February 2, 191 1] 



NATURE 



451 



are larger than the hermaphrodite or the male tubular 

 florets. But in Homogyne alpina, Cotula coronopifoUa, 

 and species of Xanthium the female flowers are smaller. 

 In Petasites nivetis, which is dioecious, the inflorescence of 

 female flowers grows considerably after the flowering 

 period, while the inflorescence of male flowers remains 

 small ; jet the female flowers individually are much smaller 

 than the male, especially in the corolla. The author 

 suggests that these anomalies may be explained as the 

 result of two opposite tendencies, the one to enlarge the 

 corolla for show, as in the ray florets, the other, frequent 

 in unisexual flowers, to reduce the corolla. 



A VIVID sketch of two botanical excursions in the south- 

 west region of West Australia is communicated by Captain 

 A. Dorrien-Smith to the Journal of the Royal Horticultural 

 Society (vol. xxxvi., part ii.), where the author says that 

 the magnificence of the flora surpasses that of any other 

 region he has visited. In the neighbourhood of Cape 

 Naturaliste, Banksia grandis, B. attenuata, a blue 

 Leschenaultia, and Templetonia retusa were conspicuous. 

 The finest display was encountered at Warrangup Hill 

 (2800 feet), in the Stirling Range, where a giant white 

 Epacrid, Lysinema ciliatum, tall bushes of a pink-flowered 

 Protead, Isopogon latifolius, and the golden-flowered 

 Dryandra formosa attracted special attention. Another 

 vegetation sketch, ecological rather than floristic, in the 

 same number deals with rare wild flowers in the west of 

 Ireland, in which Mr. Lloyd Praeger describes, and in 

 some measure explains, their peculiar distribution. The 

 article is recommended to students as an admirable essay 

 on a unique and instructive combination of ecological 

 problems. 



Having regard to the recent consummation of the Union 

 of South Africa, Prof. H. W. Pearson took advantage of 

 an opportune occasion to lay before the biological section 

 of the South African Association for the Advancement of 

 Science during last November, in his presidential address, 

 the great desirability and advantages of a South African 

 National Botanic Garden. In the first instance, Prof. 

 Pearson, while assigning due credit to the work of existing 

 institutions, notably the Natal Botanic Garden ably ad- 

 ministered by Mr. Medley Wood, pointed out that none of 

 these provides sufficient area or is situated in a suitable 

 locality for an establishment or State department, which 

 should comprise not only horticultural departments, an 

 experimental garden and herbarium with library, but also 

 a museum of economic products, research laboratories and 

 a staff of technical assistants and plant collectors. Chief 

 among the arguments advanced are the non-existence of a 

 garden where the unique plants of South Africa are 

 grown and investigated, the necessity for the study of the 

 veld vegetation with a view to the improvement of the 

 fodder grasses, and the desirability of extended botanical 

 exploration. 



The Rev. M. Saderra Mas6, who has for many years 

 studied the earthquakes of the Philippine Islands, is now 

 turning his attention to the subterranean noises known in 

 other countries under various names, such as mist-poeffeurs, 

 marinas, brontidi, retumbos, &c. In the Philippines many 

 terms are used, generally signifying merely rumbling or 

 noise, while a few indicate that the noises are supposed to 

 proceed from the sea or from mountains or clouds. Most 

 of the places where they are observed lie along the coasts 

 of inter-island seas or on enclosed bays ; very few are 

 situated on the open coast. The noises are heard most 

 frequently at nightfall, during the night and in the earlv 

 morning, especially in the hot months of March, April, and 



NO. 2153, VOL. 85] 



May, though in the towns of the Pangasinan province they^ 

 are confined almost entirely to the rainy season. They are 

 compared in 70 per cent, of the records to thunder. With 

 rare exceptions, they seem to come from the mountains 

 inland. The instances in which the noises show any 

 connection with earthquakes are few, and observers usually 

 distinguish between them and the low rumblings which 

 occasionally precede earthquakes. It is a common opinior» 

 among the Filipinos that the noises are the effect of waves- 

 breaking on the beach or into caverns, and that they are 

 intimately connected with changes in the weather, generally 

 with impending typhoons. Father Saderra Mas6 is inclined 

 to agree with this view in certain cases. The typhoons in 

 the Philippines sometimes cause very heavy swells, which 

 are propagated more than a thousand kilometres, and hence 

 arrive days before the wind acquires any appreciable force. 

 He suggests that special atmospheric conditions may be 

 responsible for the great distances to which the sounds are 

 heard, and that their apparent inland origin may be due to 

 reflection, possibly from the cumulus clouds which crowr* 

 the neighbouring mountains, while the direct sound-waves 

 are shut off by walls of vegetation or inequalities in the 

 ground. 



The Berne correspondent of the Morning Post 

 (January 20) states that a fall of what has been called 

 " black " snow, which occurred recently in the Lower 

 Emmen Valley, has caused a great deal of interest im 

 Switzerland. The most reasonable explanation put for- 

 ward is that in certain conditions of weather snow may 

 take an appearance of blackness which is quite deceptive. 

 It appears that after the snowfall there was a slight thaw, 

 and a very fine rain fell. While it was still raining, the 

 " Bise," a piercing cold and dry north or north-east wind, 

 set in, and froze the rain on the surface of the snow. 

 Underneath the crust of pure ice thus formed there was- 

 a small air-filled space, and the light when reflected from; 

 the snow beneath produced to the eye a dark appearance. 

 We find that in the " Glaciers of the Alps " (p. 204)^ 

 Tyndall refers to another optical effect caused by the con- 

 dition of the snow on the Montanvert in winter, in which 

 " the portions most exposed to the light seemed least 

 illuminated, and their defect in this respect made them 

 appear as if a light-brown dust had been strewn over 

 them." 



According to usual practice, Dr. H. R. Mill has com- 

 municated to the Times Qanuary 17) a preliminary state- 

 ment of the general character of the rainfall of 1910, and 

 also an abridged summary of the same to Symons's 

 Meteorological Magazine for January. As we have already 

 referred (January 5) to statistics prepared from another 

 source, we need only quote here some of the leading 

 features shown by Dr. Mill's first examination of about 

 3000 records of the British Rainfall Organisation. The 

 results, which are exhibited by maps, and by carefully 

 prepared tables for stations and districts, show that the 

 British Isles, as a whole, had an excess of 8 per cent. ; 

 Wales had an excess of 17 per cent. ; southern England, 

 16 per cent. ; Ireland, 9 per cent. ; northern England and 

 Scotland, less than 5 per cent. The relatively Tvettest area 

 was in portions of Somerset and Monmouth, where the 

 excess exceeded 30 per cent. A /ery wet area extended 

 through Devon and Cornwall, along Dorset, Wiltshire, 

 Hampshire, and Sussex, also to Hereford and part of 

 Wales, but in many places the rainfall was below 

 the average, especially on the coasts. The year had one 

 of the wettest Februaries and one of the driest Septembers 

 on record. Dt. Mill remarks that the relation of two dry 



