DECEMBER I I, I 890] NATURE 129

trees now under cultivation are moncecious, the tree perhaps longitudinal fibres, and, as it goes, destroys the "nature "
adapting itself to the enforced solitude of its new abode in of the wood, so that it snaps and crumbles under the slightest
gardens. However, it appears at present to he both moncecious pressure. I have had to deal with this pest in a range of cellars
and dicecious, like several other C oniferre. with a timber roof, and have found the best remedy to be re-
In the grounds at Beaufort Castle, near Inverness, are several peated applications of corrosive sublimate dissolved in methyl-
specimens of this Araucaria, producing only male or pollen- ated spirit freely painted on the timber, walls, or floor. wherever
bearing catkins. One, a particularly fine tree, has borne such the "cotton-wool" makes its appearance. I had to cut away
pendent cones for several years past. Last week I had the 8 feet in length of a 10-inch Memel beam which was permeated
opportunity of inspecting a rather famous Araucaria at Conan, by the mycelium, and rotten to the core. Between the end of
the seat of Sir Kenneth Mackenzie. This is said to be one of the this beam and the back of the recess in the brick wall in which
first three specimens introduced into Scotland ; the other two at it rested was a vacant space filled with the mature fungus full of
Edinburgh were, I believe, killed by the severe winter of 1860. spores. This was two years ago. I have been fighting the
The tree at Conan has lost all its lower branches, and has fungus ever since with the corrosive sublimate, and have nearly.
grown but little of late years ; it, however, yearly produces exterminated it. The first appearance of the cotton-wool should
the erect ovule-bearing cones, and about twelve years ago, these be attacked without delay. F. T. MOTT.
contained fertile seed. Specimens grown from the seed of that Birstal Hill, Leicester.
year are still thriving at Gairloch, on the north-west coast of
Scotland. No fertile seeds have been produced since; and as The Effect of Fog on Plants.
there was no other specimen certainly within several miles that
could have produced the necessary pollen, we must conclude in As my name appears somewhat prominently in your note on
the absence of direct evidence that this is a dicecious tree, and the important inquiry into the effect of fol,( on plants, may I
produced the more insignificant male catkins on the one explain that the experimental investigation of the subject from a
occasion only. I therefore need hardly point out that unless botanical point of view is entirely in the able hands of my friend,
the Araucaria at Inveraray js also provided with male flowers, or Dr. Oliver?
some other specimen similarly provided grows in the neighbour- I am prepared, as stated in the Scientific Committee's
hood, the Duke of Argyll may assuredly expec' his lawn to be circular, to examine any specimens of plants affected by fog
strewn next year with only empty seed-vessels. which may be sent to me, but my share in the work does not go
In answer to Mr. Gardiner, I may remark that I could detect beyond this.
no difference in habit or foliage between the dicecious male tree The inquiry is of very great interest, both to horticulturalists
at Beaufort and the moncecious one at Conan; th~ latter, however, and botanists, and I am glad that it has been noticed in the
is so much damaged as to render c ,mparison difficult. columns of NATURE. D. H. SCOTT.
ADRIAN \VELD-BLUNDELL. Royal Collt'ge of Science, South Kensington,
The Abbey, Fort Augustus, November 30. London, S. W., December 6.

Great Waterfalls.
YOUR correspondent, Mr. A. D. \Vebster, in your issue
of November 20 (p. 57), states that the male catkins of the WOULD yon allow me to supplement my inquiries published
above tree are extremely rare as compared with the fruiting in last week's NATURE (p. 105) by asking for a description of
cones. If this is the case, though my own observations would the Pamham-arivy Falls in India, of which I have only the fol-
have led me to the contrary opinion-the following instances lowing brief note :-" In the Travancore Hills between Tine-
may be of interest. I have observed the male catkins on a tree velly and Travancore is situate the magnificent Pambam-arivy,
in the cemetery of this town for two or three successive years, in or Snake Fall. It is a double fall, descending in the first
considerahle quantities. In the grounds at The Elms, Hough- plunge from the cliff edge 1200 feet, and it can be seen from a
ton, Hunts., there is a tree which for several years past has distance of forty miles." ARTHUR G. GUJLLEMARD.
borne large quantities of the male "amen ta," giving to it, as your Eltham, Kent, December 9.
correspondent describes, a very striking appearance. Another
tree in the same grounds has this year produced a single speci-
men of the same nature, while a third, of the opposite sex, is A Band of Light.
also developing a fruiting cone, which will doubtless, in the near THE account of the so-called comet that was seen by Mr.
proximity of the pollen-bearing ones, perfect its seeds. Eddie at Grahamstown (see NATURE, November 27, p. 89)
Among specimens of the male catkins that I possess from the reminds me of the phenomenon seen some years ago in this
latter place is one which is "double," the floral axis heing bifid. country during an auroral display. A band of light, in shape
It has occurred to me that this may be some slight indication as somewhat resembling a comet, "as seen to move across the
to the much-vexed question of the morphology of the "amen ta," ?ky, rising in the north-east and disappearing in the north-west;
whether each consists of a series of monandrous flowers or con- It moved, however, much faster than the comet-like body lately
stitutes a single po!J1androus one; the above monstrosity seeming o~served, being in sight, as far as I remember, only one or two
to point towards the former, as the bifurcation of the axis of an mmutes, C. C.
in.florescence is a c,1mmon phenomenon, that of a single .flower Trinity College, Cambridge.
being, on the contrary, much rarer.
I am not sure whether I should be right in generalizing from
the comparatively few fruiting examples I have seen, but in the Some Habits of the Spider.
cases which have come under my ob,ervation the feu,ale trees have IN default of any other it may be worth while to call to mind
been more distantly branched than the male, where the ramifica- the following record of the habit of certain spiders, alluded to
tion is considerably closer and more luxuriant. by "A. S. E." :-" He saw great spiders with crowns and
Northampton, December 3. H. N. DIXON. crosses, marked on their backs, who sat in the middle of their
webs, and when they saw Tom coming, shook them so fast that
they became invisible'' (Kingsley, '' Water Babies," p. 40).
Dry-rot Fungus. W.E,H.
THE "beautiful growth of fungus covering the wall and floor
(in a wine-cellar) to a depth of 4 inches, suggesting cotton-wool
m form and colour," referred to by '' M. H. M.," is the de- BOTAN!CAL ENTERPRISE IN THE WEST
structive dry-rot (Merulius lacrymans), and I would advise IND/ES.
your correspondent to make war upon it without delay. The
DURING the last twelve years considerable effort has
~ott?n-_wool form is an early stage of the fungus. If· neglected,
1t will m a few months develop a leathery sheet, sen<iing out been made to enlarge the sphere of action of the
toug~ leathery cords a quarter of an inch thick, with spore- botanical organizations in the West Indies. At the
bearmg folds of a rusty colour. These spores will scatter beginning of the period there were only two botani-
themselves all over the cellar, and will be difficult to cal establishments in this part of the world, one at
eradicate. The mycelium of the fungus buries itself in Jamaica and the other at Trinidad. Since that time an
any kind of wood, especially deal, runs rapidly down the important botanical garden has been successfully
NO. I 102, VOL. 43]
© 1890 Nature Publishing Group