November io, 1910] 



NATURE 



49 



peculiarity in carnations and certain species of Dianthus 

 was observed many years ago (see " Vegetable Terato- 

 togy." P- 37'' **>' ^*- ^- ^'asters). An example is illus- 

 trated in the Botanical Magazine, Tab. 1622, in which 

 ' one bud has developed into a perfect double flower, and 

 several others are exactly similar to those sent by our 

 correspondent. Earlier than this, Linnaeus had met with 

 a similar malformation, and given it the name of 

 imbricatus. The distorted flower buds so nearly resemble 

 ears of wheat that they are known as " wheat ear " 

 carnations. It is not known what causes the suppression 

 of the other parts of the flower and the increase in the 

 number of bracts, but Masters pointed out that the con- 

 dition is met with frequently in a species of Moesa, in 

 Piantago major, and in Gentiana Amarella. 



Hitherto agricultural chemists have concentrated atten- 

 tion mainly on those constituents of the soil that are 

 essential to the production of plant food, but recently 

 attempts have been made to ascertain the effect of the 

 non-essential or the rarer constituents. The investigations 

 at Woburn are well known. Mr. Failyer, of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture Bureau of Soils, has 

 published (Bulletin 72) a number of analyses showing that 

 barium is present in most soils in the United States, 

 especially in soils derived from rocks containing barite 

 deposits or from the Rocky Mountains. The quantity 

 sometimes rose near to o-i per cent. Felspar is also 

 a source of barium. It appears probable that the soil 

 moisture, which plays a part in the nutrition of plants, 

 contains barium salts, and cases are on record where 

 barium has occurred in the plant ash. Its presence there 

 would be injurious to animals, and may perhaps be the 

 f-.-iuse of some of the unexpected results occasionally pro- 

 .-ed by vegetation. 



M. Aug. Chevalier, in a letter on his explorations in 

 Upper Dahomey, published in the last number of La 

 Geographic (October 15), mentions a curious phenomenon 

 which he observed with respect to the Ou6me River. In 

 its middle course, last May, he found during his stay of 

 fifteen days that the stream ran continuously in a reversed 

 direction, toward the head of the river. The gradient of 

 Its bed in this part is very small, and the upper reaches 

 are completely dry during several months of the year, as 

 13 the case with most of the rivers of the central African 

 plateau. The rainy season sets in earlier in the down- 

 stream part of the country and fills the empty channel, 

 hich then runs for a time both ways until equilibrium 

 established, after which the normal direction of flow 

 :i maintained. Similar abnormalities have been previously 

 observed in some of the water-channels of the Kalahari 

 '^sert in south-central Africa. 



In* Nature of October 20 (p. 503) reference was made 



to an article in the Times on the Norwegian expedition to 



Spitsbergen, which contained a somewhat detailed account 



of the discovery of a volcano of recent age in a branch of 



Wood Bay. It appears, however, that there is still some 



doubt about the age of the volcanic phenomena. The 



latest number of La Geographie (xxii.. No. 4, October 15) 



includes a note on the results of the expedition by M. 



Charles Rabot, based on an article in the Christiania 



''tenpost, sent to him by Captain Isachsen, the leader of 



•■- expedition, as the only official communication which 



13 yet been published. On this authority the following 



"ference is made in La Geographie to the discovery : — 



"Finally, round a branch of Wood Bay, Mr. Hoel [one 



of the geologists] has made the very unexpected discovery 



of an ancient volcanic development (appareil). Contrary to 



what has been announced from Spitsbergen correspondence 



NO. 2 141, VOL. 85] 



published in Christiania journals, it does not date the actual 

 epoch, and for a long time has not been the seat of 

 manifestations. At present, upon the shores of Bock Bay 

 the internal activity manifests itself only by the presence 

 of thermal springs, of which the temperature does not 

 exceed 28-5°." The scepticism respecting the earlier news- 

 paper accounts of the volcano, alluded to in our previous 

 note, was therefore not altogether unjustified. The full 

 particulars of the discovery will be examined with keen 

 interest by geologists and geographers. 



The Bureau of Science, Department of the Interior, 

 Manilla, has issued the annual report on the mineral 

 resources of the Philippine Islands for the year 1909. It 

 is thoroughly characteristic of American methods that the 

 United States Government should have straightway set 

 about fostering the development of the mineral industrj- 

 of their first colony. The success that has attended this 

 attempt is clearly enough indicated in the present report. 

 The main product up to the present has been gold, the 

 output of which for the year 1909 is valued at about 

 49,600/. ; it shows an increase of 14 per cent, over that 

 of 1908, in which year the output was about three times 

 that of the year previous. Even more important from the 

 point of view of general industrial development and civilisa- 

 tion is the increase in the production of coal ; the total 

 quantity raised in 1909 was 30,336 tons, an increase of 

 155 per cent, over the previous year, and more than 

 seven times as great as the production in 1907. The 

 entire production now comes from two mines on the island 

 of Batan, one at the extreme east and the other at the 

 extreme west of the island. The seams now worked are 

 from 3 feet 4 inches to 5 feet 8 inches in thickness. The 

 coal appears to be of Tertiary age ; it is classed as sub- 

 bituminous, is low in ash, and has given satisfactory 

 results in raising steam. From the scientific point of view 

 the chief interest of the report centres in a very brief sketch 

 of the geology and geological history of the Philippine 

 Islands. 



The Meteorological Committee has issued a useful con- 

 tribution to the study of the north-east and south-east 

 trade winds of the Atlantic Ocean (Publication No. 203), 

 comprising (i) an investigation by Commander Hepworth 

 with the view of tracing any effect of the variations ^of 

 those winds upon the temperature of the water in the 

 North .Atlantic ; (2) a risumi of the meteorological data 

 available for St. Helena, by Mr. J. S. Dines ; and (3) a 

 calculation, by Mr. E. Gold, of the relation between the 

 periodic variations of wind velocity and of atmospheric 

 pressure, with the application of the general theorem to 

 the case of St. Helena. In Nature of December 21, 1905, 

 Dr. Shaw directed attention to an apparent connection 

 between the circulation of the atmosphere, as represented 

 by the south-east trade wind, and the meteorological con- 

 sequences in other parts of the world, and the present 

 work may be considered as an attempt to identify that 

 connection, to trace the links in the chain of cause and 

 effect, and also to supply information available for meteor- 

 ologists interested in the subject. In a very lucid preface 

 summarising some of the results Dr. Shaw points out 

 that the marine discussion of the south-east trade wind 

 shows hardly any seasonal variation (possibly due to the 

 peculiarities of the Beaufort wind-scale), while the results 

 for the north-east trade show a marked variation very 

 nearly complementary to that at St. Helena, where the 

 anemometer record exhibits a regular mean variation 

 (irrespective of direction) between about 14 miles per hour 

 in May and 21 miles per hour in September. Dr. Shaw 

 points out that Mr. Gold's solution, on dynamical prin- 



