178 
THE MEDITERRANEAN NATURALIST 
the poor beast free; but it was width the very 
greatest difficulty that he managed to sever the 
fleshy muscular fibres of the plant. When the clog 
was extricated from the coils of the plant Mr. 
Dunstan saw to his horror that its body was 
bloodstained, while the skin appeared to be actual- 
ly sucked or puckered in spots, and the animal 
staggered as if from exhaustion. In cutting the 
vine the twigs curled like living, sinuous fingers 
1 .... n n 'slmn.! and it required -no slight 
force to free the member from their clinging grasp, 
which left the flesh red and blistered. The tree 
it seems is well-known to the natives, who relate 
many stories of its death-dealing powers Its 
appetite is voracious and insatiable, and in five 
minutes it will suck the nourishment from a largo 
lump of meat, rejecting the carcase as a spider 
does that of a used-up fly. Another strange plant 
that has lately been discoved flourishes in masse < 
resembling huge gray bowlders from five to ten feet, 
across, covered with lichens and grass, are seen in 
the lowlands of the Falkland Islands, and each 
one, proves to be a single umbelliferous plant, a 
specimen of balsam-bog (Bolax glebaria). These 
have grown so slowly, and have been so compres- 
sed in branching, that they are almost as hard as 
the rocks they resemble. The circlets of the leaves 
and leaf buds are seen as a tiny hexagonal, mark- 
ings, terminating a multitude of stems, which 
have been steadily grooving for centuries. The 
plant emits a pleasant odor in the warm sunshine, 
and the top exudes an astringent gum that is 
prized by the shepherds. 
The New Star. 
Nothing in the heavens has a greater interest 
for astronomers than the so-called “new stars, 
that occasionally appear, because nothing bears 
greater possibilities of new revelations concerning 
the mysteries of the universe and of those un- 
known depths of space toward which the human 
mind ever turns in helpless wonder. The new 
star now shining' in Auriga was first detected on 
Jan. 31 — not by a professional astronomer, but by 
a clergyman of Edinburgh. It has been photo- 
graphed, however, a f the Harvard Observatory 
two months before its discovery. It seems to 
have reached its maximum, as a star of the fifth 
magnitude^ in February, indicating that it will 
not long remain in view. During the observa- 
tions already made, spectroscopists have found 
evidence of a double spectrum, and that one 
component body of the star must be receding from 
the earth at the tremendous rate of 300 miles per 
second, while the other is approaching. In a pe- 
riod of 20 days, Mr. J. Norman Lockyer could 
obtain no proof of a revolution of one body about 
the other. He concluded, however, that the chan- 
ges observed are exactly what would be expected 
according to his hypothesis that new stars are 
produced by collisions of meteor-swarms, the rapid 
fading of the star demonstrating that small bodies 
and not large ones are engaged. Other astrono- 
mers look upon the star as a variable of long 
period, which at minimum sinks to invisibility. 
Wind-action in Egypt. 
By W. M. Flinders Petrie (1). 
Egypt is an especially favourable country for 
studying certain causes of geographical and geolo- 
gical change. The absence of all effective vegeta- 
tion above the Nile level, enables any one to see the 
surface conditions at a glance. The absence of 
rain, except in occasional storms, leaves the wind 
action in remarkable prominence, and allows us 
also to see the effects of a different climate, now 
long past. And the presence of dated monuments 
throughout the country, extending farther back 
in history than any other series of man ; s works, 
gives more precision to estimates of time than can 
be obtained elsewhere. Though my own work has 
been among the historical remains, yet many geo- 
logical evidences have come before me, to which I 
wish to draw attention in hope that some thorough 
examination of so valuable a district may be made. 
The Isthmus of Suez is an important tract both 
for the connection of that sea with the Mediter- 
ranean, aud also for the various events connected' 
with that region.. But the evidences of change 
there are more complicated than we might suppose; 
upheaval, depression, and denudation all coming 
into play. That the Delta as a whole is sinking at 
( 1 ) Bead to the Geographical Section of the, 
British Association^ Newcastle , 
