3^0 



SCIEMTIFIC NE\^^S. 



[April 57, lE 



is most probable that when the tubuli are so excessively 

 fine> the protoplasm is exuded in a gelatinous mass around 

 the exterior of the shell, and may from that break up 

 intb filaments. 



Having referred to some of the fundamental details of 

 the order, we now proceed to notice briefly examples from 

 some genera the most noteworthy, or whose shells pre- 

 dominate in accumulations formed by them. 



The first genus which we have selected is Biloculina, 

 where the contour of only two of the chambers appears 

 at the surface. The shells of the Milioline Foraminifera 

 consist of more or less hemispherical chambers wrapped 

 round an imaginary axis, and divided from each other by 

 a constriction only, at each end of their length. They 

 also have a shelly projection, termed the tongue or 

 valve, within the aperture, joined to the inner side. 

 Biloculina ringcns, Lam. sp. (fig. 3), is a form to be 

 found in recent shore gatherings from our own coasts, 

 and which has been obtained elsewhere from the depth of 

 3,000 fathoms. It also occurs fossil in the crag beds of Suf- 

 folk, and in the Eocenes of the Paris Basin. The next ex- 

 ample, Spiroloculina liinbata, d'Orb. (fig.4), taken from a 

 specimen found near Alexandria at 30 fathoms, occurs 

 frequently at slight depths in the Mediterranean and 

 elsewhere. The shells of this genus consist of Milioline 

 chambers coiled in a plane, so that the full number of 

 chambers is apparent on both the upper and lower faces. 

 The form selected from the genus Miliolina is M. 

 seininuhtiH, Linne sp. (fig. 5), a very variable shell, and 

 one of the most abundant in the tide pools of our coast. 

 The illustration gives the extreme discoid or broad form ; 

 gradations may be noticed in this type passing from the 

 broad shell into the narrow M. oblonga, of Montagu. 

 M. semimdiim has also been found in many fossil de- 

 posits of Pliocene and Eocene ages. In the next genus 

 taken, Vertebralina, the first formed chambers take the 

 arrangement of a Milioline form, but subsequently in the 

 last two or three chambers the latter are joined end-wise 

 in a single series. The aperture is a narrow slit travers- 

 ing the width of the latest-formed chamber. The ex- 

 ample taken is V. striata, d'Orb. (fig. 6), a shell found in 

 warm latitudes, distinguished by the beautiful longitudi- 

 nal striations commonly seen on its surface. It is essen- 

 tially a shallow-water form, and has been found in British 

 waters. The characters of Cornuspira are a cylindrical 

 shell wound spirally on a plane not chambered and pos- 

 sessing a single aperture. The genus Ophthalmidium forms 

 a link between this genus and the Miliolines, in that it pos- 

 sesses a shell like that of Cornuspira, but with partial 

 septa at intervals. In C. involvens, Reuss (fig. 7), which 

 is more frequent in moderately shallow than in deep 

 water, we have a form which is shghtly concave on both 

 surfaces, and with the successive whorls impressed upon 

 the preceding ones. In Peneroplis,the disposition of the 

 chambers is at first spiral, which afterwards may be con- 

 tinued in a straight line. A common example is P. per- 

 tusus, Forsk. (fig. 8), abundant in the Mediterranean and 

 elsewhere, in which the flat spiral form rapidly widens 

 out, so that the latest portion can curve over to join 

 the early spiral portion. The pseudopodia are protruded 

 from a series of apertures perforating the septal wall of 

 the last chamber. 



{To be continued.) 



Science in Russia. — The Russian Government has 

 established a zoological station in the Bay of Villafranca. 



THE CLOUDINESS OF THE SKY AND 

 THE PRODUCTS OF THE LAND. 



del et Terre gives an abstract of an interesting commu- 

 nication on this important subject lately made by M. 

 Renan to the Meteorological Society of France. The 

 cloudiness of the sky, unfortunately too much ignored in 

 many observatories, is an extremely important factor in 

 the growth of crops. Everyone knows that for some forty 

 years severe maladies have attacked plants, especially 

 the potato and the vine. 



These diseases have for their primary cause the abuse 

 of cultivation, the excess of production, but like all in- 

 fectious and epidemic maladies, they are propagated by 

 organic germs which have existed at all times, but which 

 have been developed in an extraordinary manner under 

 the influence of certain atmospheric excesses. 



Attempts have been made to find the cause of the mis- 

 chief in the extreme and the mean temperatures, but no 

 satisfactory conclusion has been reached. Thus the 

 seasons 1838 to 1845 have been very bad ; their mean 

 temperature 10-2° C, as registered at the Observatory of 

 Paris, being o'S" below the normal mean, which is very 

 striking for a series of eight consecutive years. But it 

 would not be difficult to find other series of years as 

 bad, for instance the eight years 1809-1816, which, not- 

 withstanding the intervention oi an uncommonly hot 

 year(i8ii), shows a mean of only io'3°. The year 

 181 1, moreover, though meteorologically splendid, was 

 like 1846 a year of great dearth. 



The cause of agricultural disasters must not be sought 

 for in the temperatures, but in the cloudiness of the sky. 



In the eight years 1809-1816 this nebulosity was 65 (if 

 100 be taken to represent a sky entirely overcast), whilst 

 the cloudiness of the year 181 6 reached the exceptional 

 figure of 71. 



In 1838 to 1845 the mean nebulosity was 70 ; but the 

 most remarkable feature of this term is the cloudiness of 



July. 



The mean cloudiness of this month is well known. ■ 

 According to the observations of 120 years it is 52 ; in 

 the 39 years from 1846 to 1884 it is also 52. At the 

 Park St. Maur, near Paris, where M. Renan has his 

 observatory, it is 51 for the 14 years 1873-1876. But 

 the mean cloudiness of the six July's 1840-1845 was 

 72-5°, which is the ordinary figure for January. 



Here, we cannot doubt, is the true cause of parasitic 

 diseases due to the exceptional lack of sunshine during 

 the principal summer month in these unhappy years. 



The Baku Naphtha Springs.— Although within the last 

 two years intelligence has frequently reached Europe of ex- 

 traordinary outbursts of mineral oil on the Apsheron penin- 

 sula, near Baku, nothing has yet equalled the astonishing 

 outbreak which the Northern Telegraph Agency telegraphed 

 some time ago. Their telegram was to the effect that near the 

 petroleum works of a certain M. Arafeloff a fountain of oil 

 was throwing out over 2,400 tons daily, that this had been con- 

 tinuing without intermission for four weeks, and that more 

 than the half of this enormous output was going to waste. 

 It is to this loss of the oil that attention is now being directed. 

 Not only at Arafeloff's fountain, but at almost every large 

 fountain in the Balakan-Sabuntchin district the waste of this 

 most valuable product has been enormous. Millions of poods 

 of oil have been lost owing to the inefficient way in which 

 it is reservoired and stored. It is now understood that the 

 Government will take immediate steps to prevent this ruinous 

 waste and to compel the owners of oilsprings to adopt more 

 scientific methods of boring, collecting, and storing. — Times. 



