with ammonic sulphate. The filtrate is acidified with hydrochloric acid, heated to boiling, and sodic or ammonic hyposulphite added, avoiding an excess. The precipitate, which contains antimony, arsenic, tin, platinum, mercury, silver, copper, bismuth, cobalt, and nickel, is next treated with ammonic sulphide. On neutralizing with ammonia the filtrate from the precipitate thrown down by the hyposulphite, cadmium, manganese, and zinc are precipitated. In the last filtrate the alkalies, calcium and magnesium, must be looked for, as well as antimony and tin, since the last two metals are not precipitated completely by ammonic hyposulphite. (Journ. russ. phys. chem. gesellsch., 1883, 32; Berichte deutsch. chem. gesellsch., xvi. 807.) C. F. M. [1143

Separation of nickel from cobalt. For the detection of a small quantity of nickel in presence of much cobalt, or of a trace of cobalt with nickel in large quantity, G. Vortman converts the cobalt into the luteo-salt by oxidation with sodic hyposulphite in an ammoniacal solution. Nickel may be precipitated from this solution by sodic hydrate, and, in the filtrate, cobalt by ammonic sulphide. (Monats. chemie, 4, 1, Berichte deutsch. chem. gesellsch., xvi. 810.) C. F. M. [1144

Copper-smelting plant. - The Pacific coppersmelter has a peculiar arrangement of the waterjacket. By means of circulating plates, a rapid circulation of the water is secured, and also great economy in the use of water. The thirty-ton smelter requires about twenty-five thousand gallons of water per day, if allowed to run to waste; if collected and cooled for use again, only about three thousand gallons are needed. (Min. sc. press, April 28.)

R. H. R.

[1146 The dephosphorization of pig iron. The following is the process for which a patent was granted, May 22, to Mr. James Henderson of Bellefonte, Penn. The iron is taken from the Bessemer converter at the end of what is called the third period, or after the boil, transferred by means of a ladle to the hearth of a reverberatory furnace, which is capable of being heated to the melting-point of wrought iron or higher. The metal is treated in this furnace with fluorspar and titaniferous iron in the proportion of forty parts by weight of fluorspar to one hundred of titaniferous iron. If there is one per cent of phosphorus in the metal, about three hundredweight of the mixture will be required to a ton of steel. Thus the dephosphorization is effected after the decarbonization. Eng. min. journ., May 26.) R. H. R.

[1147

The basic process at Steeltown. The first heat of basic steel ever made in this country was effected on May 7, 1883, at Steeltown, by the Pennsylvania steel company. The excellent quality of the steel thus made is shown by the following tests. Some flat bars were plunged in water when hot, and then bent cold and hammered down without showing any fracture. A plate was also flanged hot, on which the flange is as perfect as if the material had been the best charcoal-hammered plate iron. In the same plate two holes were punched within a sixteenth of

The Siemens direct process. A lot of separated magnetic iron sand from Moisic, Canada, was sent to Mr. James Davis, manager of the New steelworks, London, to be worked in the Siemens direct rotatory furnace. Mr. Davis reports that it is the best material for working in the rotator that he has seen. A charge of twenty-five hundredweight with six hundredweight of coal or charcoal gave the best results. The average time required was three hours forty-five minutes, and the yield of solid metallic balls was fifteen hundredweight three quarters. The balls were found very suitable for making mild steel in the Siemens furnace. The wages are estimated at five shillings per ton of balls; the fuel, at ton per ton. · (Eng. min. journ., May 5.) R. H. R. [1150

GEOLOGY.

Geology of the province of Jujuy, Argentine Confederation. - Brackebusch divides the formations of this province as follows. 1o. Sedimentary rocks: a. Silurian, b. cretaceous, c. post tertiary, d. modern. 20. Eruptive rocks: a. granite, b. quartz prophyry, c. diorite, d. basalt, e. tragnite and andesite. The Silurian consists of two members, -the primordial (Taconic) fauna, being represented in a great thickness of beds, and the second or lower Silurian fauna.

