April 28, 1898] 



NATURE 



615 



on '* beds of short straw, beneath which was a mattress of cattle 

 manure two spades deep," ought to be an impossibility at the 

 close of the nineteenth century. 



A PRELIMINARY report, by Mr. Milton Whitney, upon the 

 soils of the principal tobacco districts in the United States has 

 just been published by the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture. The tobacco-plant readily adapts itself to a great range 

 of cHmatic conditions, and will grow on nearly all kinds of soil, 

 but the flavour and quality of the leaf are greatly influenced by 

 the conditions of the climate and soil. So far as climate is con- 

 cerned, Mr. Whitney remarks that experience is the only safe 

 test as to the class of tobacco which can be produced under 

 given climatic conditions. Ordinary meteorological records 

 appear to be of little value in determining this point ; for the 

 tobacco-plant is more sensitive to meteorological influences than 

 the instruments. Even in such a famous tobacco region as 

 Cuba, tobacco of good quality cannot be grown in the immediate 

 vicinity of the ocean, or in certain parts of the island, even on 

 what would otherwise be considered good tobacco lands. This 

 has been the experience also in Sumatra and in the United 

 States, but the influences are too subtle to be detected by ordi- 

 nary meteorological instruments. Little, therefore, can be said 

 at the present time in regard to the suitable climatic condition 

 for tobacco of any particular type or quality. Under given 

 climatic conditions, the class and type of tobacco depend upon 

 the character of the soil, especially on the physical character of 

 the soil, upon which it is grown. The texture or coarseness of 

 the soil grains, and the water content, which is largely dependent 

 upon it, appears to determine and control the distribution of the 

 different widely distinct types of tobacco. This conclusion is 

 borne out by Mr. Whitney's mechanical analyses of tobacco 

 soils, consisting of separating the particles of soils into grades of 

 diff"erent sizes. The results show a very marked diff"erence in 

 the texture and physical properties of the soils adapted to the 

 diflferent classes, types, and grades of tobacco, and give a basis 

 for the classification of tobacco soils. 



Dr. Supan has a short article on antarctic exploration in 

 Petermann^s Miltheilungen. The German and English pro- 

 posals are described, and Bruckner's calculations of climatic 

 periods quoted to show that* the present is an exceptionally 

 favourable time for penetrating southward. The period of 

 Ross's voyages was probably much colder than the average. 



Dr. Erich von Drygalski publishes in Petennaiins 

 Mittheilungen a paper on ice movements, their physical causes, 

 and their geographical effects. The paper is in eff'ect an abstract 

 of results of the work of the Greenland expedition of the Berlin 

 Geselhchaft fiir Erdkilnde, published in full as a separate volume 

 in the course of last year. 



The April issue of the National Geographical Magazine is a 

 Klondike number, and contains several trustworthy articles on 

 the conditions, resources and future of Alaska and the Yukon 

 gold-fields. A map of the gold- and coal-fields of Alaska, and 

 showing also the principal steamer routes and trails, on a scale 

 of about fifty-seven miles to one inch, accompanies the papers 

 in the magazine. 



Nos. 5 and 6 of vol. xxxii. of the Zeitschrift der Geselhchaft 

 fiir Erdkitnde zii Berlin contain papers by Herr E. de Martonne 

 on the hydrography of the basin of the Upper Nile, by Dr. A. 

 Galle on Dr. Philippson's measurements of heights on the Greek 

 islands of the .Egean, on a new map of the eastern part of New 

 Britain by Freiherr von Schleinitz, and on journeys in the 

 Upper Amazon region by Dr. A. Rimbach. Herr E. de Mar- 

 tonne's paper is a review of the present state of knowledge re- 

 garding the Upper Nile, with a new orographical map and a 

 sketch of seasonal distribution of rainfall. 



NO. 1487, VOL. 57] 



Among the papers in the current number (April) of the 

 Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society are several of 

 scientific interest, in addition to papers on progress in the 

 methods and results of cultivation. Mr. C. C. Hurst describes 

 some curiosities of orchid breeding, and his experiments and 

 observations on hybrids are of distinct value. Prof. F. W. 

 Oliver has a paper on the depth in the soil at which plants 

 occur, and Prof. Geo. Henslow one on chrysanthemum sports. 



Among reprints of important pipers from the Botanical Gazette 

 we have received : — Winter characters of certain sporangia, 

 by Charles J. Chamberlain ; contributions to the life-history of 

 Ranunculus, by Prof. Coulter ; and a general review of the prin- 

 cipal results of Swedish research into grain-rust, by Prof. J. 

 Eriksson. The Swedish professor distinguishes eight distinct 

 forms of Puccinia which produce rust ; these being again arranged 

 under a number of secondary forms, dependent on the host-plant, 

 most of the primary forms being parasitic on several different 

 species. 



The views with regard to the origin of vertebrates, put forward 

 by Dr. W. H. Ga.skell, F.R.S., in his presidential address to 

 the physiological section of the British Association, at the 

 Liverpool meeting in 1896, are to be stated more fully in the 

 Journal of Anatomy and Physiology. The April number of the 

 Journal contains the first of a series of papers in which Dr. 

 Gaskell will fill in the details of evidence which were necessarily 

 omitted from his address. 



A COPY of Mr. Joseph Baxendell's report on the results of 

 observations made at the Southport Corporation Meteorological 

 Ob.servatory during 1897 has been received. A noteworthy 

 feature of the report is a comparative table showing the mean 

 annual meteorological statistics for every health resort in the 

 United Kingdom known to possess a meteorological station. 

 The systematic work done in the meteorological department of 

 the borough of Southport should encourage accurate health 

 resort climatology in general, and municipal meteorology in 

 particular. 



Included in the " Bergens Museums Aarbog " for 1897 is 

 Prof. R. Collett's interesting paper on Beavers in Norway, with 

 twelve plates reproduced from photographs of beaver lodges and 

 dams. The subjects of other papers are : — Generalisation of 

 some algebraic equations which present themselves in the theory 

 of elliptic functions ; a Sowerby Whale {Mesoplodon bidens. 

 Sow.), stranded on the west side of Karmo Island ; histological 

 studies of the structure of the eyes of certain marine annelids ; 

 a generalisation of the Lame equation ; the Lepidoptera of 

 North Bergen county; physical conditions and plankton of 

 Puddle fiord. 



In a memoir which appears in the Proceedings of the U.S. 

 National Museum (vol. xx. pp. 1-421, 1897), Mr. S. H. Scudder 

 describes in detail and discusses the classification of a group of 

 grasshoppers which forms the prevailing type of orthopteran 

 life throughout North America — the short-horned grasshopper 

 commonly seen in the United States, its best-known repre- 

 sentative to the world at large being the destructive migratory 

 Rocky Mountain Locust. The title of Mr. Scudder's paper is 

 "Revision of the Orthopteran Group Melanopli (Acridiidae), 

 with special reference to North American forms." 



The natural history societies of our public schools deserve 

 encouragement, for they create interest in natural things and 

 phenomena, and lead inquiring minds to make observations for 

 themselves. The reports of three .such societies, namely those 

 of Rugby, Wellington, and Cheltenham, showing the results of 

 observations, and containing abstracts of lectures, have been 

 received, and each of them is a creditable production. Among 



