APRIL 11, 1884.] 
reports upon Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Caro- 
lina, North Carolina, and Virginia. An appendix 
to part ii. contains notes upon California, Utah, 
Arizona, and New Mexico, considered in relation to 
their possibilities as cotton-producing states or ter- 
ritories. Of these detailed reports, Professor Hil- 
gard, besides planning and supervising all, wrote 
those upon Louisiana and Mississippi, and the notes 
upon California, etc. To Prof. R. H. Loughridge 
were assigned those upon Georgia, Missouri, Arkan- 
sas, Texas, and Indian Territory; to Prof. James 
M. Safford, Kentucky and Tennessee; to Dr. E. A. 
Smith, Alabama and Florida; while Prof. W. C. Kerr 
eontributed the reports upon North Carolina and 
Virginia, and Major Harry Hammond that upon 
South Carolina. — 
All these state reports, with the exception of that 
relating to South Carolina, are upon the same plan. 
Each opens with tables of the leading agricultural 
statistics of the state. Then there follows a descrip- 
tion of the topography, climate, and soils, with nu- 
merous analyses of the latter, —a subject to which 
Professor Hilgard is disposed to attach great impor- 
tance. This is followed by agricultural descriptions 
of the several counties, and by cultural and economic 
details, which are derived from answers to schedule 
questions. 
The report upon each state is followed by an index, 
evidently with the intention of making a separate 
issue of each report; and the entire report is closed 
with a very complete general index. 
—Mr. Isao lijina, a Japanese student under 
Professor Leuckart, has recently submitted a disser- 
tation to the University of Leipzig for obtaining the 
degree of Ph.D. The judgment passed by the ex- 
amining committee was, ‘‘ Dissertatio, egregia — 
Examinatio, summa cum laude.’ Mr. Iijima has 
won his degree within two years from the time of his 
arrival in Germany. Students usually require from 
two to three or more years to accomplish the same 
end. 
— The Johns Hopkins university circular for March 
prints an unusual number of scientific notes, abstracts 
of papers read before the various associations to 
which the active life of the university has given birth. 
It notes, also, the formation of a new archeological 
society, and of the purchase of a considerable minera- 
logical collection, which has been placed in charge 
of the associate in mineralogy, Dr. G. H. Williams. 
Extracts are given from Dr. Hartwell’s address on 
physical culture at the opening of the new gymnasium 
last December, and of a lecture on the influence of 
athletic games on Greek art, by Dr. Waldstein of 
Cambridge, Eng. Plans are printed of the new 
chemical laboratory, and announcements are made 
of aseries of fifteen lectures on classical archeology, 
now just closing, by Dr. Waldstein, Professor Gilder- 
sleeve, Dr. Emerson. and Messrs. Clarke and Still- 
man. A similar related series of sixteen historical 
lectures on chemistry is in progress, participated in 
by ten persone. 
— A new species of trap-door spider, a species of 
SCIENCE. 
‘and Mr. B. H. Van Vleck during August. 
469 
Cteniza, has been discovered at San José, Cal. The 
common though little-known species of southern 
California is known as C. californica; and its trap- 
door nest is usually placed in museums beside the 
tarantula (Mygale Hentzii), and erroneously labelled 
as the tarantula’snest. This popular error, by which 
dealers in curiosities generally profit, is stranger, 
since the tarantula is usually too large to enter the 
nest of Cteniza, and itself makes no nest, occupying 
crevices in the ground or under stones, spinning a 
small web. 
— The Boston society of natural history announces 
that the seaside laboratory, at Annisquam, Mass., 
will be open to students during the coming summer 
from June 20 to Sept. 1. The purpose of the labo- 
ratory is to afford opportunities for the study of 
the development, anatomy, and habits of commor 
types of marine animals, under suitable direction 
and advice. ‘There will be no attempt to give lectures 
nor any stated courses of instruction. Those who 
have had some experience in a laboratory, who have 
attended practical lessons, or who have taught in the 
schools, are sufficiently qualified to make use of this 
opportunity. The work will be under the immediate 
care of Mr. J. S. Kingsley during June and July, 
Applica- 
tions should be addressed to Professor Alpheus 
Hyatt, Boston society of natural history. 
—Koban is the name of an ancient necropolis in 
the Caucasus, explored by Chantre in 1882, and said 
by him to be the most interesting in that region. In 
1869 a flood took away a part of the hill of Koban; 
and the owner, one Kanoukoff, an Ossete, discovered 
along the portion of the hill left, bones and objects 
of metal. Finding that they were not gold, he sold 
them to the museum of Tiflis. For several years this 
site has been dug by local archeologists; and in 1882 
Chantre commenced a systematic exploration. Ko- 
ban is a little Ossete village, three thousand metres 
above sea-level, on Tagaour Mountain, thirty-five 
kilometres distant from Vladikawkaz. The necropo- 
lis occupies two hectares. ‘Transverse ditches from 
one to three metres deep disclosed twenty-two sepul- 
tures. Simple inhumation without incineration had 
been the mode of burial. The coffins were of plank 
or stone, and were not oriented. The bodies lay dou- 
bled up, and on the right side. More than three thou- 
sand objects have been recovered, mostly of bronze: 
of these, Chantre secured sixteen hundred and 
ninety-seven. The list includes articles of the toilet, 
arms, and utensils. ‘The origin and the antiquity of 
these objects are alike unknown, a diversity existing 
between the contents of this and other cemeteries in 
the same region. Ethnological comparisons and clas- 
sical allusions lead to the supposition that the ancient 
Ossetes came from the Caspian Sea. These people 
live now in the centre of the Caucasus, in the defiles, 
more or less rugged, of Mount Kasbeck. There re- 
main only a hundred thousand of them. -Those of 
the north present some resemblances to the Kabar- 
dians and Tchitehens, who surround them. Those of 
