Botany and Zoology, 16$ 



gen could be made available to plants, down to the present. I lis 

 observations are directed chiefly to the demonstration of the 

 thesis that ammonia can be utilized by vegetation without pre- 

 vious nitrification. For this purpose he made use of soil thor- 

 oughly sterilized and freed from every trace of nitric or nitrons 

 acids in any combination, and in these soils provided with 

 ammonia, he carried on his cultures. His experiments are not 

 sufficiently extensive to settle the question, but they go very far 

 to show that the nitrification of ammoniacal manures cannot be 

 regarded as indispensably necessary to the utilization of the 

 nitrogen therein contained. G. L. G. 



6. Fixation of Nitrogen by Leguminous plants, (Comptes 

 rendus, 28 Oct., 1889). — E. Breal lias already communicated to 

 the French Academy the results of his experiments showing that 

 it is possible to inoculate the roots of Leguminous plants from 

 the tubercles of other species, therefrom transferring bacteria 

 which produce tubercles. The same experimenter gives now the 

 chief facts in regard to his cultivation of plants of this order for 

 the purpose of ascertaining the relations of the tubercles to the 

 utilization of the nitrogen of the soil. His experiments can be 

 fairly interpreted as confirmatory of some of the studies of Hell- 

 riegel, Will'arth and Berthelot. g. l. g. 



7. Economic Mollusca of Neio Brunswick, by W. F. Ganong. 

 — Bulletin viii, of the Natural History Society of New Bruns- 

 wick, Saint John, N. B., 1889, contains facts on the distribution 

 of mollusks of the coast which are of much interest in Quaternary 

 geology. 



9. Bibliotheca Zoologica, II, Verzeichniss der Schriften ueber 

 Zoologie welche in den periodischen werken enthalten und vom 

 Jahn 1861-1880, Selbstandig erschienen sind, bearbeitet von Dr. 

 O. Taschenberg (Wm. Engelmann, Leipzig). — The seventh part 

 of this important work (see vols, xxxiii et seq.) has recently been 

 issued including signatures 241-280, pp. 1971-2290. 



IV. Miscellaneous Scientific Intelligence. 



1. American Metroloyical Society.— This society, founded in 

 1873, has elected the following officers for the year 1890 : 



President, B. A. Gould, Cambridge, Mass. 



Vice-Presidents, T. R. Pynchon, Hartford, Conn.; Sanford 

 Fleming, Ottawa, Canada; T. C. Mendenhall, Washington, D. C; 

 T. Egleston, New York City ; R. B. Fairbairn, Annandale, X. Y.; 

 J. H. Van Amringe, New York City. Treasurer, John K. Rees, 

 New York City. Recording Secretary, John K. Rees, New 

 York City. Corresponding Secretary, O. H. Tittmann, Wash- 

 ington, D. C. 



Members of the Council, H. A. Newton, Cleveland Abbe, R. 

 H. Thurston, A. M. Mayer, C. F. Brackett, W. F. Allen, Simon 

 Newcomb, S. P. Langley, E. O. Leech, Geo. Eastburn. 



The following is cited from the Constitution of the Society: 



Objects of the Society. — (1) To improve existing systems of 



