622 
somewhat granular, fine, pinkish, translu- 
cent quartz, abundant; and greenish-black 
mica sparsely scattered in blotches made 
up of very fine flakes. In places thin, light 
green epidote-colored seams occur. 
“Though this granite may be somewhat 
difficult to obtain in dressable masses, it 
would probably make a very handsome and 
durable building and ornamental stone.” 
Cover and box were quarried from the 
same ledge of stone; in other words, the 
original was a monolith in the quarry. For 
ease of working, however, and in accord- 
ance with custom and usage, this mono- 
lith was cut up into pieces approximating 
to finished sizes before being sent from the 
quarry. About six months were needed to 
complete the work after it was begun. 
It its entirety the sarcophagus weighs 
seventeen thousand pounds; the largest 
piece weighs nine thousand pounds. Its en- 
tire length is ten feet four inches; it is five 
feet six inches wide and four feet eight 
inches deep. 
The pedestal on which it rests is made 
of dark gray granite from Quincey, Mass. 
A fragment of the sarcophagus, analyzed 
bythe writer, was found to have the fol- 
lowing composition : 
Per cent. 
Silica, SiO, 75.40 
Aluminum oxide, Al,O, 11.34 
Iron oxide, Fe,O, 4.16 
Calcium oxide, CaO 0.90 
Potassium oxide, K,O 6.44 
Sodium oxide, Na,O 1.76 
100.00. 
Its specific gravity (17.5°C.) is 2.635. 
The stone is a true granite, accepting as 
such granite having for its essential con- 
stituents quartz and potash feldspar. The 
feldspar is orthoclase, in which some of the 
potassium is replaced by sodium. 
Mausoleum and _ sarcophagus were 
erected under the direction of C. W. Can- 
SCIENCE. 
[N.S. Von. VI. No. 147. 
field, Esq., of the New England Monument 
Company, to whose courtesy the writer is 
indebted for the details given and for the 
fragment of the sarcophagus subjected to 
analysis. 
FERDINAND G. WIECHMANN. 
BOTANICAL NOTES. 
BOTANICAL ACTIVITY IN JAPAN. 
A RECENT bulletin of the Imperial Uni- 
versity of Tokyo (College of Agriculture 
Bull., Vol. I1I., No. 3) indicates a degree 
of activity in the study of botanical prob- 
lems which must challenge the respectful 
attention of botanists in Europe and Amer- 
ica. It is not too much to say that the 
papers which appear in this bulletin are of 
a higher order of merit than are the papers 
in most of the similar bulletins from Ameri- 
can universities, or colleges of agriculture. 
The titles alone are sufficient to indicate 
the high scientific value of the bulletin: 
‘On the origin of sake yeast (Saccharomyces 
sake),’ ‘Note on a grape wine fermented 
with sake yeast,’ ‘On the behavior of yeast 
at a high temperature,’ ‘ On two new kinds 
of red yeast,’ ‘On Brom-albumin and its ~ 
behavior to microbes,’ ‘On an important 
function of leaves,’ ‘On the behavior of ac- 
tive albumin as a reserve material during 
winter and spring,’ ‘On the physiological 
action of neutral sodium sulphite upon 
pheenogams,’ ‘On the poisonous action of 
ammonium salts upon plants.’ The most 
important paper is probably that by M. 
Suzuki on a function of leaves, in which 
the author summarizes the results of numer- 
ous experiments as follows: ‘‘ The conclu- 
sion seems justified that reserve proteids in 
the leaves are decomposed into amido-com- 
pounds during the night, and the latter are 
transported from the leaves to the other 
parts of the plant. The migration of amido- 
compounds appears to proceed rapidly, as I 
have found no large quantity in the leaves 
