up the expedition under the auspices of the Carnegie Institution to extend his researches on the desert flora, and on the journey down to Mexico the author tells us of their visit to the famous "Desert Botanical Garden" near Tucson, Arizona, of which Dr. MacDougal was one of the originators, and from which point the expedition outfitted. To those who have explored in the semi-arid regions of the western states the account given by Mr. Hornaday of their cross-country trip, recalls many familiar scenes. The cold mornings, the blistering hot days and the delightfully cool evenings are all features of a trip into the desert regions of the west. All the scenes along the trail are brought before the reader by pictures from pen and camera. The colored photographs are especially striking. Botanists will find an interesting account of the desert flora of southern Arizona and northern Mexico and the zoologist will find a description of the few animals which can manage to exist in this forlorn region. There is ever an attraction in the desert; even the barrenness of things and the apparent absence of all life make what little life there is all the more interesting. On the arrival of the party near the Pinacate region a long camp was made and short exploring trips were conducted from the main camp. This was made necessary from the fact that the character of the country forbade further progress with the wagons. At this place also occurred the only "row" of the trip. Old campers know how painful it is to have a "row" on in camp. It is painful for those immediately concerned and for those who have to witness it. some length and full of success. Their stay at Pinacate was of The and saw many interesting plants and photographed many new plants and craters which abounded there. The most abundant large mammal was the mountain sheep, Ovis canadensis. author gives, in chapter XXIV, a discussion of the geographical distribution of the mountain sheep and also the synonymy of the species and subspecies of this interesting group of ungulates. The last two chapters tell of the flight from Pinacate and the return to civilization. "The reaction from the steady and severe rush of the trip left us limp and spiritless, and it was four full days ere one member of the party began to feel quite like himself again." Thus ends the account of this unique exploring trip into the unknown regions of the southwest. ROY L. MOODIE. A Monthly Journal, established in 1867, Devoted to the Advancement of the Biological Sciences Placobdella Pediculata n. sp. ERNEST E. HEMINWAY. Biometry as a Method in Taxonomy. Professor CHARLES LINCOLN EDWARDS. Shorter Articles and Correspondence: The Genus Ptilocrinns, AUSTIN HOBART CLARK, A New Rhinoceros from the Lower Miocene of Nebraska, HAROLD JAMES COOK. Notes and Literature: Plant Cytology-Some Recent Research on the Cilia-forming Organ of Plant Cells, DR. BRADLEY M. DAVIS. Ornithology-Riddle on the Genesis of Fault-bars and the Cause of Alternation of Light and Dark Bars in Feathers, J. A. A Herpetology-Ruthven's Variations and Genetic Relationships of the Garter-snakes, J. A. A. Lepidoptera -Hybrid Lepidoptera, Professor T.D. A. COCKERELL Single Number 35 Cents CONTENTS OF SEPTEMBER NUMBER Embryology of Myosurus Minimus. DR. LEROY D. Another Aspect of the Species Question. DR. J. A. The Origin of the Lateral Eyes of Vertebrates Notes and Literature: Heredity-Spurious Allelo- CONTENTS OF THE NOVEMBER NUMBER Further Studies on the Activities of Araneads. Professor THOS. H. MONTGOMERY, Jr. Notes on the Daily Life and Food of Cambarus Bar- Some Points in the Ecology of Recent Crinoids, AUSTIN Shorter Articles and Correspondence: Evolution with- CONTENTS OF THE JANUARY NUMBER Juvenile Kelps and the Recapitulation Theory. Professor ROBERT F. GRIGGS. The Larva and Spat of the Canadian Oyster, Dr. J. Shorter Articles and Correspondence: Some Notes on Notes and Literature: Experimental Evolution-The WARD. Yearly Subscription, $4.00 The NATURALIST will be sent to new subscribers for four months for One Dollar Garrison, N. Y. Sub-Station 84: NEW YORK Lancaster, Pa. On the other hand, four arguments have been brought forward against the acceptance of such a law: (1) No such sexual phase has yet been demonstrated in any trypanosome. The history of science gives scant weight to such negative evidence, especially when one considers the minuteness of the organism and the refractory character of the object studied, the tsetse fly. (2) The sexual phase of the trypanosome may be passed in the vertebrate blood and thus the tsetse fly be a mere mechanical carrier. There is, however, no evidence favorable to this view, either in observation or by analogy. (3) The successful inoculation of the trypanosomes through a long series of vertebrate. hosts has been held to indicate that a sexual cycle is unnecessary. Yet similar laboratory transfer has been practised with the malarial plasmodium, for instance, though such a sexual cycle in the mosquito is demonstrated beyond all question. (4) An insect intermediary is apparently unnecessary in one trypanosome, that which causes dourine or mal du coit in horses, and therefore is not a biological necessity in any other species of trypanosome. This Sir Patrick Manson regards as the most formidable argument yet advanced against the law under discussion, but does not consider it as final. He devotes much space to the consideration of details in the case and the presentation of an alternative hypothesis which is too involved to reproduce in abstract. While the discussion presents many points of interest, yet the entire absence of experimental evidence in its support leaves this view as at present a bare working hypothesis. It may be added further that even the total rejection of this hypothesis does not necessitate the adaption of the view