A494 
{t is located in the southern part of Tazewell county. 
South-east of it is the valley of Holston River, in 
which there are large gypsum deposits. The fertility 
of Burk’s Garden may perhaps be due to the presence 
of gypsum. 
west of Tazewell, is somewhat like Burk’s Garden, 
but not so well defined, although it may have been 
SCIENCE. [Vou. IIL, No. 63.. 
Elk Garden, in Russell county, south- 
so in the past. 
RECENT PROCHEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 
Trenton natural history society. 
April 8. —Mr. F. A. Lucas arraigned the English 
sparrow, Passer domesticus, as a nuisance; stating, 
that, after several seasons of careful scrutiny, he 
had never seen the bird capture or destroy a single 
larva. It will chase butterflies, fight with our native 
birds, and drive them away; it will devour the grain 
of the farmer, and the seeds cultivated for commer- 
cial purposes; but to do any thing useful is against its 
principles. It is stated by J. H. Gregory, a veteran 
seed-grower, to be one of his greatest enemies. Mr. 
Lucas referred to contests which he had witnessed 
between Passer domesticus and Picus pubescens, the 
hard-working Certhia familiaris, Troglodytes aedon, 
and Regulus satrapa; in some instances several spar- 
rows uniting in the attack. He had also seen the 
bird perched on a tree whose branches were loaded 
with webs of certain caterpillars, without even noti- 
eing them, but waiting for the crumbs from the break- 
fast-table. The pestiferous foreigner is, inthis state, 
protected by law, a penalty of five dollars being im- 
posed for the killing of one. ——Dr. A. C. Stokes 
communicated a paper on Cynips quercus-cornigera 
of Osten-Sacken, exhibiting the spinous galls and 
several microscopic dissections of the fly, especially 
of the ovarian tubules, to show the arrangement of 
the pedunculated eggs. The numerous tubules are 
in two clusters, radiating from common centres. The 
peduncle of each egg is twisted about the egg next 
to the rear; so that, when deposited on the twig, the 
stem is directed upward, and develops into the hol- 
low, thorn-like body projecting from the gall. The fly 
escapes by gnawing a small hole in one side of this 
body, above the surface of the excrescence. Several 
mature flies were removed from these woody capsules 
in December; and from the same gall, at the same 
time, were taken larvae and pupae. At a previous 
meeting, Prof. Austin C. Apgar referred to the spawn- 
ing of Fulgur caniliculata, stating that the eggs were 
deposited every month, except, perhaps, in the winter. 
A recent experience on the New-Jersey coast has led 
to the belief that spawning may take place at any 
season. In the region about Cape May these long 
clusters of egg-cases are popularly supposed to be the 
skeletons of defunct snakes. 
Engineers’ club, Philadelphia, 
April 5.— Mr. Henry G. Morris gave a brief de- 
scription of an atmospheric elevator, consisting of a 
closed cage or car working in an air-tight well; the 
air-pressure, supplied by a ‘Root’ or other pressure 
blower, being admitted to the top or bottom of the 
cage in descending or ascending. The doors at the 
different stories opening inwards, the pressure of air 
keeps them closed until the interior of the car is 
brought opposite, when, the pressure being relieved, 
the door can be opened into the car. The car being 
counterbalanced, only a comparatively slight press- 
ure of air, equal to a water-column of from six to eight 
inches only, is required to move an average load on a 
car six feet square. The escape of air beneath the 
ear being at all times readily controlled by the at- 
tendant, it is impossible for the car to descend at 
a dangerous speed; and other obvious features ren- 
der this form of elevator comparatively safe. —— Mr. 
Henry G. Morris also exhibited a sample of seamless 
copper tube which had been compressed endwise 
under a steam-hammer, and showed peculiar fold- 
ings of the metal into overlapping equilateral trian- 
gles forming an interior hexagonal section. Mr. 
John T. Boyd described a new design for parlor-cars 
for the Pennsylvania railroad. The secretary pre- 
sented for Mr. Edward Parrish an illustrated de- 
scription of Powers’s disinfecting-tank and automatic 
siphon. Mr. William L. Simpson exhibited a re- 
markably perfect casting of a toad, the pattern used 
being the toad himself. 
Minnesota academy of natural sciences, Minneapolis. 
March 4.— Mr. C. L. Herrick mentioned the recog- 
nition of a genus of lynceid crustaceans, Monospilus, 
new to America. M. dispar is peculiar among Cla- 
docera, in that, living in the filth at the bottom of 
pools, it not only fails to completely moult its periodi- 
cally produced coverings, but fails to develop the com- 
pound or imago eye, while the macula nigra persists 
through life as the functional visual organ. This 
most interesting form has outward resemblances to 
Tliocryptus, while its real affinities seem to be with the 
higher lynceids from which its habits have degraded 
it. Mr. Herrick regards the Minnesota form as iden- 
tical with that of Europe. He also presented a tabu- 
lar statement of the distribution of the fresh-water 
crustacea of the orders Cladocera and Copepoda; show- 
ing a remarkable conformity between the faunas of 
Minnesota and Scandinavia, and a very large percent- 
age of identical species. Southward, toward the Gulf 
of Mexico, the number of species becomes less, while 
the percentage of new species increases. 
species rarely found in Minnesota become common — 
southward, and these are always species differing from __ 
Such species, however, represent — 
those of Europe. 
usually intermediate species between extremes found 
associated at the north, or links betweengenera. Such — 
species are Simocephalus daphnoideus Herr., which © 
is a link between Simocephalus and Daphnia and 
Scapholeberis angulata Herr., which stands related to — 
; 
j 
Several — 
