Feb. 9, 1888] 



NATURE 



351 



Council. These charts showed that only a small proportion of 

 storms travelled across the Atlantic. The track of the depressions 

 is determined by the distribution of pressure over the ocean, and 

 of this distribution we are ignorant at the time of despatch of 

 telegrams fro3i America. The lecturer stated that in their 

 present incomplete form the telegrams were of no assistance to 

 the Meteorological Office in issuing storm warnings. 



g;DR. BiLLWiLLER reports the establishment of a permanent 

 observatory on the sum nit of the Santis, in October last. This 

 observatory ranks as the third in height in Europe, being at an 

 elevation of 8200 feet, and 108 feet higher than the temporary 

 station at the Gasthaus, on the Santis, where the observations 

 have been taken for the last five years. The results of these 

 observations are published in a Neiijahrsblatt, by the scientific 

 Society of Zurich. The lowest temperature during the five years 

 was-9°F. on March 13, 1883, and the highest, 69°, on 

 July 21, 1886. The prevalent winds were westerly and south- 

 westerly, which usually occur on high mountains in these 

 atitudes. 



According to the last annual report on the Dutch East, 

 Indies, rainfall was measured at 183 stations in these posses- 

 sions. The military portion of the report, the topographical 

 survey of Java, on a scale of i : 200,000, is completed, and 

 the members of the Survey have been sent to the west coast 

 of Borneo, where a preliminary survey to join certain points 

 already astronomically determined has been undertaken. The 

 survey on the west coast of Sumatra will also be continued. A 

 considerable part has already been triangulated, and 344 posi- 

 tions have been determined. The definitive calculation of the 

 triangulation work of Java, on which Prof. Oudemans, of 

 Utrecht, has been at work for five years, is not yet completed. 



Recent Java journals give particulars of a remedy for coffee- 

 leaf disease, discovered by Dr. Burck, manager of the Govern- 

 ment [Botanic Gardens at Buitenzorg, near Batavia. The 

 specific is said not only to cure the disease, but also to prevent 

 its recurrence. For preventive purposes, he makes use of a 

 highly attenuated solution of chloride of iron applied to the 

 under portion of the leaves by means of a pulverisator. The 

 sticky nature of the solution enables it to adhere two months to 

 the coffee-leaves. It is a powerful antidote to the HetJiileia 

 vastatrix. To stay the progress of the latter when it has once 

 taken hold, a different method is employed. The coffee-leaves 

 in which the Hemikia first manifests itself in the form of orange- 

 coloured spots are at once taken in hand. Holes are pricked in 

 the spots with a needle dipped in a strong solution of sulphuric 

 acid, which kills all the germs of the disease in the leaf. Dr. 

 Burck estimates the cost of the preventive specific at 2 J guilders 

 per 133 lbs., and the healing remedy at 4 guilders. He antici- 

 pates that the price of coffee will be enhanced in consequence. 

 The second specific in particular is said to have yielded good 

 results and to be easy to administer. The econo jnic value for Java 

 of the discovery of the remedies, should they prove successful, 

 can scarcely be over-estimated. In Ceylon the disease in the 

 coffee-plant produced a revolution in planting ; year after year 

 the coffee crops were failures, many planters were ruined, and 

 ultimately tea-growing took the place of coffee with results which 

 are just now astonishing the world. But the period of transition 

 from one staple to the other was one of economic disaster, from 

 which perhaps Dr. Burck has saved Java. 



