174 



NATURE 



Dec. 22, 1887 



The general appearance of the tundras is that of a 

 shghtly irregular plain, the irregularities being due to the 

 tuft -like character of the patches of vegetation, which are 

 separated by pools and streams of melting ice, from which 

 innumerable mosses emerge. When closely examined, 

 these tufts are found to consist of plants dwarfed out of 

 all resemblance to their more southern congeners ; thus, 

 Salix polaris never rises more than 2 inches in height, 

 although the number of its annual layers of growth — con- 

 sisting only of five to six cells — may indicate an age of 

 thirty years. Considered generally, the Nova Zemblan 

 flora consists of twenty-eight families of Dicotyledons, four 

 Monocotyledons, and four Cryptogams. Among the 

 Phanerogamae the most largely represented are the 

 Gramineae, of which thirty-one species have been dis- 

 tinguished. Curiously enough, it is found that contrary to 

 their habits in more southern regions the Dicotyledons 

 flower earlier than Monocotyledons, which contribute the 

 larger proportion of the flora of the tundras, both as 

 regards species and individuals. The number of new 

 phanerogamic forms derived from the Dijumphtta Expedi- 

 tion scarcely exceeds a dozen, and of these the most 

 interesting are Salix arctica, Glyceria ienella, Potentilla 

 emarginata, and three species of Carex, viz. C. incurva, 

 lagopina, and hyperborea. As many as eight species of 

 Saxifraga were met with, while Phaca is the only repre- 

 sentative of Papilionaceous plants. 



Special interest attaches to the collection of mosses 

 brought home by Herr Holm, and examined by Herr C. 

 Jensen, whose report shows that among the entire sixty- 

 four species, of which fifty-one belonged to the tundras 

 and the cliffs of Nova Zembla, three were genuine Arctic 

 forms, viz. Voitia hyperborea, Bryttni obtusifoHuni, and 

 AfublystegiuiH brevifolium. In Wulfberg's report of the 

 mosses collected in the Norwegian Expedition of 1872, 

 which is the only other notice of the Arctic Crypto- 

 gams, only twenty-four are noted, so that w^e owe our 

 acquaintance with forty species to the industry of the 

 DijumpJmds collectors. Herr Holm was equally 

 fortunate in finding hitherto unrecorded fresh-water Algse 

 in South- West Nova Zembla ; but in regard to the marine 

 Algae he has little to record that had not been previously 

 made known, while he corroborates the statements of 

 earlier explorers as to the luxuriant profusion of gigantic 

 Laminari?e, which fringe the coasts at a depth of from 

 1 to 5 fathoms, where he obtained fronds of Alaria 

 esculenta more than 15 feet long. 



In passing to the consideration of the zoological results 

 of the Dijiimphna Expedition, we must admit that except- 

 ing in regard to the Invertebrata, for whose capture no 

 better hunting-grounds than such Laminarian forests can 

 be wished for, the results are negative rather than 

 positive. Of the higher marine Vertebrates only Phoca 

 fcetida and Odobcenus rosmants were seen. A few foxes 

 were noted, and a young she-bear was shot, which was 

 the only specimen of big game attainable. Fishes, 

 mostly belonging to Icelus, Lycodes, and Liparis, were 

 taken so sparsely in from 49 to 106 fathoms that only 

 twenty-eight out of the entire 190 trawls yielded a single 

 specimen. In regard to the Invertebrates the yields were, 

 however, enormous, showing an astonishing abundance of 

 animal life in the Arctic waters. Thus, one haul brought 

 up 928 specimens of Glyptonotus enfomon, 300 of G. Sabini, 



besides enormous numbers of Alcyonidae, Sponges, 

 Actinias, and other Polyp forms. Nor was this an ex- 

 ceptional case. In the Sea of Kara the Echinodermata 

 ranked first as to individual numbers, but Crustaceas as 

 to species, eighty-two of the latter having been determined, 

 of which ten belonged to the family of the Pycnogonidae. 

 Among Crustaceans generally, seventeen new species 

 have been established by Herr Hansen, whose report 

 supplies much interesting and novel information in regard 

 to the structure of the foot-jaws of the Isopoda, of which 

 he proposes to treat more in detail in a special mono- 

 graph on the buccal organs and antennae of the most 

 important Crustacean types. 



Gastropods and Annelids were of rare occurrence, and 

 only one genus of Cephalopods, Rossia, was observed. 

 The Simple Ascidians, which have been carefully studied 

 and reported on by Dr. Traustedt, have relatively speak- 

 ing yielded many novel results, while five of the eight 

 species collected are new, of which the most interesting 

 are Phallicsia dij umphniana and P. glacialis. 



The volume in which the various reports on the 

 Dijumphna collections are contained is well got up, like 

 other works of a similar character that have been brought 

 out under the joint co-operation of the authorities of the 

 National Museum of Denmark, and of the Carlsberg 

 Institute. The latter of these bodies has liberally 

 advanced the funds necessary for meeting the expenses of 

 publication, in anticipation of the grant of 10,000 kroner 

 to be voted for the purpose in the next year's Parliamentary 

 Budget. 



The work has been carefully edited by Herr Liitken, who 

 contributes the monograph on the fishes, and to him 

 foreign readers are indebted for a French resume of the 

 report on the vegetation of Nova Zembla, and for a 

 general summary of the fauna of the Sea of Kara in the 

 same tongue. Besides his very complete botanical re- 

 ports, Herr Holm contributes a short prefatory account 

 of the cruise, which, if it unfortunately failed in adding to 

 our geographical knowledge of the Arctic regions, has at 

 any rate supplied naturalists with much valuable material 

 towards a closer acquaintance with the conditions 

 and forms of vegetable and animal life in those high 

 latitudes. 



EXERCISES IN QUANTITATIVE CHEMICAL 

 ANALYSIS. 



Exercises in Quantitative Chemical Analysis; and a 

 Short Treatise on Gas Analysis. W. Dittmar, LL.D. 

 (Glasgow : William Hodge and Co., 1887.) 



IT has probably been the case with all books on practical 

 chemistry, and especially quantitative analysis, that 

 in the first instance a rough plan or outhne of the work 

 j was used by the teacher in his laboratory, there to under- 

 go a process of extension and development. In some 

 cases this development has gone on until we have such 

 classical compilations of tried analytical processes as 

 Fresenius's quantitative or Crookes's special methods. 

 This seems to be a natural plan. Try your plan on your 

 own students, and, if there a success, publish for the pos- 

 sible benefit of a wider circle. There is only this difficulty, 