The petroleum-bearing formation has been assigned to almost every geological period. The present author considers it as probably lower cretaceous, and makes a fair argument in support of his claim. Darwin considered it as cretaceo-Jurassic. These beds have an enormous distribution in South America. The same beds are said to reach to Puntas Arenas, where Dr. G. Steinmann (SCIENCE, p 156) has lately recognized the neocomian, which would seem to support the view that they are of lower cretaceous age. Brackebusch thinks that the boring of wells for petroleum in the region he has examined will be attended with magnificent results.

In the quartz porphyries, many ores of copper and argentiferous galenite occur. The trachytes and andesites, and their accompanying tufas, are very widely distributed. To these the author refers numerous gold and silver mines of the province. (Anal. soc. cient. argent., 1883.) J. B. M.

Lithology.

[1151

Fossil-bearing schists. — Renard has published a valuable paper on the metamorphic rocks of the Ardennes, in which fossils had been found by Dumont and Sandberger, the latter describing a case in which garnets and fossils were together in the same hand specimen.

The fossils Spirifer macropterus and Chonetes sarcinulatus show that the schists belong to the lower Devonian. The paper gives the results of microscopic and chemical analyses, describing the principal minerals. Renard rejects entirely the view that these schists are chemical precipitates, and holds that they are metamorphosed sediments.

These results are similar to those of Reusch and

Brögger on the schists of Norway. Both found fossils in crystalline marble, in mica schist, and in other rocks of like metamorphic character. The latter even found the remains of Orthis enclosed in dodecahedral garnet. Likewise the Carrara marble of Italy has been shown to overlie and underlie fossiliferous strata. From these observations, there seems to be no doubt that the general belief that schists are metamorphosed sedimentary rocks is substantiated, so far as these regions are concerned; and they afford no aid to the revived and remodelled Wernerian bypothesis that has been made so prominent in this country during recent years. Without objecting to the work of the writers above referred to, attention may be called to the tendency in most observers, when they have proved the origin of a rock, to assume that all associated rocks are the same, leading one class to hold to the eruptive origin of all the rocks seen, and another to their sedimentary origin. In regions of crystalline rocks, both classes of rocks would naturally be expected to occur together, and it would be well if the utmost care should be used to prove the origin of every rock in the district studied. — (Bull. mus. roy. Belg., i.; Die silur. etagen 2 u. 3; Silurfoss. og kongl. i Bergensk.; Nature, xxvi. 567, xxvii. 121.) M. E. W.

[1152

Carboniferous gneiss and schist. Some gneisses and schists, which, from the associated plantremains, are referred to the carboniferous, have been microscopically studied by Foullon. They are associated with the graphite deposits about Kaisereberg in Steiermark. The gneiss is composed of felspar (albite) quartz, muscovite, and chlorite, with a little epidote, biotite, and, in one case, tourmaline. The phyllite gneiss is fine-grained, and composed of quartz, orthoclase (microcline), and tourmaline; while the graphitic schist is also a purely crystalline mass of quartz and chloritoid, excepting some portions in which are found plant-impressions and plates of a micaceous mineral. Zircon and an asbestiform mineral were also seen. -(Verh. geol. reichsanst., Jan., 1883.) M. E. W. [1153

Albite from orthoclase. This interesting alteration is well exhibited at the gneiss-quarries of upper Avondale, Penn., where flesh-colored orthoclase is found much decomposed, the cavities being filled with albite associated with muscovite.

Anthophyllite from talc. At Castle Rock, Delaware county, Penn., talc occurs as the result of the alteration of olivine, but in some cases this alteration has proceeded farther. Radiating from a nucleus of talc is a white or grayish mineral, with silky lustre and prismatic cleavage at an obtuse angle, which proved, upon analysis, to be anthophyllite.

