Dec. 9, 1875] 



NATURE 



117 



its position, has a more southern stamp. This appears partly by 

 Novaya Zemlya being much richer in species than Spitzbcrgen, 

 of which species several occur which belong to families not 

 represented on Spitzbergen, and partly by the vegetation of 

 Novaya Zemlya being richer in individuals. At many places, 

 especially in the more southerly parts of the land and the inte- 

 rior of the fiords, the ground is covered with thickly-matted 

 plants, to which there is nowhere on Spitzbergen anything corre- 

 sponding. Their closeness and variety of colour often awoke 

 our surprise and astonbhment. The phanerogamic vegetation 

 of Novaya Zemlya connects itself by means of common species 

 not only with that of Spitzbergen, but also with the floras of 

 Arctic America and northern Noiway, and that of the shores of 

 the Gulf of Bothnia and the Asiatic Continent. 



" The more southern character exhibited by the phanert^amic 

 vegetation of Novaya Zemlya, as compared with that of Spitz- 

 bergen, is as good as absent in its marine algje. The same 

 dissimilarity is also apparent with regard to the fauna. The 

 land fauna is more southern, the marine fauna is high Arctic. 

 The most of the marine algae known to exist at Spitzbergen are 

 found at Novaya Zemlja, and of the species collected here there 

 is only ore that is wanting on the coaits of Spitzbergen. 



" Of fresh-water algse, mosses, and lichens, we have made 

 considerable collections. Of mushrooms, on the contrary, we 

 obtained very few. Either it was a bad mushroom year on 

 Novaya Zemlya, or else, what is less probable, this class of 

 plants is very sparingly distributed on these islands. 



" As on the coasts of Greenland and Spitzbergen, so in the 

 paits of the Polar Sea we now visited, the surface cf the sea at 

 certain places which appear to be sharply defined is quite full of 

 diatomace^e. A belt of special richness we found on the north 

 coast of Noiway, extending in an easterly direction from North 

 Cape to the mouth of Tana Fiord ; another, less rich and of less 

 extent, we found in the neighbourhood of the Samoyede 

 peninsula. 



" Through the researches of Th. von Heuglin, we have already 

 a good knowledge of the vertebrates of Ncvaya Zemlya. The 

 attention of our zoologists has, however, (been directed to this 

 group of animals, and by their obser>atioEs our knowledge of 

 them has been very considerably extended. This specially holds 

 good of the birds. 



" Along the whole west coast south of Matotschkin Scharr, as 

 well in the open sea as in the fiords and sound where we sailed 

 through and lay at anchor, dredging has been assiduously earned 

 on. The rich collections thus made will certainly, when they 

 are examined, afford a very complete idea of animsil life in this 

 region. Few species of animals were previously known as 

 existing here, and as to the distribution of the different species 

 along that extensive coast all information has hitherto been 

 wanting, 



" Among the zoological work'a conspicuous, place is occupied 

 by a rich insect collection by which the knowledge that we pre- 

 viously had of Xo^"ay a Zemlya's insect world will be very consi- 

 derably extended. Formerly frcm this region only four or five 

 species of insects were known. The expedition's collection con- 

 sists of about 5cx> specimens, and includes numercus representa- 

 tives of nearly all the orders of insects. 



" Most important, however, in a zoological aspect, appear to 

 me the numercus dredgings which were carried on in the Kara 

 Sea, and which prove that in this sea there is, as has been 

 already mentioned, abundant animal life of very various types. 

 The collections made here are large, and must be specially valu- 

 able for zoological science as coming from a considerable region 

 of the Polar Sea, of which the zcology is little known, but espe- 

 cially because this extent cf sea exhibits in different tracts so 

 considerable dissimilarities with respect to depth, content of salt 

 in the w ater, &c. " 



BOTANICAL NOTES 

 The Calcutta Botamcal Gardens. — Dr. King's report on 

 the Royal Botanical Gardens, Calcutta, for the year ending 

 March 31, 1875, to which we have recently referred (vol. xii 

 p. 541), contains some interesting notes on the cultivation 

 of useful plants, especially the Para rubber plant (Haea bra' 

