January 23, 1885. 



SCIENCE. 



61 



the specimens sent by Sergeant Applegate with those 

 collected by Lieut. Stoney, and found them to be the 

 same, hornblende andesite. 



When we compare the lava from Bogosloff with the 

 volcanic sand which fell at Unalashka, we find them 

 identical in mineralogical composition. Both are 

 composed of triclinic felspar, with prominent zonal 

 structure, augite, hornblende, magnetite, and ground- 

 mass, with microlites and a small proportion of 

 amorphous matter. 



Dr. T. M. Chatard, of the geological survey, made a 

 partial analysis of the volcanic sand from Unalashka 

 as well as of the lava from Bogosloff. The former 

 contains 52.48%, and the latter 51.65%, of silica. 

 Fearing that an error had been made in the analysis 

 of the lava, Dr. Chatard repeated the determination, 

 and obtained the same result. That the percentage of 

 silica contained by each should be nearly the same, can 

 be readily understood ; but that the lava should con- 

 tain less than the volcanic sand which is composed of 

 the same material, apparently with a larger propor- 

 tion of basic minerals, was unexpected. Hornblende- 

 andesite lavas rarely occur with such a low percent- 

 age of silica, and in this respect the one from Alaska 

 is closely related to those in the Siebengebirge and 

 Hungary. It is evident that the felspar contained 

 must be very basic, probably anorthite. The optical 

 properties of the felspar point in the same direction 

 for the angle of extinction when symmetrical is over 

 30°. Hypersthene, which is such an important con- 

 stituent of the lavas in the Cascade Kange, has not 

 been discovered in any of the lavas yet examined 

 from Alaska. J. S. Dilleb. 



U. S. geol. survey, Washington, D.C. 



Action of pollen on seed-coats and pericarps. 



I am confounded by a statement, given as if of a 

 well-known fact, which I read in the ' Science bulle- 

 tin' of No. 101. At a meeting of the Academyof nat- 

 ural sciences, Philadelphia, Dec. 16, — 



" Mr. Thomas Meehan called attention to an ear of 

 Indian corn received from Mr. Landreth, the grains 

 on one side of which were of a rich brownish-red 

 color, while those on the other side were of the usual 

 pale yellow tint. On the boundary-lines several of 

 the grains were partly red and partly yellow, thus 

 proving that the result was not the effect of cross- 

 fertilization, as had been asserted in other instances 

 of change of color. It would indeed be strange if 

 corn were the only plant in which such change of 

 color was produced by cross-fertilization ; yet in the 

 case of no other species had any such change been ob- 

 served" 



The sentence I have italicised is|the confounding 

 one. It is hard to believe that such a veteran horti- 

 cultural editor and copious writer as Mr. Meehan is 

 not acquainted at first hand with some of the horti- 

 cultural literature upon this curious subject (extend- 

 ing from the year 1729 down to our own days), and 

 which asserts that in various instances just such 

 change has been observed. It is harder to believe 

 that a writer who has shown such a critical famil- 

 iarity with Mr. Darwin's writings should have en- 

 tirely overlooked a section in chapter xi. of ' Variation 

 under domestication,' vol. i., beginning on p. 397, in 

 which the principal observations (convincing to Dar- 

 win's mind as to the facts) are brought together, and 

 the sources referred to. One wonders how the fact 

 that some of the grains of corn were party-colored 

 in the case described, proves ' that the result was not 

 the effect of cross-fertilization,' party-coloration in 

 the flowers being a well-known effect of cross-fertil- 

 ization, according to good authorities. A. G. 



THE PEABODY MUSEUM AT NEW 

 HA VEN. 



The Peabocl}' museum in New Haven 

 stands on the corner of Elm and High streets, 

 just without the campus of Yale college. Like 

 most buildings devoted to science in America, 

 it occupies only a part of the large lot, — a fact 

 not designed to typify the unfinished state of 

 zoology, but merely resulting from lack of funds. 

 In the present case there would, perhaps, have 

 been no building at all, and the collections, 

 had anj T of consequence been accumulated at 

 Yale, would have remained stuffed into garrets 

 and cellars, had not the philanthropic George 

 Peabody given a sum of money, in 1866, to 

 erect a house for them. Thanks to the finan- 

 cial prosperity of Massachusetts, the bonds 

 for a hundred and fifty thousand dollars had 

 greatly increased, and those set aside for the 

 first wing of the building had become worth 

 a hundred and sevent} r -five thousand dollars 

 when the trustees began to build. With that 

 sum they have erected one of the finest build- 

 ings, for its purpose, in the United States, — 

 a lofty and ornamental structure of red brick 

 and cream-colored stone, whose broad and 

 numerous windows express the desire of the 

 investigators within for all the light the} T can 

 get. 



Let us begin our survey at the bottom. 

 Entering the basement-door, a blind man, or 

 at an} T rate a blind naturalist (if such there 

 be), would know where he was by that smell 

 of old alcohol with which biologists are so 

 familiar. It is safe to wager, ten to one, that 

 every visitor to these lower regions will re- 

 member and quote a certain line from 4 The 

 tempest,' act ii. scene 2. 



This pungent odor rises chiefly from the pos- 

 sessions of the U. S. fish-commission, depos- 

 ited for sorting and examination under the 

 e}^e of Prof. A. E. Verrill, who is chief of the 

 zoological part of the museum, or by some 

 of his associates. Duplicates of these sub- 

 marine and littoral specimens, secured in the 

 government's deep-sea dredgings, go to Pro- 

 fessor Verrill, and large quantities deposited 

 by him in the museum have been arranged for 

 exhibition. 



In another part of the basement, Prof. O. C. 

 Marsh keeps ' greate store' of fossils, clean- 

 ing the gigantic bones from Rocky-Mountain 

 quarries preparator}- to study and display. 

 Considerable paleontological property of the 

 U.S. geological survey is under inspection here 

 also. A score of expert helpers, with Oscar 

 Harger as chief of staff, assist ; one of whom 



