564 



SCIENTIFIC NEW^S. 



[June 15, i5 



colour, but, on the other hand, gave him so strong a 

 resemblance to the young of the wild hog, which has the 

 same marking on a light ground, as to furnish the careful 

 observer with matter for thought, specially as science 

 does not confirm the suggestion of a very close relation- 

 ship between the tapir and the swine. The latest 

 arrangement places them in two very different classes of 

 mammals. In explanation of this apparent contradiction 

 it should be said here that the present members of the 

 two orders, which are distinguished by the formation of 

 the feet, are only the remnants of the numerous groups 

 of ungulate animals which existed in the earlier ages, 

 and are uninterruptedly connected by the species which 

 have died out. The habits of the tapir in the care of her 

 young are the same as those of the sow, the young tapir 

 sucking just as the little pig does, while the mother lies 

 on her side. Our artist has given us a very natural 

 representation of the young tapir with his parent. 



Our young tapir thrives under the care of his strong, 

 well-fed mother, and at a remarkably early age he gave 

 proof of his independence. Before he was a week old 

 he began to eat with old ones, adopting their quiet, 

 thoughtful manner, lo the delight of the public, when 

 tasting the bran, or slowly chewing a little clover hay, as 

 if trying it. As he grew, there was a perceptible change 

 in his appearance. In the fourth week his coat began to 

 thin out, so that the skin showed through it here and 

 there, and as the background became lighter, the spots 

 became quite indistinct, and then entirely disappeared. 

 As nearly as I could tell, the change was caused by the 

 light hair of the spots dropping out, and dark hair taking 

 its place. According to Renggar, the light marks will 

 entirely disappear in the third year. I trust that we 

 shall be able to test his assertion with our young tapir, 

 and his well-rounded body and gay movements at 

 twilight seem to give foundation for my hopes. — 

 Illustrirte Zeitung. 



PALLAS'S SAND GROUSE. 

 The numbers of Pallas's sand-grouse {Syrrhapies 

 paradoxus) which are now visiting this country are 

 far greater than might be supposed from the few in- 

 stances already recorded in our columns, and it is 

 greatly to be regretted that the same stupid slaughter of 

 these curious birds which was carried on during the 

 great visitation of 1863 should now be persisted in. 

 Those ornithologists who wish to protect the strangers 

 will do best by not revealing, at least for the present, 

 the localities they affect, as thereby the attention of those 

 who cater for that pestilent person the " collector of 

 British birds " is attracted, and the birds are shot. The 

 German Government, it is said, has taken steps to pro- 

 hibit the destruction of sand-grouse, and the probability 

 is that they will in consequence establish themselves in 

 many of the sandy tracts of the Empire, breeding there 

 as they did in Denmark and in Holland in 1863. Unfor- 

 tunately no such prohibition is possible in the British 

 Islands ; but landed proprietors might afford protection 

 quite as eflfectual by ordering their gamekeepers not only 

 to spare the birds they may see, but also to forbid pur- 

 suit on the part of others. For this purpose the Wild 

 Birds' Protection Act gives them authority, and, ridi- 

 culous though its penalties are, compared with the 

 market value of the spoil, sufficient inconvenience may 

 be caused to those who contravene its provisions to make 

 them cautious, while the arm of the law might even 

 reach the " collector," on whose behalf the slaughter is 



committed. The historian of the irruption of 1863 

 spoke in strong terms of the utter disgust with which he 

 regarded the wanton massacre which was then perpe- 

 trated, and of how it had made the collecting and 

 arranging of materials for his account, which, though a 

 laborious, would have been otherwise a congenial task, 

 from beginning to end irksome to him ; and equally 

 irksome from the same reason, it is to be feared, will be 

 the task of him who has to compile an account of the 

 present visitation, for hitherto from Kent to Aberdeen- 

 shire comes the same cruel story of blood. — Times. 



A living specimen of Pallas's sand-grouse (syrrhaptes 

 paradoxus), the new visitor from Central Asia, has been 

 presented to the Zoological Society by Mr. H. Hewat 

 Crane, of West Foulden, Berwick-on-Tweed. It was 

 captured at that place on May 25th. 



The Smallest Plant in the World. — The smallest 

 flowering plant in existence is Wolffia microscopica, a 

 native of India. It belongs to the natural order Lem- 

 naceas, or the duckweed family. It is almost microscopic 

 in size, destitute of proper stem, leaves and roots, but 

 having these organs merged in one, forming a frond. 

 There is, however, a prolongation of the lower surface 

 into a kind of rhizoid, the purpose of which seems to be 

 to enable the plant to float upright in the water. The 

 fronds multiply asexually by sending out other fronds 

 from a basilar slit, or concavity, and with such rapidity 

 does this take place that a few days often suffice to pro- 

 duce from a few individuals enough similar ones to 

 cover many square rods of pond surface with the minute 

 green granules. But small as these plants are, and 

 simple in their structure, they yet produce flowers. Two 

 flowers are produced on a plant, each of them very 

 simple, one consisting of a single stamen, and the other 

 of a single pistil, both of which burst through the upper 

 surface of the frond. There are two species of this 

 genus growing in the Eastern United States, one of them, 

 JVo/ffia Columbiana, about i-2Sth of an inch in diameter, 

 and the other, W. Brasiliensis, somewhat smaller in size. 

 The American species has been collected near Phila- 

 delphia. — Scientific American. 



Reproduction of P.a.rts of Plants. — Prof. F. W. C. 

 Areschony explains, in the Botanisches Centralblatt, the 

 tendency of some parts of plants to produce leaf-buds 

 and stems, and of others to produce roots, or, of the 

 same parts, sometimes to produce leaf-buds, at other 

 times roots, by the hypothesis that leaf-buds are pro- 

 duced by those parts where there is a larger accumula- 

 tion of nutrient material, roots by those parts where the 

 supply is smaller, stems requiring a larger amount cf 

 nutriment than roots in consequence of their larger size 

 and greater complexity of structure. This is illustrated 

 by the well-known fact that in trees the strongest 

 branches always spring, not from the lower, but from 

 the upper part of the previous year's shoot, where there 

 is a larger supply of nutriment. Again, leaves in which 

 the supply of food material is limited can, as a rule, 

 produce adventitious roots only ; but occasionally leaf- 

 buds on their basal portion. 



The Maize Caterpillar. — According to M. Laboul- 

 bene the crops of maize in France are being seriously 

 damaged by the caterpillar of a small moth, Boiys 

 Ntibilalis. It attacks the interior of the stalks, and rarely 



