480 Notes and Memoranda. 



members (? bacteriums), tbis pellicle fructifies in the form of Penicillium. Many 

 yeast cells fall to the bottom, and they can be made to fructify as Mucor or 

 jPenicillium, if placed on pieces of potato. Heating the liquid to 60° or 74° (C.) 

 arrests the fermentation for some days, after which it takes place feebly, and 

 many of the cells fructify in the bacillar form. After exposure to a still higher 

 temperature the yeast loses its faculty of inducing fermentation, but can still 

 produce a pellicle. 84° (C.) destroys its vitality altogether, unless it is heated in a 

 dry state, when it can Burvive a temperature not exceeding 150°, and still pro- 

 duce a feeble fermentation. At 215° it loses this property, but still produces 

 the pellicle. Similar results followed the application of creosote, chloroform 

 and sulphuric acid in appropriate doses. 



A New Glow-worm, with two Tires, has been found in the Grand Chaco, 

 Argentine Republic. Wm. Perkins, Esq., F.R.G.S., writes from Rosario, October 

 20, 1866, to Wm. Bollaert, Esq., F.R.G.S. : — "I think I have made a discovery 

 in natural history, and which you may mate known to the scientific world. 1 

 found the female of the most extraordinary JSlateride ever heard of, at least that 

 I know off. It is a most brilliant glow-worm, one inch and a half long, with 

 two eires. The body emits a most vivid flame of the ordinary greenish phos- 

 phorescent colour, while the head presents the appearance of a bright glowing 

 red coal of fire. The reflection on a piece of paper is also of the two colours. I 

 never saw anything so beautiful." Mr. Bollaert adds : " This is doubtless one 

 of the Cocuyos family. One, the Pyrophorus noctilucus, is described as the 

 South American Cocuyo, or glow-worm. Mr. Bollaert has noticed glow-worms 

 in the West Indies, TSorth and South America, but never in such abundance and 

 beauty as in the wilds of Western Texas, still he never observed but the one 

 light, the green." 



Geology op the Parana. — Mr. Perkins writes also to Mr. Bollaert: "You 

 know how completely alluvial is all the littoral to the west of the Parana. From 

 Santa Fe up to the Bermejo, the right side of the Parana is bordered to a strip of 

 low alluvial land from two to five leagues in breadth. Then come the high 

 harrancos of the Chaco, also alluvial, not a stone to be found from Rosario to the 

 Bermejo ; no clay neither. Well, I found, running in a direction S.E. and N.W. 

 across the low lands mentioned, a large formation of conglomerate of agates and 

 red clay, the latter of a brilliant colour, soft and homogeneous. The formation, 

 where I found it, crossed the San Javier river, iu latitude 29° 11' S. At the town of 

 San Javier, where the river of the same name approaches, the high banks (80 feet 

 high) of the lowlands, I found, at the depth of 90 feet, a bright red coarse sand 

 that was going through the process of hardening into stone. I also found large 

 numbers of old oyster shells, with very brilliant colouring inside. They seemed 

 to me so similar to the pearl oysters I have seen at Parana and the , Gulf of 

 Guaymas, that I made minute inquiries of some old Indians in the town of San 

 Javier. They said that little stones had been found in the shells in former times. 

 I had to take the information for what it was worth. The wonderful shell forma- 

 tion at Parana, where we found them in the gradations from a perfect shell to a 

 finished formation of fine limestone, does not leave us any room for surprise at 

 finding them a couple of degrees further north." 



H* Bootis and ( Aqttarii, Secchi's Measures. — Our attention lias been 

 called to the probability that the distance of the first of these stars as lately given 

 by Secchi is too much. Mr. Webb finds it easier to divide than y 2 Andromedae, 

 which he ascribes to the size of the disks. In 1864, Mr. Knott's measure of 

 H* Bootis was 0""5 ; and in 1865, Mr. Dawes made it 0"'48. We are asked, but 

 cannot tell, what Secehi means by the note he makes against this star, " Non e ben 

 certo, qual sia delle due pare 2 1938." Mr. Knott thinks there may be a misprint 

 in Secchi's position of ( Aquarii, which he makes 347°'83. Mr. Knott finds it 

 337 Ol 01 D. 3"-644. 