it combats. Much further investigation is needed before one can say with any confidence how the evidently exceptional case of the dourine trypanosome is to be explained. He concludes: "I hold, therefore, that the existence of a sexual phase in the sleeping-sickness trypanosome, T. gambiense, and other trypanosomes, is more than probable, and that it has not been disproved; that the argument founded on the natural direct communicability of dourine in the apparent absence of an insect intermediary for its germ, T. equiperdum, is not valid; and that the evidence hitherto adduced is distinctly in favor of a law to the effect that blood-haunting protozoa having arthropod vectors require, and make use of, these vectors for necessary sexual development. Why the sexual stage of these parasites is passed in the arthropod, and not in the vertebrate, I cannot explain, any more than I can explain the contrary arrangement which obtains in the blood-haunting nematodes, the sexual stage in their case being passed in the vertebrate host, the asexual in the insect. "I have no doubt, while listening to these remarks, it has occurred to some of you, as it has often occurred to me, that the principles I have endeavored to express have a wider application than that which I have directly indicated, that our disease germs and our ectozoainsignificant though the latter appear to be—are correlated more frequently than is generally suspected; that, in fact, there is a necessary relationship between them." HENRY B. WARD. EXPLORATION Camp-fires on Desert and Lava.1-Lovers of outdoor life in the far distant west will be delighted on opening W. T. Hornaday's recent work, "Camp-fires on Desert and Lava," to observe, on the back of the half title page, a figure of the omnipresent Eleodes in very characteristic attitude. This little black creature by his position seems to be pointing us heavenward, but far from it. He is ever ready to present us with a drop of sticky brown fluid which has a horrible odor and whose stain will withstand the strongest soaps. The beetle forms a fitting introduction to the delightful account which follows. The author needs no introduction to the reading public nor to the zoologist. To the one he is already well known by his previous volumes and to the other by his connection with the National Museum and with the New York Zoological Park as well as by his scientific writings, not the least important of which is his Extermination of the American Bison," published in 1889. Mr. Hornaday is an enthusiastic collector and observer. All those who follow him into the Pinacate region, described in the present work, will never regret it. 66 On our present maps the region visited by Mr. Hornaday and his friends is variously located; suffice it to say that it is in the northwestern part of Mexico and not many miles from the Gulf of California. Other The region was attractive for several reasons, among which was the one that it had never been explored by any scientist or if it had there was no record of it. reasons which attracted the party to the region were the possible presence of big game and for Dr. MacDougal, who originated the plan, there were untold new plants, of a type very interesting to him, to be discovered. Dr. D. T. MacDougal made 'William T. Hornaday, Camp-fires on Desert and Lava. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1908. up the expedition under the auspices of the Carnegie Institution to extend his researches on the desert flora, and on the journey down to Mexico the author tells us of their visit to the famous "Desert Botanical Garden" near Tucson, Arizona, of which Dr. MacDougal was one of the originators, and from which point the expedition outfitted. To those who have explored in the semi-arid regions of the western states the account given by Mr. Hornaday of their cross-country trip, recalls many familiar scenes. The cold mornings, the blistering hot days and the delightfully cool evenings are all features of a trip into the desert regions of the west. All the scenes along the trail are brought before the reader by pictures from pen and camera. The colored photographs are especially striking. Botanists will find an interesting account of the desert flora of southern Arizona and northern Mexico and the zoologist will find a description of the few animals which can manage to exist in this forlorn region. There is ever an attraction in the desert; even the barrenness of things and the apparent absence of all life make what little life there is all the more interesting. On the arrival of the party near the Pinacate region a long camp was made and short exploring trips were conducted from the main camp. This was made necessary from the fact that the character of the country forbade further progress with the wagons. At this place also occurred the only "row" of the trip. Old campers know how painful it is to have a "row" on in camp. It is painful for those immediately concerned and for those who have to witness it. Their stay at Pinacate was of some length and full of success. They secured much big game and saw many interesting plants and photographed many new plants and craters which abounded there. The most abundant large mammal was the mountain sheep, Ovis canadensis. The author gives, in chapter XXIV, a discussion of the geographical distribution of the mountain sheep and also the synonymy of the species and subspecies of this interesting group of ungulates. The last two chapters tell of the flight from Pinacate and the return to civilization. "The reaction from the steady and severe rush of the trip left us limp and spiritless, and it was four full days ere one member of the party began to feel quite like himself again." Thus ends the account of this unique exploring trip into the unknown regions of the southwest. ROY L. MOODIE. |