May 22, 1885.] 



SCIENCE. 



431 



blights them as a sudden frost nips the tender 

 exotics of our gardens. 



Yet, despite the desolation of the land in all 

 save the most congenial localities, and the dif- 

 ficulty with which the plants growing in these 

 perform their necessary functions, even the 

 Dare ice and snow are not without their life, 

 no less than forty-two species or well-marked 

 varieties of ice and snow plants being now 

 known. As might be inferred from their habi- 

 tat, these are mainly algae, though the alga- 

 like protonemata of several mosses are found, 

 and the occurrence of putrefaction to a slight 

 extent argues the presence of bacteria. The 

 essential characters of this flora, are, in brief, 

 that it consists almost exclusively of water- 

 plants of low organization, propagating them- 

 selves chiefly by non-sexual processes. These 

 plants are all microscopic ; yet, as they are for 

 the most part brightly colored, characteristic 

 tints — red, brownish-purple, and green — are 

 often given to extensive areas of snow and ice 

 by the myriads of these minute beings which 

 occur together. 



Under the title ' Insect-life in arctic lands,' 

 Dr. Christopher Aurivillius gives an account 

 of the expeditions which have enriched our 

 knowledge of arctic insects, of the number of 

 species of each order of insects collected, and 

 of the literature of the subject. He explains 

 that the uniformity of the arctic fauna becomes 

 more striking as the north pole is approached, 

 but that three subdivisions are recognizable : 

 these he terms the Scandinavian arctic, the 

 Asiatic arctic, and the American arctic regions. 

 A brief notice of the influence of the retreat- 

 ing glacial sheet, in the past, in leaving colonies 

 of arctic insects on mountains, — of which 

 Mount Washington, N.H., is especially men- 

 tioned, — is followed by a discussion of the 

 difference in relative proportion of species of 

 the different orders of insects in arctic and 

 temperate lands, and the causes of this unequal 

 distribution. Insect metamorphoses are stated 

 to take longer time in arctic than in temper- 

 ate lands ; Oeneis Bore requiring two 3 7 ears to 

 complete its changes, passing from five to six 

 weeks as a subterranean pupa. The co-ordi- 

 nate development of plants and insects in geo- 

 logical time, especially the correspondence in 

 the development of suctorial mouth-parts of 

 insects and of flowers with concealed or not 

 easily accessible honey, is outlined ; and the 

 relationship of the distribution of arctic insects 

 to the arctic flora is illustrated by a tabular 

 synopsis of the nature of the flowers, and 

 the distribution of different arctic plants. 

 This synopsis shows that anemophilous flowers 



diminish in number toward the north, and 

 that the flowers fertilized by flies, bees, and 

 Lepidoptera, bear nearty direct relationship to 

 the dipterous, hymenopterous, and lepidopter- 

 ous fauna of each region. A few flowers, 

 however, which are fertilized by bees farther 

 south, are self-fertilized in the arctic regions : 

 such are the flowers of the two species of 

 Pedicularis found in Spitzbergen, where care- 

 ful search has failed to discover humble-bees. 

 The author uses this peculiarity of Pedicularis 

 to show the inapplicability of Darwin's theory 

 that the deterioriation of species b}- self-fer- 

 tilization is an explanation of the origin of 

 cross-fertilization by insects. Dr. Aurivillius 

 shows, further, that the colors of arctic flowers 

 tend to confirm what is known of the color- 

 sense of the insects that visit them. 



H. Hildebrand devotes nearly one hundred 

 pages to a discussion of our knowledge of the 

 art of the lower races of savage people, espe- 

 cially of the Chukchi, Eskimo, Bushmen, Aus- 

 tralians, Melanesians, and the people of the 

 stone age in western and northern Europe. 

 He puts aside considerations based on physical 

 or linguistic features, and discusses merely the 

 aesthetic relations of the different people as 

 evidenced by their more or less artistic produc- 

 tions. From this point of view, the people of 

 Chukchi race, studied by the Vega party, are 

 closely assimilated to the Eskimo ; more so, in- 

 deed, than the pure race characteristics would 

 justif}^ : for it must not be forgotten that the 

 bone-carvings and pictures of the so-called 

 ' sedentary Chukchi ' are mere copies bor- 

 rowed from the art of the Eskimo, to whose 

 mode of life the loss of their deer has driven 

 a portion of a different people, whose normal 

 development and culture away from the coast 

 shows little or nothing of such art-work. 

 Their stage of ethnic development is, however, 

 much the same. The peculiarities of the art 

 of people in this stage, whether exhibited by 

 the quaternary specimens from the caves of 

 Perigord, or those of the present day from 

 Bering Strait, are to be ascribed to common 

 features of aesthetic evolution in the mind of 

 man, of which the rude pictures drawn by 

 civilized children offer at once a reminiscence 

 and an example. 



In an article which covers ninety-four pages, 

 Nordenskiold himself considers the geological 

 significance of the cosmical material which 

 falls upon the earth's surface. The nebular 

 hypothesis of Kant and Laplace is briefly 

 outlined, and the arguments in favor of the 

 existence of matter in the form of ether 

 are advanced. The author believes that the 