We have received the recent issues of the Journal of tin 

 Asiatic Society of Bengal. Vol. Iv. Part 2, No. 5, is wholly 

 occupied by the second instalment (Rhopalocera) of the Lepido- 

 pterous insects collected in Tavoy and Siam during 1884-85, 

 under the superintendence of Mr. Pit'jian, the Chief Super- 

 intendent of Telegraphs. Of this list nearly 100 species are 



quite new. The list is drawn up by Messrs. Elwes and L. de 

 Niceville. Vol. Ivi. Part 2, has numerous and varied contribu- 

 tions. The first paper is by Mr. Blanford, on the influence of 

 Indian forests on the rainfall. The other papers are : the 

 changes in the density of sea-water, by S. R. Elson ; notes on 

 Indian Rhynchota, Heteroptera, Part i, by E. T. Atkinson ; 

 new species of Ficus from New Guinea and Sumatra, by G. 

 Kini, where eleven new species are spoken about ; the mam- 

 mals and birds collected by Captain Yate with the Afghan 

 Boundary Commission, each species briefly described and com- 

 mented on by J. Scully ; the species of Loranthus indigenous 

 to Perak, by G. King; Etude sur les Arachnides de I'Asie 

 meridionale, by M. Eug. Simon; the differential equation of 

 a trajectory, by H. Mukhopadhyay. 



The current number of the Folk- Lore Journal (vol. vi. part i.) 

 contains a most interesting collection of Aino tales and legends, 

 made by Prof. Chamberlain, the well-known Japanese scholar. 

 We are glad to see that he was encouraged to publish the col- 

 lection by certain observations contained in a review, in these 

 columns, of his recent monograph on the Ainos. The collection 

 consists of fifty-four tales (a few being omitted as unfit for 

 general publication), classified under the headings— tales ac- 

 counting for the origin of phenomena, moral tales, tales of the 

 Panaumbe and Penaumbe cycle, miscellaneous tales, and, finally, 

 scraps of folk-lore. These were all taken down from the mouths 

 of Ainos. The other papers in the number include a con- 

 tinuation of one on Irish folk-lore collected from a " Statistical 

 Account or Parochial Survey " of that country published more 

 than seventy years ago ; and a collection of the traditions of a 

 race as curious in its way as the Ainos, the Mentra, or aborigines 

 of Malacca and the adjoining States. 



The January number of the Auk announces that the affairs 

 of the American Ornithologists' Union have considerably bright- 

 ened, and that by the public spirit of some of its members the 

 Association begins the new year free from debt. The new part 

 also strikes us as full of vigour, and of more than ordinary 

 interest, and it is evident that the recent exertions of the 

 Americans in getting collections from little-known parts of the 

 Western world, such as Texas and Northern Mexico, are being 

 amply rewarded. The reviews are as good as ever, and some of 

 the original papers are excellent. Mr. Sennett describes a new 

 finch from Arizona, and gives an account of the North American 

 species of Peuccra, but not one word is said respecting the 

 " Biologia Centrali-Americana " of Messrs. Salvin and God- 

 man, where all Mr. Sennett's facts were duly set forth a year 

 ago. The new Arizona finch, Peuccea rujiceps scolli, of Mr. 

 Sennett, was also described some months ago by Mr. Bowdler 

 Sharpe as Peuccea hoinochlamys in the twelfth volume of the 

 " Catalogue of Birds," but as this work has only just appeared, 

 Mr. Sennett's name secures priority of publication. Mr. 

 Brewster's new species from Mexico seem to rest on somewhat 

 trivial characters, at least in the ca.se of the small owls {Scops\ 

 and the Aimophilce. 



Amongst the subjects of special interest referred to in the 

 report of the Smithsonian Institution for the past year is the 

 exploration for a collection of skeletons and skins of the now 

 almost extinct American bison or buffalo. The expljraton 

 was very successful, a small herd being found in a wild 

 part of Montana, from which the officers of the Institution 

 secured a series of skins, as well as sixteen cojaplete skeletons, 

 and fifty-one dry skulls. The herd appears to liave been com- 

 pletely exterjainated by the settlers soon afterwards. An expedi- 

 tion was also despatched to the Swan Islands in the Caribbean 

 Sea, which are said to abound in land birds in great variety, and 

 also in large iguanas and other reptiles. The National Museum 



