1890.] Botany. n 777 
report on the mineral products of Canada. In the tourmaline of the 
. tourmaline granite of Striegau, Traube?* has discovered pleochroic 
halos around inclusions of rutile and zircon, The color of the halos is 
some shade of violet, and is independent of the color of the mineral in 
which they lie. It disappeares upon heating. Garnet, apatite, and quartz 
inclusions in the same tourmaline are not surrounded by halos. 
Among the new instruments, and improvements upon old instruments, 
used in crystallographic and mineralogical investigations, that have 
been suggested during the last three months, mention may be made of 
an apparatus % for the production of pressure figures in very small mica 
plates; of a very simple reflection goniometer constructed by Prof. 
Groth”; of an improved instrument” for cutting thin sections of 
minerals in any desired position ; and an improved heating apparatus 
for use with the reflection goniometer, invented and constructed by the 
well-known mechanician Fuess. 
BOTANY. 
Note on a New Species of Actinoceps B. and Br.—In 
the Sylloge Fungorum of Saccardo but a single species of Actinoceps 
is recorded, and this is a native of Ceylon. Consequently it is inter- 
esting to discover that another form, undoubtedly belonging to the 
same peculiar genus of Hyalostilbeze, occurs rarely in Minnesota. In 
April a number of moist chambers were prepared by Mr. E. P. 
Sheldon in the botanical laboratory of the University of Minnesota. 
In these chambers a large variety of nutritive substances were placed, 
and a number of more or less interesting saprophytic fungi have since 
developed. 
The plant, referred to Actinoceps, developed upon the glandular 
side of a putrescent orange-peel, and formed a little colony of some- 
what less than a square inch in extent. The surface of this area, upon 
examination, was found to be clothed with a thin layer of Bacillus 
megaterium De By., together with other saprogenic bacteria. From 
this thin layer of micro-organisms the Actinoceps plants arose in num- 
3 Neues Jahrb. f. Min., etc., 1890, I., p. 186. 
?6 Steenstrup : Geol. Fören. Förh., Stock., 1888, p. 113. Ref. Zeits. f. Kryst., XVII.. 
TA Zen. f. Kryst., XVII., 1890, p. 396. 
28 Ib. XVII., 1890, p. 44. 
29 s Jahrb. f. 
