1899] SERIALS 457 
Mentone skeletons, with their associated relics, as approaching, in their general 
facies, more to Palaeolithic than to Neolithic civilisation. 
(3) Salomon Reinach (Un nowveaw texte sur Vorigine du commerce de 
Vétain) 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 Nuturalistes, 
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 /ewille be evergreen, is our sincere wish ! 
Sczence 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 Jrish Naturalist for October, Dr. Scharff describes an interesting 
variety of Limaxr marginatus, Miill. (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 
molluses (Paryphanta, Rhytida, Eudodonta, Scalaria, etc.), and Mr. J. Cosmo 
Melvill and Mr. Edgar A. Smith contribute illustrated papers describing new 
species, 
The Vaturalist 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 Naturalist 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. 8. 
Williams—“ Botanical Notes on the way to Dawson, Alaska.” It describes 
