Abstract
VOLUME 22 of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters contains communications upon a wide range of subjects including, inter alia, forestry, geography, anthropology, history and philosophy (Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters. Vol. 28 (1942). Pp. xiii + 701 + 52 plates. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press; London: Oxford University Press, 1943. 28s. net). Most of the botanical papers deal with the determination of species in the lower plants. There is an ambitious and critical monograph on the Leucopaxillus (toadstools) by R. Singer and A. H. Smith, with chemical and microscopical data. Several papers deal with tropical marine Algæ, and a number of new Red Algæ are described. G. W. Prescott and A. M. Scott give about a hundred good line drawings of American forms of Micrasterias (a desmid), including many known in Britain and several new ones. Finally may be mentioned a charming little paper on the pollen of a Swedish bog by E. Janson and E. Halpert, who wondered whether the European facts could be as clear-cut as have been reported, but found they were so. The zoological papers deal with various topics from Arthropods to reptiles. It is known that the common garter snake of North America can mate either in the autumn or in the spring. F. C. Blanchard has investigated the matter more fully and found evidence to show that effective mating occurs commonly in the autumn in the wild state. The offspring from such matings, if the females are kept isolated, exhibit normal Mendelian ratios in their colour pattern. In the wild, such females may copulate again in the spring and the resulting offspring show colour patterns that bear no relationship to any Mendelian ratio, and so it would appear that the actual insemination resulting from the autumn mating does not occur until after the spring mating. W. C. Beckman shows that in a number of game fishes in Michigan, temperature plays the leading part in the annulus formation in the scales. The mean temperature of the first days on which the majority of the scales showed an annulus is 58° F. An interesting paper by C. L. Hubbs and R. R. Miller deals with the influence of changed environment upon interspecific hybridization of two generations of Cyprinodont fishes.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters. Nature 155, 16–17 (1945). https://doi.org/10.1038/155016c0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/155016c0