328 



NATURE 



{July 2^, 1878 



"the descriptions are arranged on the branched or binary 

 system, first established by the French naturalist Lamarc. 

 Under this system, a series of sahent characteristics is 

 laid before the reader in pairs, the numbers of each pair 

 being as nearly as possible opposed in their terms, and 

 each giving rise to a new pair in like manner contradic- 

 tory. The choice of these contradictions being left to 

 the reader, he selects the number which applies most 

 nearly to his specimen, and then passes on to the next 

 pair. It is evident that, sooner or later, the several series 

 of characters must be exhausted, and the name of the 

 plant arrived at." The method of using this system is 

 so fully explained further on, that, by following the author, 

 no one can possibly fail to understand it and to be able 

 to identify any plant by its aid. It is, in short, an ex- 

 haustive system by which the plant we may be examining 

 is, so to speak, run into a corner and so fixed in its proper 

 place. Thus we have a pocket flora of the colony in 

 which not only the scientific, but, in most cases, also the 

 common or colonial names are given. A short glossary 

 of botanical terras, illustrated by figures, is placed at the 

 beginning of the book, but this includes only such words 

 as it was found absolutely necessary to use in the book. 

 The aim of the author in assisting to popularise a know- 

 ledge of Tasmanian plants amongst the colonists will, no 

 doubt, be furthered by the appearance of this little 

 volume. A more careful revision of the proof-sheets, 

 however, would have repaid for the extra time so spent. 

 We think, also, that the adoption of some recognised 

 system of spelling the natural orders would have had its 

 advantages. Thus, we find Ranunculeas instead of 

 Ranunculacea;, Lobelea^ instead of Lobeliaceae, while, on 

 the other hand, Papaveraceae, Scrophulariaceae, Lauracese, 

 and others, occur as we have written them. 



The coloured frontispiece of the Waratah {Telopea 

 tnincatd) is, to say the least, a poor attempt at plant- 

 figuring, both the drawing and colouring being equally 

 bad. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



\The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, 

 or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications. 



[The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters at 

 short as possible. The pressure on his space is so great that it 

 is impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance even of com- 

 munications containing interesting and novel facts.'] 



The Natural History Collections 



I SEE by Galignani, the only newspaper that reaches this high 

 elevation, that a bill has just been introduced into Parliament by 

 Mr, Walpole, and read a second time, to enable the Trustees of 

 the British Museum to move the natural history collections into 

 the new building at South Kensington, Not having before me a 

 copy of the Bill, I cannot say whether it contains any clauses to 

 alter the present mode of government of the natural history col- 

 lections, but if such be not the case, and it is proposed to leave 

 the new institution at South Kensington under the domination 

 of the Trustees of the British Museum, I can assure Mr. Wal- 

 pole and his friends that they will cause bitter disappointment 

 to the naturalists of the country by such a course of action. We 

 have always looked forward to the epoch of the removal of the 

 national collections of natural history to the new site as the only 

 opportunity ever likely to arise of making a reform in their 

 government. That a Board of Trustees consisting of the prin- 

 cipal Officers of State and great nobles of this country could be 

 abolished was, of course, impossible, but it was hoped that the 

 great men of Bloomsbury would not care to extend their authority 

 to South Kensington. It will not be forgotten that the Royal 

 Commissioners on Science, who went into this question in full 

 detail, came exactly to this conclusion, and recommended that 

 the new museum, when constituted, should be placed under a 

 director immediately responsible to one of the ministers. And 

 there can be no doubt that this should be done, and that the 

 Act which authorises the removal of the collections should give 



them their new constitution. Our two best scientific institutions 

 in this country — Greenwich Observatory and Kew Gardens — are 

 governed after this fashion, and could never have attained their 

 present standard of excellence under the rule of fifty irrespon 

 sible trustees. 



