, 
468 General Notes. [July, 
- buds by which the plant is propagated. They are very easily de- 
tached from the old stems, and then readily float, and are carried 
by stream. . 
S. E. Cassino, Salem, Mass., announces the publication, June 
roth, of Ferns in their Homes and Ours, by John Robinson, to 
be illustrated with eight chromo-lithographs of rare ferns with 
other illustrations. 
ZOÖLOGY.! 
CHANGE BY ARTIFICIAL MEANS OF A LAND TO AN AQUATIC 
SALAMANDER.—Some very interesting experiments have recently 
been made by Madame von Chauvin, regarding the change, by 
artificial means, in the Alpine salamander of a land to an aquatic 
life. From a translation of the paper in Vadure, we take the fol- 
lowing account, often word for word. The former success of 
Madame von Chauvin in inducing the development of Amblystoma 
from the Mexican axolotl by gradually accustoming it to live inair, 
induced her to attempt to change the habits of Salamandra atra. 
This is an ovo-vipiparous species, and although its young possess 
large gills while within the body of the mother, they are born to 
begin a land-life immediately, while Salamandra maculata brings . 
forth its young with gills, and they live for some time in water 
before taking to land. The problem to be solved was whether 
the young of the black salamander, taken from the mother before 
the normal time of birth, and placed in water under favorable 
conditions, could become adapted to an aquatic life. Out of twenty- 
three larve of the Alpine salamander (S. atra) one, unlike the 
rest, appeared at ease when placed in water and made no attempt 
to get out of it, and was fed regularly. The gills, too delicate and 
thin for life in the water even, dropped off: by the third day, but 
soon a second smaller set of gill-fringes grew out, which appeared 
to perform the work of respiration perfectly ; the creature remain- 
ed completely beneath the surface of the water, without ever 
coming up to breathe air. While the new gills were being de- 
veloped the larva remained at rest as if dead, only eating the 
earthworms when they were offered. When the gills had attain- , 
ed a length of 2.2 mim., the larva became lively, and concurrent 
with this was the completion of another transformation. The 
delicate and transparent swimming membrane of the tail was lost, 
and replaced by a less transparent and stouter one, of greater di- 
mensions. Finally, after six weeks’ residence in the water, the 
skin began to be shed. Fourteen weeks after having been placed in 
the water, when six centimetres long, the gills began to shrink, 
and the tail to assume a rounder form, and in three days the skin 
was shed, revealing the normal black and wrinkled skin of the 
land salamander. At last it crawled out of the water, and on the 
1 The departments of Ornithology and Mammalogy are conducted by Dr. ELLIOTT 
Cougs, U. S. A. 
ni SE e T PE ESI EE OSA PETS ANT EE EE S E ea ESE P I EAEE Fos TS 
Ye. PERE ge at ae AE, 
