24 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



The Canadian Entomologist. Vol. xxvii., 

 No. 2. February, 1895 (London, Ontario). — The 

 article on The Coleoptera of Canada is continued bv 

 Mr. H F. Wickham. the Cucujidse of Ontario and 

 Quebec being treated with illustrations. Prof. T. 

 D. A. Cockerell, of Las Cruces, New Mexico, has 

 an article on Canadian Coccidn. 



Journal of the Trinidad Field-Naturalists' 



Club (Port of Spain). — The first dozen pages are 

 devoted to an obituary notice, with portrait, of the 

 late president, Dr. Thomas Beaven Rake, M.D. 

 (Lond.), who so sadly died from yellow fever, as 

 already stated in Science-Gossip, on August 24th 

 last, the day of the annual meeting of the society. 

 At the meeting of the Club on October 5th, 

 Mr. Urich read an interesting paper on The Habits 

 of Fungus-Groning Ants, referring to seven species 

 represented by the genera Atta, Apterostigma and 

 Sericomyrmex. Mr. A. B. Carr clears up the 

 mystery of the author of the sad and weird night - 

 call of "Poor me one" heard from February to 

 June. It has hitherto been attributed to the small 

 ant-eater (Cyclothurus didactylus). He, however, 

 watched and caught "'Poor me one" in the act, 

 which, when shot, turned out to be a large goat- 

 sucker {Xyetbius jamaicensis), a strictly nocturnal 

 bird feeding on night beetles, the large fire-fly being 

 its chief victim. 



Bulletin of the Botanical Department, 

 Jamaica. Vol. I., parts x., xi., xii., and vol. II., 

 part i. — The end of Vol. I. covers the three parts 

 for October, November and December, 1894, and 

 is devoted to Notes on the Most Interesting Plants 

 in Castleton Gardens. The gardens are now about 

 thirty years old, but as botanical gardens are com- 

 paratively in their infancy. Still they contain 

 much of interest. They are now the only grounds 

 of that character in Jamaica, as the old garden at 

 Bath is nearly abandoned as a botanical establish- 

 ment. Castleton is nineteen miles from Kingston, 

 the drive there being full of beauty, and through 

 most characteristic scenery of the island. The 

 marvellous variety of the tropical vegetation is 

 simply bewildering ; groves of bread-fruit trees 

 with their handsome foliage, clumps of feathery 

 bamboos, rows of bananas, tobacco fields and hill- 

 sides covered with patches of yams, sugar-cane, 

 cocoa, coffee, cocoanut palms, etc. Such a prospect 

 and association of plant-life makes one long to 

 visit the spot. Among the plants described as 

 growing in the gardens is the now familiar 

 Aruacavia imbruata, or monkey-puzzle, and an 

 account is given of its discovery. Just a hundred 

 years ago the great navigator Vancouver was 

 returning home from the north-west coast of 

 America, and put into Valparaiso. He was enter- 

 tained by the Viceroy of Chili, when Menzies, the 

 botanist of the expedition, found at dessert some 

 unfamiliar nuts, which he pocketed. On the 

 voyage home he raised five seedlings from some of 

 these, the produce being the monkey-puzzle pine, 

 which was thus introduced to Europe and science. 



These parts of the Bulletin are full of interest, and 

 compiled with judgment in view of popularising an 

 interest in the scientific study of plants and trees 

 and the botanical gardens generally. In a pleasant 

 manner one hundred and nine different kinds of 

 plants are discussed, especially from the point of 

 view public utility. The opportunities in Jamaica 

 for successfullv conducting botanical gardens are 

 of the greatest, and the administration is evidently 

 doing good work in not only popularising the subject . 

 but in distributing plants of economic value, with 

 the object of encouraging their growth in the island. 

 The January number of the "Bulletin" for this 

 year contains an article on Caterpillars attacking 

 Cocoa Trees, a plague of that kind having mani- 

 fested itself in one district of the island. The 

 spread of this destructive species (Theobroma cocas) 

 would be most disastrous. In an epidemic of 

 caterpillars of a large moth (Entrkha punctata) 

 infesting pine-trees (Pinus sinensis), at Hong Kong, 

 rewards were paid for the caterpillars, which 

 were collected by shaking the trees and picking 

 them up from the ground with pincers or gloved 

 fingers. Some extent of the trouble may be 

 gathered from the fact that 60,000 catties, or nearly 

 thirty-six tons, were brought in to the police stations, 

 and a further 5.000 catties of cocoons. The cattyruns 

 to about 500 larvae or 800 cocoons. Thus rewards 

 were paid for the enormous number of 35,000,000, 

 which were destroyed by immersion in either boil- 

 ing- or sea-water, after which they were carefully 

 buried for sanitary reasons. Prof. T. D. A. 

 Cockerell continues his Notes on Coccida or Scale- 

 insects of Jamaica, reaching the thirty-fourth 

 species. The correspondence upon the use of 

 bananas for meal and flour is continued. 



La Nature Paris, February 2nd, 9th, iGth and 

 23rd). — Mons. J. Deniker describes some Flying 

 Crustacea, illustrated by three beautiful drawings. 

 These interesting animalculse were found to be 

 Pontellina mediterranca , and were first observed to 

 have the power of flying by Dr. Ostroomouff, a 

 Prussian naturalist, who found them on the 

 Crimean coast in the Black Sea. An Ascent of 

 The Sacred Mountain of Fuji-Yama, in Japan, is 

 described by Mons. Albert Tessandier, who gives 

 an illustration showing the side of the crater with 

 its curious formation in columns, not unlike our 

 Giants' Causeway. In the issue of February 9th. 

 Mons. Oustalet describes a fine living specimen of 

 the snow leopard, or ounce, now in the Jardin des 

 Plantes, in Paris. The handsome illustration 

 indicates an animal which appears to be less 

 spotted than the specimen recently added to our 

 own Zoological Gardens. The well-worn subject 

 of Photography in Colours is again attacked. M. G. 

 Mareschal treating upon further attempts in this 

 direction. On February 16th, Mons. H. M. Villon 

 scientifically discusses The Decomposition of Butter, 

 and the preservation of the same useful article. 

 He illustrates the microbes which tend to make 

 butter rancid, and also a cryptogamic fungus or 

 mould which appears on butter in its decaying 

 stages. He points out that the rancidity of butter 

 is due to man\- causes : first is the action of 

 oxygen in the air. when the butter is exposed to 

 light, which saponifies the fatty matter and 

 decomposes it into its elements, these being 

 combined into various oxides ; secondly, by the 

 action of microscopical organisms, microbes, and 

 crypt ogamia such as Pencillum, Ovlium laetis and 

 Oleorum mkroclodus, which saponify the butter in 

 the manner of oxygen and light. 



