158 Scientific Intelligence. 



the iron is clearly of granitic origin and large blocks of tourma- 

 liniferous granite occur close by one of the points where iron was 

 found. No evidence of the existence of basic eruptive rocks 

 such as are required by the hypothesis that the iron is similar in 

 origin to that of Ovifak could be found in the vicinity, though 

 from the lack of rock exposures, the depth of the soil cap and 

 the thick covering of second growth timber, it cannot be posi- 

 tively affirmed that none such exist. On the whole the evidence, 

 though not conclusive, is in favor of the meteoric rather than 

 the terrestrial origin of the iron. About 25000 kilograms are 

 reported to have been shipped to England to be smelted for 

 nickel. The only fragments to be found at present are almost 

 entirely reduced to the state of oxide. — (Luiz F. Gonzaga de 

 Compos in Revisto de Observatorio of Rio de Janeiro). 



11. The JBendego Meteorite. — This famous mass of iron was 

 landed in Rio de Janeiro June 15th, and is now in the National 

 Museum of that city. The transportation over 115 kilometers of 

 mountainous country to the nearest railroad station was directed 

 by Chevelier Jose Carlos de Carvalho in the name of the Socie- 

 dade de Geographia de Rio de Janeiro, the necessary funds, 

 amounting to about $10,000, being generously furnished by 

 Baron Guahy. The weight verified on the scales of the Bahia 

 R. R. is 5,361 kilograms. The comparative thickness of the 

 crust of oxide formed since the first attempt to remove it in 1785, 

 and that found in the original resting place, afford a basis for a 

 rough guess at its age which may safely be put down as over six 

 centuries. 



III. Botany. 



Notices of recent contributions to Vegetable Physiology. — (For 

 other recent papers, bearing more particularly on the vegetable 

 cell, see this Journal, March, 1888). 



(1) A. JET. de Vries^s studies of Glycerin in its relations to certain 

 tissues. — In Botan. Zeitung for April 1888, this investigator pub- 

 lishes a few notes in regard to the absorption of glycerin by veg- 

 etable cells, which have a high degree of interest for all who are 

 in the way of examining the behavior of cells when placed in 

 this medium. It was shown by Klebs last year that this sub- 

 stance is very easily taken up by the cells of living Zygnema, 

 diffusing with facility into their interior. Moreover it was pointed 

 out by Arthur Meyer in 1886, that when the green parts of plants 

 are placed in glycerin it is possible for them to produce starch 

 therefrom, a fact of great importance in view of the fact that 

 glucose has been synthetically produced from glycerin-aldehyd 

 (Fischer and Tafel, 1887). But, as is well known, glycerin is a 

 powerful plasmolytic, acting in a 10 per cent solution to cause 

 distinct contraction, and even in a much more dilute solution act- 

 ing more or less plainly. After an hour or so, the contraction 

 diminishes gradually and finally passes away, while in a solution 

 of 5 per cent, growth takes place, and the Zygnema remains fresh 

 and healthy even for four months in the dark. 