Talc pseudomorph after magnetite. In Hartford county, Md., small octahedrons of scaly tale occur, the scales being parallel to the octahedral faces; and sometimes the crystals contain in the interior a small nucleus of magnetite. The author regards the crystals as pseudomorphs after magnetite, and suggests that a whole bed of steatite twelve to fifteen feet in thickness, occurring at the above-mentioned place, may have resulted from a like change from magnetite. (Proc. Amer. phil. soc., xx. 392.) S. L. P. [1154

Wulfenite. It has generally been accepted that the red varieties of wulfenite found at many localities

are colored by chromate of lead (PbCrO4), which is isomorphous with the wulfenite PbMoO. If this is true, lead chromate must be tetragonal in its crystallization, and trimorphic; for the natural variety, crocoite, is monoclinic, and again it is undoubtedly orthorhombic, isomorphous with anglesite (PbSO4). In red crystals from Phoenixville, Penn., J. Lawrence Smith found vanadium and only a trace of chromium, while Wöhler detected vanadium in a variety from Bleiberg in Carinthia. Owing to the dissimilarity between molybdic and vanadic acids, it is not probable that any isomorphism exists between them, while chromate and molybdate of lead, from a chemical stand-point, can well be regarded as isomorphous. To decide as to the true nature of the coloring-matter, P. Groth had various wulfenites examined by F. Jost, with the following results. In a highly colored, yellowish-red variety from Bleiberg, neither chromium nor vanadium could be detected. In the red crystals from Phoenixville, Penn., chromium was found, but no trace of vanadium. The analysis gave

PbO(60) + MoO3(39.21) + CrO3(0.38) = 99,59. The green pyromorphite accompanying wulfenite from the latter locality contained no vanadium, but a trace of chromium; while chromium was also found in a yellowish-red pyromorphite from Leadhills, Scotland. Here, certainly, no isomorphism can exist between the chromate and phosphate of lead; and the red color in the latter case must be due either to the mechanical admixture of some chromate or some pigment entirely independent of the chromium. The fact that wulfenites, entirely free from and containing a trace of chromium, occur of a red color, makes it probable that the color is due to some pigment, perhaps of organic origin, while the chromate is present as a mechanical admixture, and in no way related to the red color. —(Zeitschr. kryst., vii. 592.) S. L. P. [1155

METEOROLOGY.

Solar physics. - A recent report on this subject to the British government mentions India as a satisfactory field in which to prosecute investigations of solar radiation, and its connection with terrestrial phenomena; calls attention to the importance of a more satisfactory means of measuring directly the sun's heat, the great obstacles presented in the attempt to measure this heat at sea-level stations, owing to the very great fluctuations in the observed direct heat, even on clear days, due to invisible vapor; and refers to the expedition of Prof. Langley to Mount Whitney, and the permanent establishment of instruments at Leh in India, at an elevation of 11,000 feet, in order to overcome these obstacles if possible. A very useful, detailed catalogue of sunspot observations, and photographs of the sun, from 1832 to 1877, is given. A discussion of the influence of the state of the sun upon the earth's temperature is entered upon, in which an effort is made to connect the range of temperature at the single station Toronto, Canada, with the sun's spots. The results arrived at seem to show that a maximum temperature range corresponds to a maximum number of spots, and that the Toronto phases of temperature range lag behind similar phases in solar spottedness between one and two days. The first of these conclusions differs from the opinions held by some, and, on taking the mean annual ranges, seems hardly sustained.

The following table gives the mean annual range of temperature from 1841 to 1880, and mean annual cloudiness from 1853 to 1880, at Toronto, Canada. Solar spot numbers are added for comparison.