 zilunsis) and the Ipecacuanha {Cephalis iftcacuanha). With 

 regard to the former. Dr. King is of opinion that the plants 

 will not thrive in that part of India. Mr. Collins, in his report 

 on the Caoutchouc plants, describes the Ileitas as growing in 

 their native country in situations where the heat is not generally 

 abov« 87' Fahr. in the afternoon, and below 74° at night, and 



shows, on the authority of Wallace, that the temperature in the 

 caoutchouc districts during three years only once reached to 

 95°, the greatest heat being about 2 p.m., when it rarges frcm 

 89° to 04°, ar.d never lower than 73°. The meteorological 

 returns for Calcutta show a wide difference between the 

 Brazilian and the Indian climates. Another Caoutchouc 

 plant, however, the Vahia madagascariemiSy Boj., a climb- 

 ing apocyreous shiub, native of Madagascar, premises to 

 thrive much better than the Hnta. The fact of the plant 

 being of climbing habit militates considerably against its 

 value as a cu]ti\ated plant, owirg to the difficulty in pro- 

 viding supports as well as in obtaining the caoutchouc. Never- 

 theless, it is a kind highly valued in the English market, rea- 

 lising a price next to Para rubber. With regaid to Ipecacuanha, 

 which has been shown to require much care and attention as to 

 soil and situation, we leam that a number of sets of plants were 

 put out during the early part of the year at different spots at low 

 elevations in the Cinchona reserve at Sikkim ; warm, well shel- 

 tered situations, with good virgin soil, were chosen. "Some 

 of the plants thus put cut were protected by the natural shade of 

 the forest, others by a sloping thatch of grass. Until the arrival 

 of the cold weather all went well, but the unusually low tem- 

 perature that prevailed during that season was fatal to the ma- 

 jority of the plants." Dr. King further says that he is " driven 

 reluctantly to the conclusion that it is doubtful whether ipecacu- 

 anha can be successfully cultivated as an out-door crop in 

 Sikkim."' Further trials, however, are to be made before its expe- 

 rimental culti^•ation is recommended to be abandoned. 



Eucalyptus glolulus has had its share of attention in India, 

 and without considering the question of the truth or otherwise 

 of its reputed value, it is proved that although it grows quickly 

 and with vigour on the Neilgherries and Khasia bills at 5, coo 

 to 8,cco feet above the sea, it cannot be induced to hve even for 

 a year or two in the hot plains of India. Dr. King's desaiption 

 of the fine old Banyan tree, " one of the greatest cmiosities and 

 ornaments of the place," will, we are sure, be read with interest. 

 He says : *' Although 'considerably damaged by the cj'clone ot 

 1864, which carried away two of its largest arms, this fine tree 

 continues to grow vigorously. It now covers an area of ground 

 8co feet in circumference ; its trurk girths 51 feet, and from its 

 Lratches no fewer tlan 170 aerial roots are sent down to the 

 ground, some of them being more than ten feet in circumference. 

 This fine old tree supports quite a colony of orchids, ferns, and 

 creeping plants of about twenty distinct species, and gives shelter 

 to innumerable birds. Its exact age is not known, but, con- 

 sidering how rapidly banyans grow, it probably dees not much 

 exceed that of the garden, and is therefore less than a century." 



Gum Arabic. — In a recent number of the Jitzne a'cs ScUncts 

 NaturelUs, Prof. Charles Martins, of Montpelier, draws atten- 

 tion to a pecxdiar mode of exudation of gum arable frcm the 

 Acacia zcrek of Senegal. On the authority of Schweinfurtb, 

 quoted in the " Phannacographia," p. 2c6, it is stated that this 

 tree, exclusively, jields the fine white gum of the countries bor- 

 dering the Upper Nile, and especially of Koidofan. It is 

 described as growing to a height cf about twenty feet, and 

 though the gum is one of the principal productions of the colony, 

 being collected in large quantities by the Moors, who exchange 

 it for European commodities, no notice occurs of any peculiarity 

 in its formation or collection ; indeed, it is stated that "the gum 

 generally exudes fiom the trees sjwntaneously, in sufficient 

 abundance to render wotmding the bark suj)erfluous. The 

 Somali tnbes of East Africa, however, are in the habit of pro- 

 moting the outflow by making long incisions in the stem and 

 branches of the tree. In Kordofan the lumps of gum are broken 

 off with an axe, and collected in baskets." Prof. Martins shows 

 that the exudation of the gum is often promoted by the growth 

 of a species of Loranthus, his observations being founded on 

 actual sp)ecimens of branches of the Acacia upon which the 

 parasite had formed. In several instances the gmn had exuded 

 in a veimicular form always at the point cf union of the parasite 

 with the stock. This union of the two plants forms, as is usual 

 with other I^oranthaceous species, an irr^ular, gnarled-like pro- 

 tuberance, from which are given off' both the branches of the 

 Acacia and also of the Loranih, each of which is very distinct 

 frcm the other, those of the Acacia being spiny and more 

 slender than those of the parasite. Rather than this mode of 

 exudation being rare, it would seem to be of frequent occurrence. 

 M. Martins considers the parasite to be a new species of 

 Loranthios, for which he proposes the name of Loranthus senc' 

 galensis, placing it near L. pfniagonia, DC. 



