Feb. 6, 1879] 



NATURE 



327 



de la Science d de V Industrie is extremely satisfactory, contain- 

 ing much and varied information both in pure and applied 

 science. The Telephone Journal, of which also No. I of vol. ii. 

 lies before us, we have seen for the first time. It seems to be an 

 organ of the Chicago branch of the Bell Telephone Company, 

 and contains mostly a list of persons and firms telephonically 

 connected with each other through the Central Office in Chicago. 

 The list of names is a long one, and as the " calls " of the Com- 

 pany are stated to average 5,500 daily, we infer they are doing 

 a paying business. We have already referred to the Spanish 

 Cronica Cientifica ; Nos. 25 and 26 are exceedingly creditable, 

 containing a fair selection from the scientific work being done 

 both in Spain and in other countries. Altogether science has 

 taken a prominent and influential place in the journalism of 

 the day. 



"The Magic Lantern Manual," by Mr. W. J. Chadwick, is 

 a plentifully illustrated little volume likely to be of great service 

 to those, and they are many, who work with this useful apparatus 

 in one or 'other of its many forms. Wame and Co. are the 

 publishers. Equally useful in its own department is Dr. Sylvester 

 Marsh's little manual on Section Cutting, a practical guide to the 

 preparing and mounting of sections for the microscope, special 

 prominence being given to the subject of animal sections. 

 Messrs. Churchill are the publishers. 



Some excavations made at Merten, near Bolchen, in German 

 Lorraine, have given remarkable results. The remains of a 

 gigantic equestrian statue were found, of which the figure of the 

 rider is particularly well preserved. Investigation of other 

 remains tend to show that the origin of the statue is Roman ; 

 parts of mosaic floors, &c., have also been discovered. 



A NEW agricultural school is about to be established at 

 Meissen, Saxony. 



The cultivation and consumption of opium continues to in- 

 crease largely in China, but notwitstanding this extended culti- 

 vation, the Persian drug is extensively consumed on account of 

 its comparative cheapness. In a report from Amoy it is stated 

 that the poppy is cultivated in the neighbourhood with the 

 knowledge and sanction of the mandarins ; but so far the pro- 

 duction of opium appears in no way to affect the foreign pro- 

 duce, as, from the imperfect system of manufacture practised by 

 the • natives, they are unable to produce a drug in any way 

 approaching the foreign article, either in quality or flavour. As 

 regards the habit of using opium, Mr, Alabaster says : "It is now 

 so general that I assume there is little probability of much increase 

 in the demand unless the population of Formosa increase, where, 

 as the use of opium is almost a necessity of life in the plantations 

 there, to counteract the malarious influences of the climate there 

 must be a larger export thither. Nor is it to be desired that the 

 consumption should become greater, for although I cannot agree 

 with those who so vigorously denounce the trade as a source of 

 every evil, and am inclined to think from observation that many 

 more lives are annually saved by its moderate use than are 

 sacrificed to inordinate indulgence in it, an increase would now 

 rather mark the spread of the abuse of the drug, than of its 

 employment as a stimulant to counteract the lowering efiects of 

 climate, and damp and ill-drained houses." 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include two Macaque Monkeys {Macactis cynomolgu^) 

 from India, presented respectively by Mr. E. E. Barclay "knd 

 Mr. Eardley Holt ; a Weeper Capuchin {Cebus captuinus) from 

 South America, presented by Mr. W. Fridrick; two White- 

 Fronted Capuchins {Cebus hypoleucus) from South America pre- 

 sented by Mr. Geo. Backhouse; a Short-Tailed Wallaby 

 (Halmaturus brachyurus) from West Australia, presented by 

 Mr. G, Bowen ; a Grey Ichneumon {Herfestes griseus) from ■ 



India, presented by Mr, B, Baverstock ; a Golden-Naped 

 Amazon (Chrysotis auripalliata) from South America, presented 

 by Mrs. H. A. Hopkins ; three Canada Geese {Bernicla cana- 

 densis) from North America, presented by Mr. W. Bonorton ; a 

 Black- Winged Pea-fowl {Pavo nigripennis) from Cochin China, 

 presented by the Hon. A. S. G. Canning, F.Z.S. ; a Giraffe 

 ( Camelopardalis giraffa) from Nubia, deposited ; a Golden-Fronted 

 Parrakeet {Brotogerys tuipard), an American Tantalus ( Tantalus 

 loculator), a Rough Terrapin (Clemmys punctularia) from South 

 America, four River Jack Vipers ( Vipera rhinoceros) firom West 

 Africa, received in exchange. 



