1879. ] Scientific News. 467 
of each month, except July and August. It is also having excur- 
sions during the summer, after the manner of the Queckett 
Club. 
THE PROPAGATION OF CLUSTER-cUPS.—Dr. M. C. Cooke, in his 
“ Introduction to the Study of Microscopic Fungi,” calls attention 
to the difficulty of accounting for the appearance of the cluster- 
cups (Aecidiacei) bursting through the cuticle of the leaves of the 
plants on which they are found. The question is as to the man- 
ner in which their spores reach the interior of the leaf where 
they germinate. It certainly cannot be by way of the stomata, 
for these are too Sialk, nor would this account for the preserva- 
tion of the spores until the succeeding year. Equally difficult is 
it to imagine a process by which they can gain access to the 
interior of the growing leaf through the roots, nor have they 
been traced passing through the tissues of the plant. The author 
named mentions the fact, however, that Rev. M. J. Berkeley was 
able to propagate Cluster-cups by growing plants from seeds 
which had been placed in contact with their spores. Following 
this hint and noting the fact that the species growing in this 
vicinity ripened and discharge their spores at the time when the 
plants on which they are found are in blossom, it was easy to 
reach the conviction that these = eh would be found along with 
the pollen in the interior of the ovary, thus coming into contact 
with the oh and depositing the germs of future >. Act- 
of several feet from any blossom, indicating Pat ee that it 
had been transported by insects. —M. A. Veeder 
NATIONAL COMMITTEE ON MICROMETRY. — Prof. Wm. Ash- 
burner, of San Francisco, Cal., and Rev. Samuel Lockwood, of 
Freehold, N. J., have been added to this committee. 
Erratum.—In the last line of “ Microscopy,” in the last num- 
ber of me NATURALIST, for “ ape s cement” read Bell’s cement. 
SCIEN mene IC NEWS. 
— Dr. Elliott Coues contributes to the June number of the 
Penn Monthly some interesting isos oan of the ornitholo- 
gists, Wilson, Ord and Bonaparte 
—A Sphargis coriacea, weighing 765 pounds, was recently 
taken in the Delaware river, near Fort Delaware. It was pur- 
a. by Prof. Cope for the Permanent Exposition at Phila- 
dë 
