September 24, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



433 



old principle of the overshot wheel in the design 

 of a small easy running combination wheel and 

 pump and stand (made in the factory complete 

 for installation) to utilize the flow and fall of 

 small brooks as power for operating continuously 

 a pump which pushes pure spring water to higher 

 elevations. The remarkable simplicity, adaptabil- 

 ity and reliability of this machine brings it in di- 

 rect competition with hydraulic rams, all of whose 

 defects seem to be met satisfactorily by the wheel 

 and pump. One dozen of these wheels and pumps 

 have been introduced in North Carolina during the 

 past year. Among these is one which delivers 

 every day through a vertical height of 45 feet 500 

 gallons of spring water for a large farm home, 

 where the power of the stream which operates the 

 wheel is only %oo of a horse power. 



On Leidy's Ouramceba and its Occurrence at 



Greensboro, N. C: E. W. Gudger. 



In the fall of 1914 considerable numbers of 

 large and active ouramoebas were found at Greens- 

 boro. The amoebas themselves and the locality in 

 which they were found were described. Their ac- 

 tivities both in feeding and moving were discussed, 

 and it was noted that there was no reversal of 

 polarity, the tail-feather-like mass of fungous 

 hyphffl always remaining posterior. The history of 

 this interesting organism was then reviewed, and 

 the conclusion arrived at that ouramoeba (tailed 

 amosba) is nothing but an ordinary amceba which 

 has ingested fungous spores which have germinated 

 and formed a mass of mould hyphse which project 

 from the posterior end of the animal. The full 

 paper will be published shortly. 



Some Igneous BocTcs of Mount Collier: John E. 



Smith. 



Mount Collier is in Orange County, N. C, about 

 five miles west of Chapel Hill. It is typical of 

 those igneous monadnocks of the eastern Piedmont, 

 most of which rise to a common level about 200 

 feet above the peneplain. It was formerly much 

 higher and of greater extent: this is shown by the 

 position of parts of the mountain that have been 

 separated from it by erosion, also by the fact that 

 Ball Mountain, in Davidson and Rowan counties, 

 of similar rook and structure, has been cut by a 

 river (Yadkin) which flows through it. That the 

 upland level of the region is a peneplain is also 

 proved by the presence of smooth, rounded quartz 

 pebbles on this plain. The mountain consists 

 chiefly of dark rhyolite which made its way up- 

 ward along the contact between the ancient crystal- 

 line schists north of it and the granite on the 



south. On each of its slopes flow structure has 

 been observed in the weathered rock and in many 

 places where it is fresh. It is called Mount 

 Collier in honor of Professor Collier Cobb, who, in 

 1892, was the first to recognize its igneous origin. 

 (Specimens and structure sections were used in 

 presenting the paper.) 



Some Observations on the Med Cedar: H. E. 



TOTTEN. 



Juniperus virginiana is probably the only one of 

 the four eastern species of Juniperus growing in 

 North Carolina. Juniperus communis has been 

 credited to the state, but its presence is doubted. 

 The male and female flowers of Juniperus vir- 

 giniana are borne on separate trees. The time of 

 flowering is dependent upon the climate and 

 weather. The male trees begin blooming first and 

 the return of cold weather may delay the female 

 trees. In both the seasons 1914 and 1915 the male 

 trees began blooming nearly six weeks before the 

 female trees. The young "berry" is formed soon 

 after pollination by the growth and fusion of the 

 sporophylls about the ovule. Fertilization takes 

 place about the middle of June. The seeds are 

 matured in the first season. The species is very 

 variable in color and habit of growth, varying in 

 the neighborhood of Chapel Hill and Durham in 

 color from a glaucous to a deep green, and in 

 form from an open spreading tree to a close 

 spreading tree and to a narrow columnar tree. 

 Seasonal Distribution of the Army Worm Moth at 



Baleigh, N. C: C. S. Brimley. 



Gives the result of some observations on the 

 abundance of the army worm moth {Leueania 

 unipuncta) at Raleigh in 1914, determined by the 

 number caught on a number of nights in a 

 ' ' sugar ' '-baited moth trap. The observations be- 

 gan in mid-August, 1914, and have continued to 

 the present time, May 7, 1915. The full data will 

 appear in the current number of the Journal of the 

 Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society. 

 Significance of Gossypol in the Cotton Plant: 'F. 



E. Carruth. 



Gossypol, CiaHuO, (or possibly CjiHa^Oio) ac- 

 cording to Marchlewskii appears to be a dihydrie 

 (ortho) phenol. It occurs in peculiar glands, 

 "resin glands," in all parts of the cotton plant. 

 Its physiological significance is not clear. The 

 change in color of the cotton flower on aging is 

 probably due to it. It is a yellow substance, dis- 

 solving in H2SO4 with a red color and oxidizing 

 easily in alkaline solution with a deep blue color. 



1 J. Prakt. Chem., 1899, 60, p. 80. 



