July 12, 1888] 



NA TURE 



245 



Distribution of Animals and Plants by Ocean Currents. 



I BEG to forward you herewith some extracts from a letter just 

 received from Port Elizabeth, South Africa, which, I think, 

 cannot fail to interest your readers in connection with Darwin's 

 theory of the distribution of animals and plants in some cases 

 by ocean currents. My correspondent writes : — 



" About the beginning of the year 1 887 the attention of the public 

 of Port Elizabeth wasaroused by finding a quantity of pumice-stone 

 washed up upon the shores of the bay, showing volcanic action. 

 Some of the pieces were covered with barnacles of a few months' 

 growth, and others appeared as though a mass of vitrified matter 

 had been poured upon them. At the same time, shipmasters 

 stated that they had seen large masses floating upon the sea as 

 they approached the east coast of Africa. Strange fish also made 

 their appearance in our waters, and, among the number, two 

 large specimens of the ox-ray species were found washed up 

 upon the rocks. But more remarkable was the discovery of four 

 venomous sea-snakes about 18 inches long, the bodies marked 

 black above and yellow below, answering the description of the 

 Pelamis bicolor usually to be found about the coasts of Sumatra, 

 Java, and the adjacent isles, and which must have followed the 

 floating debris. One of these snakes was still alive when found, 

 although it did not long survive, and one of the others was in a 

 sufficient state of preservation to be sent to the Museum. What 

 will prove more interesting still, is the discovery of a large seed 

 resembling a cocoa-nut, which was picked up about the same 

 time, of which Mr. Russell Hallack, of Port Elizabeth, gives 

 the following description : — 



" ' About the latter end of 1886 a large husky fruit was picked 

 up. It resembled a square cocoa-nut of 4 inches cube, not quite 

 so deep as broad and long. Inside this husk, which was more 

 cork-like than fibrous, was a solitary nut, about if inch round, 

 melon-shaped, with fluted outside, covered with a coating re- 

 sembling potato-peel. This nut had been bitten by the boy who 

 found it, but whether the taste was not to his liking, or for some 

 other reason, he was persuaded to give the remains to the gar- 

 dener of the north-end park, who planted it. In due time the 

 shoot came up like a potato-plant with small leaves. The plant 

 is now about 4 feet high, and the small leaves have developed 

 into grand foliage 20 inches long by 7 or 8 broad. It is sup- 

 posed to be the Barrin«tonia speciosa, a native of the East 

 Indies. A smaller variety, the B. racemosa, is said to exist in 

 Natal and the east coast of Africa, but is easily distinguished 

 from this by the smallness of its fruit. The B. speciosa belongs 

 to the myrtle tribe, but differs from the ordinary type in having 

 this large, one-sided, corky husked fruit ; it is one of the hand- 

 somest of its tribe, and in the Moluccas attains the height of 

 40 or 50 feet, with a circumference of 10 to 14 feet. It is 

 generally found near the sea.' " 



The suggestion is that this nut, as well as the snakes, the 

 strange fish, and the pumice-stone, are all relics of the great 

 Krakatab eruption in 1883, and that they had drifted about till 

 the beginning of 1887, till thrown upon the coast of South 

 Africa. If this be really the case, the tenacity of life in the 

 snakes and the nut is truly remarkable, and, as my corre- 

 spondent adds : "Surely some of this debris must have been 

 deposited on the island shores visited by these currents, and if 

 we could only become acquainted with the date of their appear- 

 ance upon each, some idea might be formed as to the course 

 taken by these plants, &c, in their journey to Southern Africa." 

 I find, by a reference to the back numbers of Nature, that 

 the pumice has been traced to the east coast of Africa, leaving 

 portions on various islands en route, and that some of it was 

 timed to reach the west coast of America at Panama in 1886 ; 

 but nowhere do I find any notice, except that given above, of 

 animal or vegetable debris accompanying the masses of pumice. 

 Perhaps the publication of these interesting facts may call forth 

 similar observations from some of the Pacific Islands. 