Applications of photography to meteorology. -Photography is constantly finding new applications in the other sciences. By its means, under the direction of Capt. Abney, experiments are being conducted at Kew, Eng., to determine the height and velocity of clouds. Two similar cameras are set up at a distance of about six hundred feet apart, and provided with instantaneous shutters, which can be released at the same instant by electricity. By knowing the angle of inclination of the cameras, and measuring the position of the cloud as photographed on the two plates, we at once have a trigonometrical observation which will give us the distance of the cloud with great accuracy. The axis of a cyclone is probably not vertical, its upper portion being in advance of the lower in relation to the direction in which the cyclone is moving: hence the higher clouds are sometimes affected by an approaching storm before its influence affects the winds blowing at the surface of the earth. The cirrus clouds are, therefore, the ones to whose observation is attached the greatest importance. Occasional observations only have so far been made, but the Meteorological council has under consideration the plan of adopting the instrument for continuous use at its central station at Kew. The observations made so far would seem to indicate that the cirrus clouds are not situated at so great an elevation as has heretofore generally been supposed. — (Brit. journ. phot., May 4.) W. H. P.

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.

[1157

Old river-courses by Vicenza and Padua. F. Molon gives geological and historical evidence to show considerable changes in the rivers Astico and Brenta, on the northern margin of the plain of Lombardy, in post-glacial times. On issuing from the

mountains, both of these streams formerly turned westward, toward a depression produced by an old fault running along the eastern margin of the hills from Schio to Vicenza; but, as this district was raised by their deposits, they ran more directly south, and now the Astico is laying its sands on the old beds of the Brenta, while the latter has abandoned the channel which led it through or even west of Padua, and flows farther east. By such diversions from old channels, the volume of some of the lower streams has been greatly affected. The name Retrone was formerly applied to a river of considerable size, extending to Padua; but it is now limited to a small stream west of Vicenza. The Bacchiglione, an Italian corruption of the German Bachlein, was named when its size justified its meaning; but it has now usurped the place and volume of the old Retrone. (Atti ist. veneto, i. 1882-83, 247, 347.) W. M. D. [1158 Origin of fiords.-Fr. Ratzel calls attention to the broken form of polar coasts in both hemispheres, and the bare, rocky surface of the adjoining lands, and concludes that both of these characteristics result from the strong erosive action of ice. He lays the excavation of not only our Great Lakes and Onega and Ladoga to the same cause, but the Baltic, the North Sea, and Hudson's Bay as well (Ausland, 1883, 223, 254). The barrenness of polar lands may well be ascribed to ice-action, which has undoubtedly produced some modification of the surface as well; but to consider all their diversity of form due to glacial erosion exaggerates the power and duration of the ice as greatly as it neglects other and efficient causes. [1159

- W. M. D. GEOGRAPHY. (Arctic.)

Northern voyages in the fourteenth century. - Baron Nordenskiöld has begun the publication, under the title of 'Studier och forskningar,' of a popular scientific account of early voyages to the high north, as a sort of supplement to the Voyage of the Vega,' in which so many early northeastward voyages were noticed. The first volume contains an account and discussion of the voyages of the brothers Antonio and Nicolo Zeno of Venice, who are supposed to have journeyed to the Faeroe Islands, Iceland, and East Greenland toward the close of the fourteenth century. The author brings forward reasons for believing that the voyages were actually made, and the narrative authentic, a general disbelief in them having been (with a few individual exceptions) hitherto prevalent. The volume contains a photographic reproduction of the map of Claudius Clavus in 1427, - -a remarkable discovery by Nordenskiöld himself, who found it in the city library of Nancy, included in an old manuscript copy of Ptolemy's Cosmographia. The period when all early voyages were regarded with suspicion or open disbelief seems to have passed away, and the truthfulness of some of them is established; while the misapplication of others (as the Chinese voyages to Fu-sang, now known to be a province of Japan, but formerly interpreted by enthusiastic geographers as north-west America) has been rectified. The danger of running into the opposite extreme of credulity is not, however, to be overlooked, in view of the attention which the perfectly preposterous story of Moncatch-Apé’ has recently received from a few serious students. It is not necessary to say to any ethnologist who understands the nature of the races of north-west America as they were when discovered, that the story referred to is not less improbable than the wildest vagaries of Jules Verne. [1160

-W. H. D.

