84 



NATURE 



[May 23, 1889 



compared with the parental forms from which they had 

 emanated. The result of this correspondence with 

 orchid-growers of all classes in all countries, as well as 

 with collectors and botanists, was that the Hamburg Pro- 

 fessor became the depositary of the greatest amount of 

 orchid-lore yet accumulated, and the possessor of the 

 largest stores of materials relating to the order. Un- 

 happily his synthetic faculty was by no means so strong 

 as his acquisitive tendencies were great and as his 

 analytical powers were developed ; so that much is left 

 for his successors to accomplish in collating and expound- 

 ing his work. In no place in the world can this be done 

 so readily as at Kew, so that on all accounts it is earnestly 

 to be hoped that the late Professor's herbarium and 

 notes may find their way to that establishment, where 

 Lindley's collections are already enshrined. 



Reichenbach was almost exclusively a systematise He 

 had little to say on morphological questions, and less on 

 the biological points which lend such great interest to 

 the study of the order. Speculations were made the sub- 

 ject of sarcasm by him, and to the last it may be doubted 

 whether he had any great amount of sympathy with 

 those researches which have furnished the clue to the 

 explanation of the extraordinary and highly diversified 

 structure of orchid-flowers, and illustrated alike its genetic 

 and its physiological significance. Nevertheless, as in 

 his lifetime he was constantly and disinterestedly at the 

 service alike of his brother naturalists and of the orchid- 

 growing community, shrinking from no labour or trouble 

 where an orchid was concerned, so in that future recon- 

 struction of the order on morphological and physiological 

 principles which is inevitable, the botanist, be he who 

 he may, will find himself as much indebted to the labours 

 of Reichenbach, as unable to proceed without constant 

 reference to them, as are the students of the present day. 

 His title to our gratitude is indefeasible ; it will be even 

 more so to our successors. 



NOTES. 



The Croonian Lecture, " Les Inoculations Preventives," will 

 be delivered at the Royal Society to-day, by Dr. Roux, of the 

 Pasteur Institute, Paris. 



The ship Hvidjlimen arrived at Copenhagen on May 21 from 

 Greenland, having on board Dr. Fridtjof Nansen and his com- 

 panions, who succeeded in crossing Greenland from east lowest 

 on snow shoes. The members of the expedition received an 

 enthusiastic welcome from a large crowd. 



The anniversary meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, 

 for the election of President, Council, &c., will be held in the 

 hall of the University of London, Burlington Gardens, on Mon- 

 day, May 27, at 2.30 p.m., General R. Strachey, F.R. S., 

 C.S.I., President, in the chair. After the presentation of the 

 Royal medals for the encouragement of geographical science and 

 discovery, the annual address on the progress of geography during 

 the year will be delivered by the President. 



An International Congress of Chronometry will be opened 

 at the National Observatory, Paris, on September 7. An in- 

 fluential organizing Coinmittee has been formed, of which Vice- 

 Admiral de Fauque de Jonquieres has accepted the presidency. 

 Those who wish to become members should communicate with 

 the secretary, M. E. Caspari. 



Congregation has approved of the nomination of Dr. 

 William Huggins, F.R. S., as a visitor of the Oxford University 

 Observatory, in place of the late Dr. Warren de la Rue. 



According to the Rome Correspondent of the Daily News, 

 the Pope has decreed, owing to the wishes expressed by Padre 

 Denza more than a year ago, that the works for the Astronomical 



Observatory, to be erected in the Vatican, are to be begun at once. 

 The site selected is the tower over the rooms occupied by the 

 Master of the Sacred College, it being the most elevated building 

 of the Vatican Palace. The cost is estimated at a .million of 

 francs. 



Mr. W. p. Johnston, Government Electrician, Calcutta, 

 died on April 23, at Darjeeling. According to Allen^s Indian 

 Mail, Mr. Johnston had served for over twenty years in the 

 Indian Telegraphs, and had specially distinguished himself in 

 the scientific branch of the Department, his researches in con- 

 nection with duplex telegraphy, the working of river cables 

 and long stretches of land lines, having been unusually productive 

 of good results. He was also one of the first to improve the 

 telephone after its introduction into India. 



It is reported in the Chinese Press that the Marquis Tseng, so 

 well known in Europe as the Ambassador of China to this 

 country, has been appointed to the control of the Foreign 

 Science College in Pekin. 



Prof. Milne, of the University of Tokio, whose work in 

 connection with the investigation of earthquake phenomena is 

 well known to all readers of this journal, is in England for a 

 short time on leave of absence. 



Dr. John Gibson, who has for some time been engaged in 

 superintending the physical work of the Fishery Board for Scot- 

 land, has recently completed a series of investigations which are 

 likely to throw considerable light on the problems connected with 

 ocean currents. The detailed results will appear in the next 

 Annual Report of the Fishery Board ; but from a preliminary 

 note communicated to the Royal Society of Edinburgh it appears 

 that two chemically distinct kinds of sea water are present in the 

 North Sea. The difference between these two waters is rendered 

 perfectly distinct by sufficiently accurate determinations of the 

 relation between chlorine and density, and is not due to river 

 water flowing into the North Sea. Water in which the relative 

 proportion of chlorine is high reaches the North Sea from the 

 surface of the Atlantic, round the north of Scotland and also 

 through the English Channel, while water in which the relative 

 proportion of chlorine is low flows into the North Sea from the 

 north, and has been found on the surface as far north as 79° 

 N. lat. Ttie determinations of chlorine and density in the 

 samples of ocean water collected during the Challenger Expedi- 

 tion, as published in the Challenger Reports, seem to show that 

 similar differences of composition exist in ocean waters. To 

 judge from these determinations, the mass of ocean water, 

 especially in southern latitudes, approximates in chemical com- 

 position to that flowing as above mentioned into the North Sea 

 from the surface of the Atlantic. The water in which the r'jla- 

 tive proportion of chlorine is less appears to have been met with 

 chiefly to the north of the equator and to the south-west rf the 

 principal outlets from the Arctic Ocean. This, as well as its 

 chemical composition, seems to point to an Arctic origin. 



A severe earthquake occurred at Plevlje, in Bosnia, at 

 3.43 a.m., on May 8. It lasted three seconds, the direction of 

 the shocks being from west to east. 



Several shocks of earthquake occurred on April 26 in 

 Schwyz, and at Schaffhausen and Wilchingen. 



On May 20 a waterspout burst over the district of Crimmitz- 

 schau, in Saxony. Two persons were drowned at the town of 

 that name, and a third at the neighbouring village of Lauterbach. 



The British Consul at San Jose, in Costa Rica, in his latest 

 report says that a Meteorological Institute has been established 

 at San Jose, and several useful observations have been taken, 

 especially of recent earthquakes. He adds that the year 

 1888 did not have a very propitious closing, for just two days 



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