744 General Notes. [September, 
level of the gustatory pore. In the Annals of the New York 
Academy of Sciences, Mr. R. E. C. Stearns publishes a paper on 
the existence of a colony of Helix aspersa in California, which 
was planted twenty-three years ago at San José. He also re- 
marks on the geographical distribution of certain West American 
land-snails, and corrects previous errors concerning them.——In 
Nature, Mr. W. A. Herdman collects the evidence brought for- 
ward by Charles Julien, which shows strong ground for the 
belief that the little understood “ neural gland” in the Ascidians, 
represents the glandular portion of the Aypophysis cerebri, or 
pituitary body of vertebrates. At a recent meeting of the 
Royal Society of London, Professor W. K. Parker, in a paper on 
the structure and development of the skull in sturgeons, remarks 
in closing, that the sturgeons as a group cannot be said to lie 
directly between any one family of the Selachians and any one 
family of the bony Ganoids, yet, on the whole, that is their posi- 
tion; the bony Ganoids, on the whole, approach the Teleostei, 
especially such forms as Lepidosteus and Amia, which have lost 
their “ spiracle,” and in other points are less than typical, as Gan- 
oids. Larval sturgeons are, in appearance, miniature sharks ; for 
a few weeks they have a similar mouth, and their lips and throat 
are beset with true teeth that are molted before calcification has 
fairly set in. Their first gills are very long and exposed, but not 
nearly so long, or for such a time uncovered, as in the embryo of 
sharks and skates. 
A CorRECTION.—On pp. §85 and 586 of the July NATURALIST, 
a serious inadvertency occurs. In the list of strictly fresh-water 
shells is mentioned Helcina occulta (by typographical error 
printed ocu/ata). Though Helicina is not a pulmonate, the spe- 
cies here indicated is strictly terrestrial in its habit. The reader 
will therefore refer it to the preceding list of land shells, where 
the intention was to have placed it.—R. Elsworth Call. 
ENTOMOLOGY.’ 
Tae Cutrivation oF PyrErHRUM AND MANUFACTURE OF THE 
PowDER.2-—7he use of Pyrethrum as an Insecticide —Up to a com- 
paratively recent period the powder was applied to the destruc- 
tion of those insects only which are troublesome in dwellings, 
and Mr. C. Willemot seems to have been the first in the year 
others he proposes ‘the following remedy: “In order fo. 
prevent the ravages of the weevil on wheat fields, the powder 
1 This department is edited by Professor C. V. R1Ley, Washington, D. C., to whom 
communications, books for notice, etc., Should be sent. 
Continued from July number. 