A. W. BUCKLAND. 



Watches and the Weather. 



My neighbours, Messrs. Jacob and Ross, watchmakers, often 

 tell me their experiences in the breaking of mainsprings. 



Unreflecting people fancy they have broken the spring by 

 over-winding, or in other words have drawn asunder a piece of 

 steel by the force of finger and thumb. 



The springs of course break through a subtle molecular change 

 produced in the steel by atmospheric causes : they usually fly 

 asunder a few hours after being wound, at 3 or 4 o'clock in the 



morning. Many watches and clocks come to the workshops for 

 new springs after a frost, but not until a thaw has set in ; still 

 more come after thunderstorms. 



This morning a clock spring was taken out of its box, which 

 had overstrained itself at one moment into seventeen pieces, 

 there was a complete fracture in each coil along a radial line 

 from the centre. Some time back one was found with three 

 such radial lines of fracture. 



Of course this subject is not new, but it gains by recorded 

 experiences. W. B. C'ROFT. 



The College, Winchester, July 9. 



Preserving the Colour of Flowers. 



I SHOULD be greatly obliged if some of your readers would 

 inform me how to preserve the colour of those flowers prone to 

 fade during and after pressing. 



In a local paper I saw an extract from the Pharmaceutical 

 yournal, in which salicylic acid was recommended. I have 

 tried it both as powder and in solution in spirit ; in either case 

 it had a great tendency — except in the case of yellow flowers — 

 to change the colour to either a bright scarlet or to a light 

 brown. A. W. 



[There is no difficulty in preserving the colour of yellow flowers 

 if they are properly dried by the ordinary method, i.e. in ab- 

 sorbent paper, changed at the end of the first day, and once or 

 twice afterwards. It is very difficult to prevent such plants as 

 Pedicularis, Bartsia, and Melampyrum turning black. See an 

 account of a plan recently tried in Germany by Schbnland, in 

 Annals of Botany, vol. i. p. 178, 1887. — J. G. Baker.] 



THE LIFE STATISTICS OF AN INDIAN 

 PRO VINCE. 



COME years ago, in this journal (vol. xxix. p. 338), I 

 "H* published a short article on the intimate relations 

 which subsist between meteoiological conditions and the 

 statistics of death and crime in India. In this it was 

 incidentally mentioned that, imperfect as they were, the 

 vital statistics of the North-West Provinces and Oudh were 

 at that time more to be depended on than those of any 

 other province in India, thanks to the unremitting atten- 

 tion paid to the subject of registration by the late Sanitary 

 Commissioner, Dr. Planck ; and though they have not 

 sensibly improved since 1884, but perhaps rather fallen 

 off in accuracy, the birth and death registers of these 

 provinces are still undoubtedly better than any others 

 in India embracing an equal population. 



As ten complete years have now elapsed since the 

 amalgamation of the two provinces, which together con- 

 tain a larger population than any European country 

 except Russia, and as similar statistics are not at present 

 obtainable from any other Oriental country but India, it 

 may be of interest to compare some of the conditions of 

 life revealed by them with those obtaining in the more 

 favoured countries of the West. That India has a high 

 death-rate, owing to the unhealthiness of the prevailing 

 climatic conditions and imperfect sanitation, as well as to 

 the low vitality of the mass of the people consequent upon 

 superabundant population and insufficient food, is univers- 

 ally understood ; but there is no proper appreciation of 

 the marvellous recuperative power of a population among 

 whom prudential restraints on increase are unknown, and 

 where almost every woman has been married in child- 

 hood, and commences to bear children at the age of 

 fourteen or fifteen years. It may be said with almost 

 absolute truth that there are not only no old maids in 

 India, but no unmarried women above the age of 

 puberty, except the unfortunate class of Hindu widows of 

 the higher castes, who are not permitted to marry again ; 

 but though this class appeals in many ways to our 

 sympathies, it is of very slight importance from the point 

 of view of the increase of population, the widows of 

 child-bearing age amounting to only 9 per cent, of the 



