38 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XV. No. 363 



NOTES AND NEWS. 

 A NEW Stamp-cancelling machine is being tried in the Phila- 

 delphia post-office. It is operated by electricity, and is said to 

 cancel the stamps on letters at the rate of 25,000 per hour, auto- 

 matically registering the number cancelled. 



— The death of Prof. Lorenzo Respighi, Director of the Osser- 

 vatorio Campidoglio, Rome, which occurred on Dec. 10, is a great 

 loss to science. 



— Mr. Robert T. Hill has resigned the position of assistant pro- 

 fessor of geology in the University of Texas, in order to devote his 

 attention solely to geological investigations. 



— An attempt is being made to secure the erection of an inter- 

 national monument to James Watt at Greenock, his birthplace. It 

 is proposed that the memorial shall be a large and thoroughly 

 equipped technical school. 



— The. Detroit Jotirnal Ati\x&i to receive, by postal card, the 

 address of all living male and female descendants of Revolutionary 

 officers and soldiers of 1776, and, when possible, the name and 

 State of the ancestor. 



— Dr. Sargent, Professor of Physical Culture at Harvard, utters 

 a word of caution about over-exercise. He says, according to The 

 Medical and Surgical Reporter, ihsXXhostviho have been most 

 successful in heavy gymnastics are also subject to nervous com- 

 plaints. 



— The "Annual Catalogue" for 1889-90 is sent this year to 

 every graduate of Harvard College whose address is known. The 

 annual reports of the president and treasurer are sent regularly to 

 every graduate who has informed the secretary of the university 

 that he desires to receive them. Graduates are requested to advise 

 the secretary of changes in their addresses. 



— Test borings recently made on the line of the Nicaragua Ca- 

 nal show that the entire divide to be traversed by the deep cut 

 consists of solid basalt, at least to a depth of 165 feet, as far as the 

 borings extended. This is a most favorable showing for the con- 

 struction company, as it settles at once the important question of 

 slopes in the greater part of the cut. 



— An article on the new plants introduced into cultivation 

 during the year just past appears in Garden and Forest for Jan- 

 uary 8th, and in the same number Mr. Geo. Nicholson continues 

 his description of the gardens of the Riviera. One phase of the 

 national forest problem is discussed editorially, and a novel theory 

 of the function of the so-called " knees " of the Bald Cypress is set 

 forth in a communication from Dr. Robert H. Lamborn. 



— At a recent meeting of the Photographic Society of Geneva, 

 Switzerland, Professor H. Fol presented a paper on resemblances in 

 married couples. According to the British Journal of Photogra- 

 phy, he stated that, out of seventy-eight young couples photo- 

 graphed for the purpose of his investigations, he found that in 

 twenty-four cases the resemblance in the personal appearance of 

 the husband and wife was greater than that of brother and sister, 

 in thirty cases it was equally great, and in only twenty-four was 

 there a total absence of resemblance. 



— The Meteorological Summary for the Year 1889, prepared by 

 Professor F. H. Snow, of the University of Kansas, from observa- 

 tions taken at Lawrence, shows that the most notable meteorologi- 

 cal features of the year 1889 were the remarkable absence of 

 extremes of heat and cold, resulting in a very mild winter and a 

 very cool summer; the abundant and well-distributed rainfall, 

 making this one of the three wettest years on the twenty-two years 

 record; the phenomenally warm December, whose mean tempera- 

 ture was six and one-half degrees above that of November ; the 

 low wind velocity ; the small amount of snow ; and the unusual 

 number of fogs, averaging a little more than two per month. 



— The attention of graduates of Harvard University is invited to 

 the fact that for several years the secretary of the university has 

 voluntarily acted as a medium of communication between persons 

 seeking to secure educated young men to assist them in teaching, 

 professional work, or business, and students or graduates of the 

 university desirous of obtaining such employment. For this pur- 

 pose the secretary keeps a list of graduates engaged in teaching, 



another of students about to graduate who wish employment im- 

 mediately thereafter, and a third of students who desire temporary 

 work in summer vacations. The results have been satisfactory,, 

 except in respect to obtaining advantageous summer employment 

 for students. From one to two hundred students apply for sum- 

 mer work each spring, but a comparatively small number obtain it 

 through the secretary's aid. The co-operation of the alumni is in- 

 vited in all three branches of this work. 



