1899] SERIALS 457 



Mentone skeletons, with their associated relics, as approaching, in their general 

 fades, more to Palaeolithic than to Neolithic civilisation. 



(3) Salomon Reinack (JJn nouveau texte sur Vorigine du commerce de 

 retain) combats the generally accepted opinion that, from the earliest times, the 

 Phoenicians had a monopoly of the tin trade from the Cassiterides to the 

 eastern shores of the Mediterranean until they were dispossessed of it by the 

 Romans. He sets himself, with his usual facility in linguistic researches, to 

 prove the following propositions : (1) that the Phoenician trade in tin has not 

 been attested prior to the year 600 B.C.; (2) that the Phoenicians had not a 

 monopoly of this commerce at any time ; and (3) that the Greeks themselves 

 never attributed to the Phoenicians, but to another people, the first commercial 

 intercourse with the Cassiterides. His opinion is that the maritime commerce 

 in tin was discovered by the barbarians of Western Europe, but only long after 

 they became acquainted with the value of the metal, and the regions where it 

 was to be found, through its transmission to the East by land routes. This 

 view he considers to be in harmony with the archaeological evidence, which 

 shows the diffusion of tin, amber, spiral ornaments, the types of bronze weapons 

 and other objects, throughout the whole of Central and North-Western Europe 

 during the Bronze Age. 



We have to congratulate our contemporary, La Feuille des Jeunes NaUiralistes, 

 and the editor, Mr. Adrien Dollfus, on the fact that the November number 

 begins the thirtieth year of the journal's existence. To Mr. Jean Dollfus 

 thanks are due for his liberal assistance, which has made it possible to continue 

 the modest price, and to form the valuable library which is at the disposal of 

 the journal's readers. May La Feuille be evergreen, is our sincere wish ! 



Science for October 20 has an interesting article by Walter T. Swingle, U.S. 

 Department of Agriculture, on the dioecism of the fig on its bearing upon 

 caprification, a paper read before Section G of the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science at the Columbus meeting. 



In the Irish Naturalist for October, Dr. Scharff describes an interesting 

 variety of Limax marginatus, Mull. (var. nov. niger). Specimens were found 

 during a preliminary survey of the MacGillicuddy's Reeks, at an altitude of 

 2500 to 3100 feet. 



The October number of the Journal of Conchology contains, amongst 

 other articles, a very useful synopsis of the American species of Diplodontidae, 

 by Professor Dall, and an interesting paper by Mr. Edgar A. Smith, in which 

 fourteen new species of South African marine shells are described and figured. 



The Rev. A. H. Cooke contributes an important paper to the Journal of 

 Malacology on the " Nomenclature of the British Nudibranchiata," to which 

 is appended a revised classification of the group, based upon Bergh. In the 

 same number Mr Henry Suter has an interesting paper on some New Zealand 

 molluscs (Paryphanta, Rhytida, Eudodonta, Scalaria, etc.), and Mr. J. Cosmo 

 Melvill and Mr. Edgar A. Smith contribute illustrated papers describing new 

 species. 



The Naturalist for November contains, inter alia, articles on Lincolnshire 

 Phalangidea, by Rev. E. A. Woodruffe-Peacock ; on Lincolnshire Diptera, by the 

 Rev. A. Thornley ; on the modern tendency of mycological study, by Mr. 

 Massee ; and on the chemistry of the Lakeland trees, by Dr. Keegan. 



The Irish Naturcdist for November contains a long review of Dr. Scharff's 

 " History of the European Fauna," by Mr. G. E. H. Barrett-Hamilton. 



In the Plant World, No. 11, vol. ii. 1899, the first paper is by R. S. 

 Williams — "Botanical Notes on the way to Dawson, Alaska." It describes 



