3i8 NATURAL SCIENCE. ^\^: 



has an especially important bearing on the question of great recent changes of level 

 in the land of the Caribbean region. In the May number of the Pror^^^f/w^s 0/ //jc 

 Geologists' Association (vol. xii., pt. 7) two great problems are discussed. Professor 

 J, F. Blake treats of the evolution of the Cephalopoda, and alludes to some general 

 principles they seem to illustrate ; Mr. H. B. Woodward discusses the subject of 

 life-zones in sedimentary rocks, with special reference to his researches in the Jurassic 

 Formation. The most generally interesting paper in the new issue of the Transactions 

 of the Manchester Geological Society (vol. xxi., pts. 16, 17) is Professor Williamson's 

 personal account of his early geological researches (1835 and onwards) in the 

 neighbourhood of Manchester. Another geological paper appears in the last part 

 oi the Mem. Manchester Lit. and Phil. Soc. (ser. 4, vol. iv.), in which Mr. W. Brockbank 

 attempts to prove the Permian age of the St. Bees Sandstone. There is also a 

 brief valuable contribution to geology in the May number of the Proceedings of the 

 Royal Geographical Society (vol. xiv., No. 5), in which Mr. R. M. W. Swan 

 supplements Mr. Theodore Bent's paper on Mashonaland with some geological 

 observations. Central Mashonaland, it appears, consists of elevated granite plateaux, 

 varying from 3,000 to 5,000 feet in height. Groups of isolated little granite hills 

 rise above the plateaux ; and the only other rocks represented are quartzite and 

 schists, with some crystalline limestones. 



The Royal Agricultural Society of England has issued eight diagrams illus- 

 trating the growth of the Wheat Plant, with explanatory notes by Mr. Carruthers, its 

 consulting botanist. They are published by Messrs. W. & A. K. Johnston, at los. 

 the set, and form a most instructive and beautiful series. The diagrams are repro- 

 ductions of original drawings by Francis Bauer, now in the Botanical Department 

 of the British Museum, and as Mr. Carruthers states, and as all who have seen any 

 of the artist's drawings will fully credit, no more careful study or faithful repre- 

 sentations of wheat have ever been made. "The diagrams and notes are prepared 

 for the use of farmers, principally in view of the present interest in technical educa- 

 tion, and of the senior scholars in country schools, whose studies are being directed 

 to subjects that will engage their attention through life." The first sheet deals with 

 the structure of the grain, the second with its germination, and the third with the 

 young plant. In the next three the growth and development of the flower and ear 

 are fully illustrated ; the seventh shows the ripening of the grain, and the last the 

 structure of the " straw " or stem of the plant. The figures are very clear, and 

 each is carefully described in the notes, where the physiological functions as well 

 as the anatomy of the parts are explained in simple scientific language, while the 

 author has been careful to avoid errors and keep the information up to date. 



The Royal Academy of Sciences and Letters of Denmark offers a prize of 

 600 kroner for an original treatise on the Natural History of certain marine fishes 

 of the northern European seas. The work should comprise the complete life-history 

 of the fish dealt with, may be written in Danish, Swedish, English, German, French, 

 or Latin, and must be sent in by October, 1894. Further particulars can be obtained 

 from the Secretary, Dr. H. G. Zeuthen, University of Copenhagen. 



Mr. G. W. Lamplugh has been appointed an Assistant-Geologist on the 

 Geological Survey of England and Wales. Mr. Lamplugh is well known through 

 his researches on the Geology of East Yorkshire, and more especially on the Glacial 

 Drifts in the neighbourhood of Bridlington and Flamborough Head, and on the 

 Speeton Clay. He has also studied Glacial phenomena in Vancouver Island. The 

 appointment of so experienced a geologist will add greatly to the strength of the 

 Geological Survey, and we understand that he will carry on the work of mapping 

 in the Isle of Man. 