FOREST GEOGRAPHY 



QOME months ago Prof. Asa Gray delivered to the Harvard 

 •^ University Natural History Society a lecture on Forest 

 Geography and Archaeology, which has been published in two 

 recent numbers of the American Journal of Science. The lecture 

 referred mainly to the forests of North America, and in speaking 

 of these. Prof. Gray referred to them not exactly as they are 

 to-day, but as they were before civilised man had materially 

 interfered with them. In the first part of the lecture Prof. Gray 

 showed how the distribution of forests is mostly dependent on the 

 distribution of moisture, and thus explained the great difference 

 which exists in this feature between the eastern and western 

 States. The Atlantic "forest primeval," he stated, a few 

 generations ago covered essentially the whole coimtry from the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence and Canada to Florida and Texas, and 

 from the Atlantic to beyond the Mississippi, This Atlantic 

 forest of the United States is one of the largest and almost the 

 richest of the temperate forests of the world. Then going west 

 wards from the Mississippi come prairies and open plains ; 

 beyond these is the Rocky Mountains, forest again, but only in 

 narrow lines and patches ; but after passing the Sierra Nevada, 

 the western rim of the basin, we come to what is in same respects 

 the noblest and most remarkable forest in the world. In the 

 long valley of California it almost disappears again, to resume its 

 sway in the Coast Ranges, with altered features, some of them 

 not less magnificent and of greater beauty. Thus there are two 

 forest-regions in North America — an Atlantic and a Pacific, each 

 dependent on the oceans which they respectively border. Prof. 

 Gray then goes on to show how the distribution and nature of 

 these forests are dependent mainly on moisture and temperatiu-e, 

 proceeding to prove that the difference in the composition of the 

 Atlantic and Pacific forests is not less marked than that of the 

 climate and geographical configuration to which the two are 

 respectively adapted. 



" With some ver}- notable exceptions, the forests of the whole 

 northern hemisphere in the temperate zone (those that we are 

 concerned with) are mainly made up of the same or similar kinds. 

 Not of the same species ; for rarely do identical trees occur in 

 any two or more widely separated r^ons. But all round the 

 world in our zone, the woods contain pines and firs and larches, 

 cypresses and junipers, oaks and birches, willo^vs and poplars, 

 maples and ashes, and the like. Yet with all these family like- 

 nesses throughout, each region has some peculiar features, some 

 trees by which the country may at once be distinguished." 



With regard to the Pacific forests the greater part of the Atlantic 

 trees are conspicuous by their absence. 



" For example, it has no magnolias, no tulip-tree, no papaw, 

 no linden or bass wood, and is very poor in maples ; no locust- 

 trees — neither flowering locust nor honey locust — nor any 

 leguminous tree ; no cherry large enough for a timber-tree, 

 like our wild black cherry ; no gum-trees {Nyssa nor Liqui- 

 dambar), no sorrel-tree, nor kalmia ; no persimmon, or bumelia ; 

 not a hoUy ; oidy one ash that may be called a timber-tree ; no 

 catalpa, or sassafras ; not a single elm, nor hackberry ; not a 

 mulberry, nor planer-tree, nor maclura; not a hickory, nor 3 

 beech, nor a true chestnut, nor a hornbeam ; barely one birch 

 tree, and that only far north, where the differences are less 

 striking. But as to coniferous trees, the only missing type is 

 our bald cypress, the so-called cypress of our southern swamps, 

 and that deficiency is made up by other things. But as to 

 ordinary trees, if you ask what takes the place in Oregon and 

 California of jdl these missing kinds, which are familiar on our 

 side of the continent, I must answer, nothing, or nearly nothing. 

 There is the Madrona (arbutus) instead of our kalmia (both 

 really trees in some places) ; and there is the California laurel 



