Apeil 30, 1897.] 



SGIENGE. 



made with the head of some famous warrior 

 was believed to confer on women the possi- 

 bility of similarly heroic offspring ! 



THE PRE- HISTORY OF NORTHERN EUROPE. 



Man first entered northern Europe in 

 "the Neolithic period ; but that period, for 

 that locality, is divided into an older epoch, 

 when flint implements were not polished, 

 iind a later, when they were polished. 

 The first of these was the age of the oldest 

 Danish kitchen-middens ; the oak was 

 .abundant there and in Scandinavia ; but 

 the men of the time did not carry on agri- 

 culture. The climate was warmer than it 

 had been since. This epoch closed about 

 3000 B. C. 



About that time the cultivation of barley 

 and wheat was introduced, polished flint 

 implements were manufactured, the beech 

 began to abound, and the later refuse heaps 

 and the dolmens were constructed. The 

 distribution of this early culture indicates 

 that it approached the north of Europe 

 from the Iberian peninsula and probably 

 from North Africa. 



Such are the conclusions reached by Dr. 

 E. H. L. Krause, in Glohus, Ed. LXXI., No. 

 9, from the works of Andersson, Montelius 

 and Meitzen. 



D. G. Brinton. 



University of Pennsylvania. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 



HOW flowers ATTRACT INSECTS. 



Professor VtiAs. Plateau, of Ghent, has 

 l)een making further careful experiments in the 

 open air to determine what part the corolla and 

 ■other conspicuous parts of the inflorescence of 

 flowers hear in attracting insects, and has 

 reached some results strikingly at variance with 

 generally received opinions. 



His first series of experiments (see Science, 

 N. S., III., 474) were made on composite flow- 

 ■ers with radiate inflorescence and resulted in 

 the conclusion that their form and color play 

 aio part in attracting insects, these being guided 



by some other sense than sight — probably by 

 odor. 



In a second series he mutilated flowers of 

 Lobelia, CEnothera, Ipomaea, Delphinum, Cen- 

 taurea, Digitalis and Antirrhinum, with a wholly 

 similar result, viz, to show that the colored or- 

 gans of these flowers play a very unimportant 

 role. 



Further experiments, related in a third 

 paper, lead him to make the following state- 

 ments as their conclusion : 



1. That insects show the most complete indif- 

 ference for the difierent colors which flowers 

 of the same species or of the same genus may 

 present. 



2. That. they fly unhesitatingly toward flow- 

 ers habitually neglected by them on account of 

 their total lack or small supply of nectar, the 

 moment one places in them an artificial nectar, 

 represented by honey. 



3. That they cease their visits to flowers 

 from which the nectiferous portions have been 

 eliminated (but in which the inflorescence re- 

 mains intact) and that they renew their visits 

 if one afterward replaces the eliminated nectar 

 by honey. 



The details of these experiments and obser- 

 vations are given with the utmost care and 

 their importance cannot be questioned. The 

 results are published in the Bulletin of the Bel- 

 gian Academy. 



SCIENTIFIC EXHIBITS OP THE GOVERNMENT AT 

 THE TENNESSEE EXPOSITION. 



Dr. "W. F. Morsell writes that the govern- 

 ment scientific exhibits for the Tennessee Expo- 

 sition, which opens on May 1st, are well ad- 

 vanced. Exhibits will be made by the National 

 Museum, taken from its numerous departments, 

 and the Smithsonian Institution will include in 

 the complete set of its publications the book 

 prepared in celebration of its semi-centennial. 

 The Bureau of International Exchanges will 

 show the extent of its work, and astronomical 

 photographs will be sent from the Astrophysical 

 Observatory. The Zoological Park will send a 

 model of the Park about seven feet square, and 

 the Bureau of American Ethnology will present 

 a Kiowa camping circle. 



The exhibit of the United States Geological 