Let me briefly point out the evils of the present system of 

 government of the British Museum as regards the natural histoiy 

 collections. The "principal librarian" is secretary to the 

 trustees and sole executive officer, J His policy is, naturally 

 enough, to get all he can for his books, and to keep the expendi- 

 ture on the natural history branches as low as possible. One 

 glance at the estimates annually proposed for the various depart- 

 ments in the British Museum will be sufficient to show how well 

 this policy is carried out. It may be that the trustees will ask 

 to appoint a new secretary and executive officer for the new 

 building at South Kensington, and that the estimates for the 

 two institutions will be kept separate, I trust that such may be 

 the case, as it will partially mitigate the evils of which I com- 

 plain. But I much fear that the principal librarian will resist 

 giving up any part of his present authority, and that the ten- 

 dency to starve the natural history and pamper the library will 

 remain as heretofore. I earnestly hope, therefore, that Mr, 

 Walpole's bill %\ill not pass into law unless it contain clauses 

 to ensure a cessation of the disadvantages of the present system 

 of government. It would be better far that it should not pass 

 at all (his session. Even the fabric of the new building will 

 not be complete until next spring, and there is much to be done 

 in the way of internal arrangements and fittings before the time 

 comes to remove the collections. Why, therefore, should U bill 

 of this importance be introduced and hurried through Parlia- 

 ment at the fag-end of the present session ? It must be naturally 

 supposed that the only object is to elude criticism and to keep 

 the rights and privileges of the fifty trustees as far as possible 

 inviolate. A Naturalist 



Hotel de la Furca, Canton Uri, Switzerland, 



July 15 



The Genesis of Cyclones 



It is to be gathered from Mr. Barham's communication on 

 cyclones and anticyclones in Nature, vol, xviii. p. 249, that 

 he is probably unacquainted with either Prof, Dove's partial 

 explanation of the effect of the earth's rotation on the winds, 

 published nearly fifty years ago, or Prof, Ferrel's more recent 

 and comprehensive memoirs on the same subject ; not to speak 

 of Mohn and Guldberg's elaborate discussion of the ^mechanics 

 of cyclonic and anticyclonic movements in their " Etudes sur 

 les Mouvements de 1' Atmosphere," published within the last two 

 years. 



It is not, however, to point out the fact that Mr. Barham's 

 idea has been anticipated by these, and indeed many other 

 writers, that I address you ; but rather to show that the theory of 

 parallel currents, which Mr, Meldrum, among others, has ap- 

 pealed to to account for the formation of cyclonic storms, is, 

 taken by itself, inadequate ; since any circular movements gene- 

 rated, in the manner supposed, by opposite currents, cannot 

 receive from them a greater velocity than the mean velocity of the 

 generating cuirents; and the theory leaves unexplained the 

 spiral indraught of the air, which both Mr. Meldrum's charts 

 of cyclones in the South Indian Ocean, and those which I 

 myself, the late Mr. Willson, and Mr. Eliot, have prepared of 

 storms in the Bay of Bengal, show to be an invariable as it is 

 probably an essential feature of all such storms,^ 



' Mr, PIddington is usually regarded as an upholder of the hypothesis of 

 the truly circular or tangential movement of the winds in cyclones, and not 

 without reason ; since, although he admitted, as a possibility, an occasional 

 spiral indraught, he regarded this as non-essential, and equally admitted 

 that the winds may occasionally blow outwards from the tangential direc- 

 tion. In most of his charts he does not give all the observed wind direc- 

 tions, but in that accompanying his first memoir, on the storm of June 3-5, 

 1839, he has done so. If any one will refer to this chart, and, leaving out 

 of consideration Mr. Piddington's hypothetical circles, will draw for himself 

 the most probable course of the currents in accordance with the charted wind 

 arrows, he will soon convince himself that this course is sharply spiral, and 

 also that Mr. Piddington, probably influenced by the erroneous hypothesis 

 of circular rotation, has misapprehended the several positions of the storm- 

 centre, and has assigned to the storm a course quite at variance with its real 

 course, and equally so with that of any storm since observed in the same 

 sea. The case is an interesting one, because Prof. Dove, misled by Mr. 

 Piddington's error, has made this storm the basis of an erroneous explanation 

 of the origin of the storm in his well-known work on "The Law of Storms, 

 which has been translated by Gen. Sabine. Of course, m pointing out an 

 error, I would in no way seek to disparage the admirable and laborious work 

 of Mr. Piddington, whose great merits I most willingly recognise. 



