42 



NATURE 



\Nov. 14, 1889 



student of the St. Andrews University, and at the time of his 

 death it was understood that he had left an unsigned will be- 

 queathing a quarter of a million to his alma mater, but giving 

 permission to his brother David to carry out the provisions as he 

 might think proper. The legacy will not come into the pos- 

 session of the University until 1894. 



In addition to the botanical appointments named last week, 

 the following are announced from Russia : — Prof. Faraintzin 

 having resigned his post of Professor of Botany in the 

 University of St. Petersburg. Prof. Borodin has been ap- 

 pointed in his place. M. W. Palladin succeeds the late 

 Prof. Pitra as Professor of Botanical Anatomy and Physiology 

 in the University of Charkow ; and is himself succeeded in the 

 Botanical Chair in the Agricultural Academy at No wo- Alexandria 

 by M. Chmielewski. M. W. Rothert has been appointed 

 Lecturer on Botanical Anatomy and Physiology at the University 

 of Kasan. 



In the November number of the Kew Bulletin a curious 

 correspondence is printed which illustrates very well the nature 

 of some of the duties undertaken by the Kew officials. Towards 

 the end of December 1876, Dr. Hooker received from the 

 Colonial Office a letter inclosing a despatch in which the 

 Governor of Labuan suggested that it might be well to pro- 

 mote in Labuan the cultivation of the African oil palm. A 

 long correspondence followed, the result of which was that full 

 and accurate information as to the palm oil industry was ob- 

 tained from the Gold Coast, and transmitted to Labuan. Palm 

 oil nuts were also obtained, and in due time planted in the 

 fertile island of Daat, where no fewer than 700 healthy trees 

 were soon raised. It recently occurred to Mr. Thiselton 

 Dyer to make inquiry as to the later history of this inter- 

 esting experiment. A despatch from the Acting Governor 

 of Labuan to the Colonial Office, dated August i, 1889, and 

 forwarded to Kew, closes the correspondence. It is as fol- 

 lows : — "As reported in Mr. Treacher's despatch No. 72, of 

 August, 26, 1878, it appears that 700 of these palms were 

 raised in the island of Daat, and in due time produced nuts. 

 No attempt, as far as I am aware, was ever made to manufac- 

 ture any oil from the nuts, and last year the palms were all 

 removed to make room for cocoa- nut trees. Daat, a depend- 

 ency of this colony, is private property, and I venture to 

 suggest that, should any further information be required by Mr. 

 Thiselton Dyer, he should apply to the owner, Dr. Peter Leys, 

 who is now in England, and who would no doubt be glad to 

 supply it. The experiment, so far as I am' in a position to 

 judge, was a success." 



The authorities of the Royal Gardens, Kew, are always glad 

 to aid any dependency of the Empire in introducing and 

 establishing any new plant which promises to serve as the 

 foundation of a new industry. The documents relating to the 

 oil palm in Labuan show how much work may be involved in 

 the carrying out even of a simple scheme of this nature, and 

 how disappointing the results may be. " The enterprise," says 

 the Bulletin, " is suggested ; it is considered ; a plan for carry- 

 ing it out has to be matured ; all the necessary incidental infor- 

 mation has to be collected ; and then the plan is carried into 

 execution. Sometimes it fails the first time, and then a second 

 attenipt has to be made, and so on till success is secured. All 

 that then remains is to wait for the result ; and this, in any 

 appreciable shape, will in most cases not be reached for years. 

 But in the interval Governors and officials change. It may be, 

 though it is not always so, that the ardour with which the 

 experiment was launched evaporates with the individual whom 

 it inspired. A new Colonial Government rigime may regard 

 with apathy and even hostility the work of its predecessor, and 

 the whole enterprise may fall into oblivion till some chance 



inquiry on the same subject leads to the digging out of the file 

 of papers containing its record from the Kew archives." 



The remaining contents of the Kew Bulletin relate to Phyl- 

 loxera regulations at the Cape, Ramie or Rhea, and the 

 collecting and preserving of fleshy Fungi. 



The Manchester Field Naturalists' Society has formed a 

 special committee, with Mr. Leo Grindon, the President of the 

 Society, as botanical referee, and Mr. C. J. Oglesby, as con- 

 vener, for the purpose of determining which trees, shrubs, and 

 flowers will succeed in the squares and streets of the city. The 

 opinion prevails that, notwithstanding the unfavourable climatic 

 conditions, several forest trees, climbers, and hardy plants would 

 grow if special care were taken in planting and tending them. 

 The planting of the quadrangle at Owens College, of the in- 

 firmary esplanade (in the centre of the town), and of several 

 churchyards, has been attended with success. 



The following money-grants have been lately made by the 

 Berlin Academy of Sciences : — ^75 to Prof. Brieger, for con- 

 tinuation of his researches on the ptomaines ; £(iO to Dr. 

 Krabbe, for investigation of the Cladoniacese of the Hartz ; 

 ;,^30 to Dr. von Dankelmann, for utilization of meteorological 

 observations at Finschhaven in New Guinea ; £20 to Dr. 

 Assmann, for measurements of air-temperature on the Santis ; 

 ^100 for publication of Prof. G. Finsch's work on Torpedinece ; 

 ;^50 for publication of a memoir by Dr. Heiden, on the deve- 

 lopment o{ Hydrophibis piceiis ; £100 to Dr. Strehlmann, in 

 Zanzibar, for prosecution of his faunistic researches in East 

 Africa; £\2S to Prof. Lepsius, of Darmstadt, for preparation 

 of his geological map of Attica ; £$0 to Prof. Conwentz, for 

 investigation of silicified wood in the island of Schonen ; ;i^75 

 to Dr. Fleischmann, of Erlangen, for researches in development ; 

 and the same to Dr. Zacharias (Silesia), for micro-faunistic 

 studies. 



The first meeting of the one hundred and thirty-sixth session of 

 the Society of Arts will be held on Wednesday, November 20, 

 when the opening address will be delivered by the Duke of 

 Abercorn, Chairman of the Council. Before ^Christmas there 

 will be four ordinary meetings, in addition to the opening 

 meeting. The following arrangements have been made : — 

 November 27, Dr. J. Hall Gladstone, F.R.S., "Scientific and 

 Technical Instruction in Elementary Schools " ; December 4, Dr. 

 Armand Ruffer, " Rabies and its Prevention"; December 11, 

 Mr. H. Trueman Wood, " The Paris Exhibition " ; December 

 18, Sir Robert Rawlinson, "London Sewage." 



A NOVEL and interesting application of science to art may 

 now be seen at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition, where Mrs. 

 Watts Hughes shows specimens of what she calls " voice 

 figures " (Catalogue, No. 723). These are practically Chladni's 

 figures produced in a viscid medium. Semi-fluid paste is spread 

 on an elastic membrane stretched over the mouth of a receiver. 

 A single note " steadily and accurately sung " into the receiver 

 throws the paste into waves and curves. The patterns formed 

 are either photographed immediately after production, or are 

 transferred as water-colour impressions while the membrane is 

 still vibrating. Fanciful names, e.g. "wave, line, flower, tree, 

 fern," are given to these ; the effect, especially in transparencies, 

 is very beautiful. Some of the forms would repay the study of 

 physicists as well as of artists ; the most interesting are perhaps the 

 "daisy forms," in which we are told that " the number of petals 

 increases as the pitch of the note which produces them rises." 

 The apparatus employed is not exhibited, and the descriptive 

 label is not very clear, but we understand that Mrs. Hughes 

 would be most pleased to explain the matter to anyone scienti- 

 fically interested in it : her address is 19 Barnsbury Park, N. 



