Miscellaneous Intelligence. 489 



It is known that under the influence of dryness, the lignified 

 walls of cells contract less than do those which are unlignified. 

 The unequal contraction of these different cells, as the anther 

 approaches maturity, brings about a definite shrinking of the 

 membrane in such a way as to break the loculus open in a deter- 

 minate line of dehiscence. Some of the instances of adaptation 

 adduced by the author are almost as striking as those which 

 have long been known to occur in our dry fruits. G. l. g. 



8. Influence of strong sunlight on the vitality of Micrococcus. 

 M. Duclaux (Comptes Rendus, ci, p. 395). — Six forms of Micrococ- 

 cus were placed under conditions most favorable to their rapid de- 

 velopment in culture fluids, etc. In most cases exposure to 

 sunlight for a few hours completely arrested all activity, and after 

 fifteen to twenty hours all vitality was destroyed. G. l. g. 



9. On the Histology of Ascidia. — Heckel and Jules Cha- 

 reyre have reexamined the internal face of the pitchers of some 

 of the species of Sarracenia, Nepenthes, etc. They recognize the 

 existence of four regions of peculiar structure, all of which, as 

 previously shown by Hooker, are concerned in the entrapping 

 and probable utilization of insects. In the last paper by these 

 investigators they state that the bottom of the pitcher of Cepha- 

 lotus fascicularis is lined with a membrane which has multitudes 

 of aquiferous stomata. From these exudes the liquid which 

 serves to dispose of the captured insects. — Comptes Rendus, 

 Sept. 8, and 21. g. l. g. 



10. Reserve carbohydrates in Fungi. — Leo Ekrara (Comptes 

 Rendus, ci, p. 391), shows that the food-reservoirs known as scle- 

 rotia possessed by certain fungi, present a remarkable similarity 

 in their general behavior during storing and use, to the food res- 

 ervoirs of the higher plants. It has been found by him possible 

 to detect in these reservoirs nearly all the forms of stored- food 

 of the higher plants; — for instance, oil (in Claviceps purpurea), 

 glycogen (in Peziza sclerotiorum) , and cellulose-thickening (in JPa- 

 chyma cocos). During the so-called germination of the resting 

 parts, these reservoirs exhibit chemical changes strictly compara- 

 ble to those already recognized in Phanerogams. g. l. g. 



III. Miscellaneous Scientific Intelligence. 



1. Ulements of Projective Geometry; by Luigi Cremona. 

 Translated by Charles Leudesdorf. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 

 1885. — Professor Sylvester and Professor Price have conferred a 

 new favor upon mathematicians in inducing Professor Cremona, 

 in connection with Mr. Leudesdorf, to issue an English edition of 

 his Projective Geometry. The first edition of the original work 

 was issued in 1872 and translations of it were very soon made in 

 French and German. The present English translation is con- 

 siderably enlarged and amended. 



Am. Jotjk. Sci.— Third Seeies, Vol. XXX, No. 180 Dec, 1885 

 31 



