36 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXI. Xo. 523. 



Guyton's authority, and it is probable that he 

 would have liked to name it ' beryllia.' All of 

 which may be quite true, but actually he did 

 not do it. 



As regards the German use of ' Berylerde ' 

 it was merely at first the natural translation 

 of Vauquelin's expression ' la terre du Beril,' 

 which, as we have seen, he used in no denom- 

 inative sense. If the generally accepted rules 

 of priority have any weight ' glucinum ' is the 

 only term to be used for the element. 



As regards usage, the case is hardly quite 

 as bad as Dr. Parsons seems to think, since 

 the index to the Journal of the Chemical So- 

 ciety (London) for 1903 gives 'Beryllium, see 

 glucinum.' With French, English and Amer- 

 icans using ' glucinum,' we can afford to let 

 the German journals cling to ' beryllium ' a 

 little while longer. 



Incidentally, what shall we do when the 

 Germans insist on kalziuni, kolumbium, karo- 

 linum, zerium and zesium, or will it be 

 kfEsium? Jas. Lewis Howe. 



Washington and Lee University, 

 December 12, 1904. 



BOTANICAL NOTES. 



THE STUDY OF FIBERS. 



The book (' The Textile Fibers, their Phys- 

 ical, Microscopical and Chemical Properties ') 

 prepared by Dr. J. M. Mathews, and recently 

 published by John Wiley, should make the 

 study of textile fibers somewhat easier by stu- 

 dents and practical operators. It covers 

 nearly three hundred pages of neatly printed 

 text, illustrated by sixty-nine cuts, in which 

 the author has presented the whole matter 

 in a most helpful way. There is first a use- 

 ful classification of fibers, followed by descrip- 

 tions and discussions of those which enter 

 into fabrics. Some of these fibers arc, of 

 course, of animal origin, as wool, hair and silk, 

 and to these are given about ninety pages. 

 The remainder of the book is devoted almost 

 wholly to plant fibers, and here the treatment 

 is especially clear and hel])fnl. The origin, 

 varieties, physical and cheniical properties of 

 cotton, and mercerized cotton, are discussed in 

 an many chapters. Linen is given another 

 chapter, while jute, ramie, licinp am] several 



other fibers of minor importance are disposed 

 of in another chapter. An interesting chapter 

 for the general reader is the one on artificial 

 silks, the processes for the production of which 

 ' have been attended with a considerable degree 

 of success.' It is said that artificial silk ' has 

 become a commercial article, and is used in 

 considerable quantity by the textile trade.' 

 Of these artificial silks there are four general 

 kinds, viz : 



1. Pyrozylin sillis, made from a solution of 

 gun cotton in a mixture of alcohol and ether. 



2. Fibers made from a solution of cellulose 

 in ammoniacal copper oxide or chloride of 

 zinc. 



3. Viscose silk, made from a solution of 

 cellulose thiocarbonate. 



4. Gelatin sillc, made from filaments of 

 gelatin rendered insoluble by treatment with 

 formaldehyde. 



Most of the artificial silk is of the first 

 variety, the manufacture of which is carried 

 on in England, Germany, France and Switzer- 

 land. " The fibers are formed by forcing the 

 ether-alcohol solution of pyroxylin through 

 glass capillary tubes, and winding them on 

 frames. As the solution is very viscous it re- 

 quires a pressure of forty-five atmospheres to 

 discharge it through the capillary openings." 



A STUDY OF COMPARATIVE EMBRYOLOGY. 



The comparative embryology of the Cucur- 

 hitaceae (Gourd Family) has been studied by 

 Dr. J. E. Kirkwood, the results of which ap- 

 pear in the Bulletin of the Neic York Botan- 

 ical Garden (No. 11, 1904). After an 

 instructive historical introduction, the organ- 

 ogeny of representatives of the five tribes 

 (Fevilleae, Melothrieae, Cucurhiteae, Sicyo- 

 ideae, and Cyclanthereae) is summarily de- 

 scribed, and this is followed by a quite 

 particular examination of the embryo-sac in 

 sixteen genera distributed among the five 

 tribes. Twelve fine plates of 166 figures add 

 nuicli to tbc value of this portion of the paper. 

 In a closing discussion the author finally con- 

 cludes that ' in most points the differences 

 between the Cucitrbiiaceae, and other sym- 

 lietalous families are more striking than the 

 similarities.' The paper closes with a bibli- 



