258 Scientific Intelligence. 



Pt Pd Rd lr Cu Fe lridosmine Chromite 



A. Magnetic, 78-43 0-09 1-70 1-04 3'S9 9-78 3-77 1-27 = 99-97 



B. Non-magnetic, 68-19 0-26 3-10 1*21 3-09 787 14-62 1-95=100-29 



The magnetic portion was distinctly magneti-polar, but it was 

 not found to contain appreciably more iron than the others, 

 although that might have been anticipated. — Trans. Roy. Soc. 

 Canada, 1887. 



13. Tlie Shepard Collection of Minerals. — The very large and 

 valuable collection of minerals and meteorites belonging to the 

 late Prof. Charles U. Shepard, has been generously given, by his 

 son, Dr. Charles U. Shepard, to Amherst College. The estimated 

 value of the collection is ten thousand dollars. 



14. Natural Gas. — Supplement of December 30, of the Ameri- 

 can Manufacturer and Iron World of Pittsburg, contains valua- 

 ble papers, both geological and economical, on Natural Gas, by 

 the best American writers on the subject, C. A. Ashburner and 

 John F. Carll, of the Pennsylvania Geological Survey, with a 

 map of western Pennsylvania, also of Kansas, and by Dr. A. J. 

 Phinney, of Indiana, with a map of the Indiana gas field, and 

 other notes on the subject. 



III. Botany. 



1. Respiratory Organs of Plants. — Ludwig Jost of Strass- 

 burg communicates to Botanische Zeitung, Sept., 1887, some 

 interesting facts concerning organs of peculiar shape found on the 

 roots of certain palms, and their allies, and a few other plants. 

 These organs are outgrowths from roots, they point upward into 

 the air, and are generally characterized by having a swollen por- 

 tion conspicuously different from the. rest. Experimental study 

 indicates that these organs, like stomata and lenticels, are of use 

 in the aeration of the plant. Jost suggests as a name for this 

 group of organs, pneumatodes. 



Among the possible cases alluded to by him but dismissed 

 with hardly more than a word, is that of the enormous swellings on 

 the roots of our Southern Cypress, Taxodium distichum. Many 

 years ago, Professor Shaler of Harvard stated to the present 

 writer that he believed these excrescences of the Cypress of the 

 South to be related in some way to the aeration of the trees, since 

 he had observed that where these had been submerged for a time 

 by an overflow, the plants suffered and after a while died. In a 

 recent paper in the publications of the Museum of Comp. Zool. at 

 Cambridge, Professor Shaler has given his views in detail, mak- 

 ing out a strong case ; so that we can feel little hesitation in re- 

 ferring these extraordinary swellings on Taxodium to Jost's new 

 class of Pneumatodes. G. l. g. 



2. On a Combination of the Auxanometer with the Clinostat. 

 — At the writer's suggestion, Albrecht, the well-known mech- 

 anician at Tubingen, has constructed a simple form of Auxanom- 