Nordenskiöld's programme. Baron Nordenskiöld's programme for this year's expedition is published in full by the concurrence of Mr. Oscar Dickson, who provides the funds to carry it out. Besides the object of penetrating to the interior of Greenland, it is hoped to fix the limits of the drift-ice between Iceland and Greenland, to sound and dredge in the adjacent seas, to pay especial attention to the flora of the ice and snow, to further investigate the plantremains in the fossiliferous strata of the region visited, and to collect new data connected with the fall of cosmic dust. The expedition sailed from Gothenburg in the latter part of May, and expects to start on its return in September next.-(Nature, May 10.) W. H. D. [1161

(Asia.)

Corea.-J. C. Hall, British consul at Nagasaki, visited Han-yang or Söul (Seul), the capital of Corea, last October. In approaching the harbor of Namyang, the west coast was found hedged in by a thickly clustered fringe of islands, through which the mainland could hardly be seen. The water was very shallow; and the heavy fall of the tides, averaging thirty feet, makes dangerous currents. Thousands of square miles of mud flats are left bare at low water; and, besides all these difficulties, there are the dense fogs of summer, and shore ice of winter. The coast is bold, rising in trap and granite headlands two to six hundred feet high. The interior, as far as seen, was bare and almost treeless. The villages are of miserable mud-hovels, and the people are very poor. The only temples seen were two small huts near a village at the landing-place. Söul is about fifty miles inland; it is a shabby, squalid city of low stone and mud houses, with a population of about 240,000. One long main street one hundred feet wide, running east and west, and another about north and south, divide it into nearly equal portions, and lead to gates in the eastern, southern, and western walls. On the northern side it is enclosed by steep granitic peaks. Below their abrupt slope is the royal enclosure, containing the king's palace and the more important public buildings. Mr. Hall learned from the Japanese consul that the population of the kingdom, according to the government census, was about 6,840,000 souls. The revenue is derived from a tax on the cultivated land, and is payable either in money or in produce: at present it amounts to about 190,000 pounds sterling.—(Proc. roy, geogr. soc., v. 1883, 274.) w. M. D. [1162

Upper Siam. - Between Nov. 9, 1881, and June 14, 1882, Carl Bock, whose travels in Borneo are already well known, made a journey from Bangkok up the valley of the Menam, and across the Lao states to the Mekong River, and back again by much the same route. The country was found very productive throughout, and well worthy of extended commercial enterprises. As far as Rahang, the river was ascended by poling; the country on either side was low, flat, and fertile; numerous ruins were seen there. A variety of valuable timber is brought from the forests by elephants and oxen, and floated down the river to Bangkok. Other products are cotton, wax, resin, tobacco, hides, and horns. Above Rahang, rapids interrupt the up-stream navigation, and the journey was continued overland on elephants. Lakon is the centre of the elephant trade: Bock found a thousand of these great animals there, where they are brought after capture in the forest; their value varies from five hundred to two thousand rupees. Oxen are sold at sixteen to twenty-five rupees. Tchengmai, at an elevation of seven hundred feet on the Meping (the upper course of the

Menang, above the rapids) is an important and busy city, with a population estimated at a hundred thousand. Teakwood and guin-lac are among its chief commodities. A railroad from the southern coast should be constructed as far as this point, as, in addition to what now goes down the river, it would gain a large share of what is carried northward to Yunnan, and out to Canton. From Tchengmai, Bock turned a little north-east, and crossed a pass of twelve hundred feet elevation into the valley of the Mekok, that flows on to the Mekong at an altitude of eight hundred and seventy feet. The latter is a large river in a superb valley, lined with valuable forests; its lower course should be examined to learn if timber could not be floated down to the sea. Bock was unable to do this, and returned to Tchengmai, whence he descended the Meping, running the rapids into the open lower valley. — (Peterm. mitth., 1883, 161.) W. M. D. [1163

BOTANY.

