 
Senators, so that a proper police bill may be passed for 
the Park. Bes: a 
Some of the objections to the passage of the segrega- 
- tion bill are that such segregation would establish a very 
bad precedent, since if one corner can be cut off to-day 
another may be cut off to-morrow, and by continual 
whittling the area of the Park may finally be reduced to 
nothing. Segregation by reducing the area of the Park 
brings skin hunters nearer to the herds of wild game and 
to the forests, and increases the danger to both. Segregation 
also absolutely destroys large herds of wild game and con- 
siderable areas of forests at present existing in the coun- 
try proposed to be segregated. Segregation reduces the 
area of the National Park by nearly 1,200,000 acres, 
restoring to the public domain land which is utterly 
valueless for purposes of settlement. It is high, rough, 
mountain land, unfit for agriculture or stock range, over- 
grown with timber which is at present too far from a 
market to be of vulue, and probably without any mineral 
deposits that are worth working. This land will ,be 
vastly more useful as a forest reserve than it can be for 
any other purpose. 
THE SEMBLING OF A LARGE NATIVE MOTH: 
TEL EA POLY TLE MACS: 
BY H. GARMAN, LEXINGTON, KY. 
Tue collection of males of our larger Bombycid moths 
has sometimes been practised by confining newly matured 
females so that the males attracted could be secured, but 
I am not aware that it has been made a matter of careful 
observation and record, or that the source of the attract- 
ing secretion has been made out. Ihave often secured a 
limited number of male 7. polyphemus, and of Platysamia 
-cecropia, by this method, but a recent experience is, for 
myself, out of the ordinary, and may be worth reporting. 
In the latter part of July, 1893, a fine female 7. poly- 
phemus emerged in one of my breeding cages. She came 
from her cocoon in the afternoon, and by night her wings 
were pretty well expanded. I thought when I went home 
at five o’clock that her wings were not sufficiently firm for 
a good cabinet specimen, and so she remained in the cage 
till next day. Inthe evening of the following day cage 
and moth were taken to my home, and mosquito-bar 
being tacked over the front of the cage the latter was 
placed in the open window of my bedroom. In the night 
I was awakened by the fluttering of wings against the 
window and curtains, and getting up secured the two first 
males that had appeared. It was then just 1.30 a. M. 
From this time till daylight the males continued to come, 
sometimes two or three arriving about the same time, but 
oftener one at atime. All that appeared were captured, 
and in the morning I found I had twenty males, most of 
them nearly or quite new in appearance. 
The next night the same story was repeated, the first 
moths appearing at about half-past one, and the rest scat- 
tering along between this and morning. ‘This night I 
secured twenty-three males. 
The third day was rather cool, and the night following 
was cool and breezy. The female had now laid most of 
her eggs. No males appeared. I thought no more 
would come, but concluded to leave the cage in the win- 
dow a few nights longer. 
The fourth night five males appeared, and on the sixth, 
four were secured. In the former case the first moth 
appeared at fifteen minutes of one, and in the latter at 
tavo o'clock. 
On the sixth night no males were secured, and the 
