238 NATURAL SCIENCE. Oct., 



number of letters from various sporting papers relating how the 

 writers saw young adders issuing from the mouths of old adders, or, 

 in rarer cases, how they had seen or heard of their going in. 

 Unfortunately, the pamphlet establishes no more than that there is a 

 strong belief among gamekeepers, countrymen, and sportsmen. The 

 pamphlet ends with a letter from Brusher Mills, of Clayton Hill, 

 Lyndhurst, who declares that he has seen hundreds go in and out of 

 the old adder's mouth, and offering to "show this to any gentleman 

 who likes to come and see him in the last week of July or first week 

 of August." We ourselves know Brusher Mills and know well that 

 he has seen as many adders as anyone, and has caught more than 

 anyone else. But, unfortunately, he was unable to win the reward 

 of £5 offered by the Field, or of £1 offered by Mr. Tegetmeier. 



A Botanical Station in Central Africa. 



The Foreign Office Report C. 7829-2 contains some interesting 

 information on the botanical and agricultural resources and prospects 

 of :the Shire-highlands. The writer, Mr. Alexander Whyte, who is 

 head of the Scientific Department, gives an account of his successful 

 effort to establish a botanical garden at Zomba. The results seem to 

 show that Zomba is eminently suited for the experimental cultivation 

 of food-plants and other plants of economic value. English potatoes 

 grown from seed turned out remarkably well. By constant selection, 

 several large, well-formed, mealy varieties were obtained, equal in 

 flavour to any English potatoes. Happily, too, they show no sign of 

 disease. Barley and oats from English seeds were successful, while 

 wheat grown from seed obtained from the missionaries at Tanganyika 

 yielded at the rate of nine bushels to the acre, without manure. A 

 series of conifers, cypress, thuja, and the Milanji W iddvingtonia grew 

 to an average height of five feet in two-and-a-half years, while some 

 eucalypti shot up forty-five feet in the same period. A large terrace 

 flower-garden made a brilliant display ; balsams, phlox, zinnia, 

 mignonette, and others seeded so freely that they became garden 

 weeds. Geraniums grew to the height of hedges, and sunflowers and 

 dahlias shot up into tall, shrub-like plants. Petunias, pinks, 

 carnations, and, in fact, most of the plants experimented with were 

 successful. 



Mr. Whyte strongly advises extensive cultivation of indiarubber 

 and gutta-percha yielding plants. The cheapness of land and labour 

 would make the former at any rate a most remunerative venture. 

 Fibre-plant cultivation would also admirably suit the natives. 

 Unfortunately, the formidable tsetse fly will seriously interfere with 

 the introduction and rearing of domestic stock, while a gad fly 

 (Tabanus latipes) the size and shape of a large blue-bottle fly, is also 

 most harassing to horses and cattle. Though said to be a great 

 scourge in East Africa, the latter is seldom met with in Nyasaland. 