— Dr. Hadjime Watanabe, an official of the Japanese agricul- 

 tural service, delivered an interesting address on the chrysanthemum' 

 at the recent celebration in Berlin of the centennial of the plant's 

 introduction into European cultivation. According to the report 

 of his words published in Garden and Forest, the Japanese divide 

 chrysanthemums into two groups, " nogiku " or wild single, and 

 " niwagiku " or double cultivated flowers; and the latter are sub- 

 divided into four kinds — the ordinary autumn-blooming sorts, the 

 summer-blooming, the winter-blooming, and those which bear 

 flowers at all four seasons. The single flower is not neglected by 

 the horticulturist, but is prized for its very simplicity, and is usually 

 planted at the foot of rocks, intermingled with grasses, to give a 

 landscape design a naturaUstic air. In treating the double-flowered 

 plant when it is desired to produce individual flowers of the largest 

 possible size, then all the branches but one are gradually removed, 

 and on this one only an isolated blossom is allowed to mature. 

 On the other hand, when as many flowers as possible are sought 

 without regard to conspicuous size, the main stem is brought to the 

 greatest possible development, and all its branches are preserved 

 until the blooming season arrives, when, if some show no buds, 

 they are cut away. The sturdiest possible plants are chosen for 

 this purpose, and the speaker referred to some upon which more 

 than three hundred flowers had been counted. Two forms are in 

 favor for these many-flowered " kikus," one of which gets its name 

 from its resemblance to a thick broom, while the other is a rriore" 

 artificial, fan-like shape. A Japanese proverb says " it is easy to 

 grow the flowers of the kiku, but difficult to grow its leaves," and 

 the speaker declared that the plants are judged from this stand- 

 point. The amateur's chrysanthemums are usually " very poor 

 and faulty in foliage, although they may bear fine flowers ; but 

 those which one sees at an ' art-gardener's' are clothed from top to 

 bottom with leaves regularly disposed and of a beautiful fresh 

 color." The most common method of propagating the plant is by 

 root-division, but several others are employed. In one, a single 

 leaf with a bud at its base is plucked, lightly covered with earth 

 and laid in a shady place, where it eventually takes root. Garden- 

 ers who own rare varieties therefore forbid the visitor a near ap- 

 proach to their plants, as it would be easy to pick a leaf of the 

 proper kind and conceal it in the pocket for future planting. 



— The question of the relative food value of dried corn fodder 

 and of corn silage has been much discussed, and, judging from the 

 fact that the discussion still continues, has not yet reached its 

 final solution. One important element in determining this ques- 

 tion is the relative percentage digestibility of the fodders, that is, 

 the proportion of the ingredients of each one which the animal fed 

 upon them is able to utilize. Some recent experiments conducted 

 by H. P. Armsby and W. H. Caldwell at the Pennsylvania State 

 College Agricultural Station are a contribution to this branch of 

 the question. The material used in this experiment was ordinary 

 field corn fed to two Devon steers. The corn was prepared in 

 three different ways, — as rapid-filled silage, slow-filled silage, and 

 field-cured fodder. As a result of the experiment, it was found 

 that the dry matter of the field-cured fodder was more digestible 

 than that of the rapid-filled silage, and this again was more di- 

 gestible than that of the slow-filled silage. The digestibility of the 

 albuminoids and of the total protein is very nearly the same in the 

 fodder and the silage. These results do not show the effect of the 

 process of ensilage upon the digestibility of green fodder, but only 

 the difference in the final effects of two processes for preserving 

 fodder. The digestibility of the green material was not deter- 

 mined, but in all similar investigations the digestibility of the freshly 

 cut fodder has been invariably found to be greater than that of the 

 same fodder after being subjected to the ordinary processes of 

 curing. In all probability, therefore, the freshly cut corn fodder 



