NA TURE 



[July 19, 1888 



form the subjects of two other sections ; and the number closes 

 with an account of the true star anise of China, prepared by Sir 

 J. D. Hooker for the current issue of the Botanical Magazine. 



The Annual Report of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Trinidad, 

 for 1887, by Mr. J. H. Hart, Superintendent, has been issued. 

 In an interesting historical sketch Mr. Hart notes that the 

 Trinidad garden has been in existence seventy years, and is the 

 •oldest botanical garden which has been continuously maintained 

 in working order within the circuit of the British West Indies. 

 Mr. Hart was appointed Superintendent in 1886, and assumed 

 charge in March, 1887, after eleven years' service in Jamaica. 

 One of his first objects was to make provision for the proper 

 arrangement and storage of herbarium specimens, and he is able 

 to report, thanks chiefly to the interest in the matter taken by 

 the Governor (Sir W. Robinson), that the herbarium is already 

 •established on a sound basis. He hopes that when the material 

 is all arranged it will be among the first of West Indian 

 herbariums, if not the very first. " To show the value of 

 such work," says Mr. Hart, "and especially the value attached 

 to the Trinidad flora, I may state that I have already received 

 four applications for sets of the Trinidad plants ; as these will 

 bring exchanges from a like number of countries possessing a 

 flora of great value to us for the comparison and identification of 

 our own, these offers will be taken up as early as possible. Prof. 

 W. Thiselton Dyer, Director of Kew, in a letter recently received, 

 says : ' In Trinidad itself there must be an enormous amount of 

 work still to be done.' Trinidad stands unique among the other 

 islands by the possession of a flora which combines the West 

 Indian with the South American, and has besides many plants 

 which are only known to occur within its own boundaries, or, in 

 other words, are pecular to the island itself." 



According to intelligence received at New York on July 14, 

 Honduras had been visited by severe storms and earthquake 

 shocks, which had caused great damage to property, but no loss 

 of life. 



The fourth yearly report of the Berlin branch of the German 

 Meteorological Society for the year 1887, shows that the number 

 of members has increased from thirty-seven in January, 1884, 

 the time of its foundation, to 117. The President for the year 

 1888 is Dr. Vettin. The proceedings of the monthly meetings 

 have been reported in our Notices of Societies, &c. The present 

 report contains an account of the special rainfall investigations 

 at twenty stations in and near Berlin, and comparisons of the 

 different rain gauges employed. 



The British Consul at Bussorah on the Persian Gulf in his 

 last report states that a remarkable improvement has taken place 

 in the climate of the country round Bussorah with the substi- 

 tution of date and wheat cultivation for that of rice. The 

 malarious fever, to which Bussorah gave its name, is now 

 comparatively rare ; and sallow complexions and worn looks, 

 which some years ago were universal, are now no longer seen. 

 The north-west wind, which prevails in the hot weather, instead 

 of being moist and clammy, as it \v. ed to be, is dry and hot. 

 The month of September, when the marsh which is formed 

 yearly by the overflow of the Euphrates is drying up, is still the 

 least healthy season. December and January are cold, July 

 and August intensely hot. The rest of the year is very much 

 like the spring and summer of Southern Europe. 



The administration report of the Meteorological Reporter for 

 the North- West Provinces and Oudh for the year 1887-88, states 

 that there are now nineteen first-class observatories and 275 

 rainfall stations reporting regularly to the central office. Records 

 of rainfall and temperature are kept at numerous dispensaries all 

 over the Jeypore territory. At the majority of the stations the 

 old float gauge is still used, but gauges of this kind are gradually 



being replaced by Symons's 5-inch gauge, with improved results. 

 Mr. Hill has under discussion a valuable series of tempera- 

 ture and humidity observations mac'e at various heights above 

 the ground. Amongst the interesting results published we may 

 specially mention the sunshine observations at Allahabad. No 

 less than 89 per cent, of the possible amount was recorded in 

 November, 1887 ; the lowest percentage was 34-5 in August, 

 and the mean for the year was 67*9 per cent. 



The composition of persulphide of hydrogen has at last been 

 satisfactorily determined by Dr. Rebs of Jena. The history of 

 this substance has been a most remarkable one ; it has by turns 

 been awarded almost every conceivable formula from H.,S 2 to 

 H 2 S lft . The results of Dr. Rebs' researches, however, go to 

 show that it possesses the formula H,S 5 , first assigned to it many 

 years ago by Berthollet, and that it is a true pentasulphide of 

 hydrogen. It was prepared pure by the following method : 

 A solution of soda in alcohol was saturated with sulphuretted 

 hydrogen gas, and an equal bulk of alcoholic soda afterwards 

 added to the sodium sulphydrate thus formed. After agitation 

 the fluid solidified to a white crystalline mass of sodium sul- 

 phide, to which flowers of sulphur were added in the proportion 

 necessary to form the required polysulphide of soda. The di- 

 and tri-sulphides prepared in this manner crystallized out, but the 

 tetra- and penta-sulphides remained in solution. They were 

 then freed from alcohol in a current of hydrogen, and the 

 residue dissolved in water out of which all the air had been 

 expelled. In order to obtain persulphide of hydrogen, the 

 solutions were poured into cylinders containing concentrated 

 hydrochloric acid kept cool by ice. Sulphuretted hydrogen gas 

 was immediately evolved, and an emulsion formed, which on 

 standing became clear, and small oily drops of persulphide of 

 hydrogen settled out and united to form an oil. After decanta- 

 tion of the supernatant liquor and washing with ice-cold water, 

 the oil was eventually dried and analysed. The analyses shov 

 mo-t conclusively that all the four polysulphides of soda, wher 

 their aqueous solutions are poured into hydrochloric acid, yielc 

 one and the same polysulphide of hydrogen, viz. the penta- 

 sulphide H.,S 5 . To complete the proof the four polysulphides of 

 potassium were similarly treated, with like result ; more inter- 

 esting still, Dr. Rebs shows that the sulphides of barium behave 

 in a precisely analogous manner, forming nothing but H 2 Sj 

 When the pentasulphides are employed there is a simple e> 

 change of metal for hydrogen, but with the lower persulphides 

 decomposition of the corresponding sulphide of hydrogen first 

 formed occurs into pentasulphide and sulphuretted hydrogen. 

 Pentasulphide of hydrogen is a bright yellow, mobile, trans- 

 parent oil, possessing an odour peculiar to itself. When dry 

 may be preserved in a closed tube without decomposition, but it 

 contact with water it breaks up rapidly, with evolution of sul- 

 phuretted hydrogen and s paration of sulphur. 



The tobacco-plants in the Russian Government of Bessarabia 

 have of late years suffered greatly from disease, which has almos 

 threatened ruin to the industry of tobacco growing. Prof 

 Lindemann, having been asked as a specialist to study the 

 subject, has found three kinds of disease, the most important 

 which by far is a kind of consumption to which the plant 

 subject, caused chiefly by larvae of the beetle Opatrum inter 

 medium, Fisch. This grub attacks the underground part of the 

 stem and the leaves. The female lays her eggs from the middle 

 of April to that of May, and in loose ground not yet covered bj 

 the plants. The larva lives two and a half months, and the 

 pupa stage is fourteen days. The insect does not breed til 

 the following spring. The larva feeds at first mostly on wile 

 plants, 'A triplex and Convolvulus, but never on Leguminosa. It 

 attacks Gramineae (maize, wheat, &c. ), but only the embryo 

 of the grain, and when germination has begun the grain is 

 avoided. Though the time of possible attack is thus short, 