Relative size of diclinous flowers. - Fritz Müller mentions Carica papaya - which is something of a curiosity in having polypetalous pistillate flowers and gamopetalous staminate flowers, which have been divided into two so-called genera - as forming an exception to Sprengel's rule, that, in entomophilous plants with imperfect flowers, the male are more conspicuous than the female; that they may be first visited by insects, which carry their pollen to the pistils. The greater size of the pistillate flowers in this species is explained by their concealed position among the leaves, while the smaller staminate flowers hang out in conspicuous clusters. In this connection it is shown by Hermann Müller that in monoecious species, which attract a sufficiency of insect visitors, it may be an advantage for the fertile flowers to be the larger, as those of a given stock will then be visited first, and fertilized by foreign pollen, before the insects have been to the sterile flowers of the plant in question. On the other hand, in cases where crossing is uncertain, the larger size of the staminate flowers will insure at least close fertilization, and thus be advantageous. (Kosmos, April.) w. T. [1164

The purple-leaved barberry.- Mr. Thomas Meehan referred to the fact that seed of the purpleleaved variety of Berberis vulgaris, collected from plants growing near Philadelphia, reproduced the purple-leaved peculiarity to an extent which it could not do more perfectly if the variety were a true species. In a bed of seedlings containing on an estimate one thousand plants, there were only two reversions to the original green-leaved condition. (Acad. nat. sc. Philad. meeting; May 15.) [1165

Influence of stock and scion. According to the Tropical agriculturist, Mr. Moen has obtained some extraordinary and undesirable results from grafting scions of Cinchona Ledgeriana upon stocks of Red bark. The grafts have been cultivated under glass, and are now four years old. Examination has shown that the bark of the stock is rendered abnormally rich in quinine by its contact with the graft;' but the bark of the graft itself is found to contain less quinine than it should, while it has more cinchonine and cinchonidine. Since the amount of the bark of the stock is, of course, very small when compared with that of the vigorously-growing scion which must ultimately form the bulk of the whole, nothing is gained by the grafting. It diminishes, rather, the value of the plant. It is now proposed to try the reverse experiment. It is very probable that subsequent experiments may show that part, at least, of the un

favorable results may be explained by the fact that only young plants have been studied. — (Gard. chronicle, May 26.) G. L. G. [1166

ZOÖLOGY.

(General physiology and embryology.) Spermatogenesis.-J. E. Bloomfield gives a résume of the recent papers by Duval, Hermann, Renson, Sabatier, and von Brunn on this subject, and points out that they confirm the old idea that the spermatozoa are developed in mother-cells, a part of which remains behind. (The general hypothetical bearing of this fact was first brought forward by Minot. Bloomfield, in an article on spermatogenesis, advanced this view again, and apparently still regards it as original with himself.)—(Quart. journ. micr. sc., 1883, 320.) C. s. M. [1167

་

The coloring-matters of the bile of invertebrates.-C. A. MacMunn communicates to the Royal society the results of a systematic examination of the bile and various extracts of the liver of mollusca and other invertebrates. The universal distribution is proved of a chlorophyll pigment, to which the name of enterochlorophyll' is applied. It can be found in the bile of specimens of Helix after a six-months fast, and is much more abundant in the liver of mollusca and echinoderms than in crustacea. The presence of reduced haematin is also demonstrated in the bile of several pulmonate mollusks. The bile of the cray-fish and most pulmonate mollusks contains haemochromogen, generally accompanied by enterochlorophyll, and appears in the latter group to be more concerned in aerial than aquatic respiration. He concludes that the so-called liver of invertebrates is a pigment producing and storing organ in addition to its functions connected with the production of digestive ferments. presence of haemochomogen is apparently connected rather with the mode of life of the invertebrates in which it occurs than distributed according to morphological considerations. A drawing of the microscopical structure of the liver of Limax, showing the enterochlorophyll within the liver-cells, and maps of the most important absorption spectra, described with readings reduced to wave-lengths, accompany the paper. (Nature, May 10.) w. H. D.

Protozoa.

The

[1168

Polemical about protozoa. In reply to the criticism of Bütschli (ante, 273) concerning the view maintained by Balbiani in regard to the conjugation of Infusoria, the latter points out that he accepts and has in part confirmed Bütschli's observations, but differs from him as to the conclusions to be drawn from them. From Balbiani's own statement, however, it appears that he has entirely changed his former theories, and essentially adopted Bütschli's; and in stating that his old views could still be essentially preserved he seems not ingenuous. (Zool. anz., vi. 192.)

Künstler also replies to Bütschli's assertion (ante, 269) that Künckelia gyrans is a Cercaria: it has no ventral sucker, it swims with the tail forward, and shows no trace of cellular organization. K., however, now admits that it is probably a metazoon larva, and not related to the Flagellata. (Zool anz., vi. 168.)

C. S. M.

[1169

Dimorphism of Foraminifera. It is stated by Munier-Chalmas and Schlumberger that in many genera of Miliolidae there are two forms of the species. Although the individuals are often alike exter

nally, they may be divided into two sets, according to the arrangement of the central chambers. Thus in Biloculina depressa, in form A the central round chamber is large, and the other chambers next it follow the bilocular arrangement; in form B, the central round chamber is very small, and those next it present the quinquelocular order, which, however, is soon suddenly replaced by the usual bilocular arrangement. This dimorphism is probably general in the group. The authors' first note on this subject is contained in the Bull. soc. géol. France (3), viii. 300; their second, in the Comptes rendus, March 26, 1883. · (Ann. mag. nat. hist., ii. 336.) c. s. M. [1170

Coelenterates.

Phylogeny of the Siphonophorae. - Fewkes points out the resemblance between the primitive scale of Agalma and the nectocalyx of Monophyes, as well as the close resemblance of the embryonic knobs of Agalma and Halistemma to the tentacular knobs of the Calycophores.

He believes that these resemblances are an indication of the point in the development of the Siphonophora where the separation of the Physophorae from the Calycophorae, or the separation of both groups from a stem form, took place. —(Amer. nat., June.) W. K. B.

(1171

New Brazilian medusa.-In his work on the deep-sea Medusae collected by the Challenger expedition, Haeckel describes an interesting genus, Drymoneura, represented by a single species from Gibraltar. Fr. Müller records the occurrence of a second species, Drymoneura Gorge, which he has found in 1857, 1860, and 1861, on the coast of Brazil. The Brazilian form was found in a very shallow inlet, and the genus cannot be regarded as a deep-sea form. (Zool. anz., no. 137.) W. K. B.

Insects.

[1172

Odonata of the Philippines. - Baron de Sélys gives a list of seventy-seven species, with descriptions of new species, and notes on those previously known. Twenty years ago hardly one was known from the region. The present paper is due to the collections of Semper; and, with the exception of Hypocnemus, which is figured, all the genera and even sub-genera are represented in other oriental countries. But forty-one of the species are peculiar to the Philippines. A single species of the otherwise wholly African genus Libellago occurs. (Anal. soc. esp. hist. nat., xi.) [1173

[1174 Jawo

Scolopendrella. In a new species described and figured from Massachusetts, peculiar for the robustness of the legs, Scudder finds the openings considered by Ryder as stigmata next the bases of the legs, but believes he has also found stigmata in the head, as in some Thysanura. He also compares the conical protrusion of the mouth-parts to those of Podura. - (Proc. Bost. soc. nat. hist., xxii. 64.) Growth of the ova in Chironomus. rowski advances some singular notions on this subject. The eggs grow directly from the blood, not at the expense of other cells, or by the intermediation of the follicular epithelium. In pupal life the amount of the blood is reduced to a minimum; when the eggs are discharged by the imago, they leave a large space; the blood flows in and partly fills it, so that there is less blood left in circulation than can sustain life; hence the insect dies. (It does not appear that the author's startling assertions rest upon any observed facts.) (Zool. anz., vi. 211.) C. s. M. [1175