262 



NATURE 



\7uly 29, 1875 



who desire the co-operation of the various horticultural societies 

 throughout Europe in making the undertaking as complete and 

 successful as possible. The President is to be Mr. J. H. Krelage, 

 and the Secretary Mr. II. Groenewegen. 



Mr. Thiselton Dyer, in consequence of his recent appoint- 

 ment to Kew, has resigned the Professorship of Botany at the 

 Royal Horticultural Society. 



Dr. Hoffmann, of Giessen, contributes an interesting article 

 oh the influence of inland-water on the vegetation of shore- 

 lands to the Oesterreichisches Lanlwirthschaftliches Wochenhlatt 

 of July 10. His object is to prove that large bodies of water 

 tend to produce an equable climate, and that a large percentage of 

 heat and light is due to the reflected rays of the sun from the 

 surface of the water. To illustrate his argument he selects that 

 part of the river Rhine which flows from east to west, from 

 Biebrich to Niederwald, where the northern bank more particu- 

 larly in the immediate vicinity of the water produces the best 

 grapes in Germany. Moreover, he states that the fogs rising 

 from the water in the month of May protect the tender shoots of 

 the vine from being injured by late frosts. This, at any rate, 

 does not agree with our experience in this country. 



It is stated that, in consequence of pressure of business, the 

 Government is not likely to be in a position, during the present 

 session, to return any final answers to the applications for aid 

 made on behalf of King's College, London ; Owens College, 

 Manchester ; the University College of Wales ; and other educa- 

 tional bodies throughout the country. 



Lord Aberdare has been elected President of the Social 

 Science Association for the ensuing year. 



In a pit about half a mile east of Erith Railway Station, where 

 an old and deserted bed of the Thames is excavated for brick 

 earth, and which has yielded the bones of two species of British 

 elephant and one of lion. Dr. Gladstone, F.R. S, , was so fortunate 

 as to find, on Saturday last, a large flint implement of palaeolithic 

 make. The implement is seven inches in length, slightly convex, 

 and chipped on the outer curve with three longitudinal faces ; 

 consequently it has four working edges. At the butt end an 

 echinus, or sea urchin, is embedded in the flint. 



In some excavations which have recently been undertaken 

 during the construction of the continuation of the Thames em- 

 bankment westwards, some probably prehistoric remains have 

 been brought to light, which include a human lower jawbone 

 with all the teeth present. At about the same spot a flint knife 

 was discovered and other animal remains, some mixed with 

 freshwater shells. 



In the Proceedings of the Bristol Naturalists' Society (Vol. I. 

 Partii.) will be found the translation, by Dr. Fripp, of a valu- 

 able paper by Dr. E. Abbe, of Jena, entitled, " A Contribution 

 to the Theory of the Microscope, and the Nature of Microscopic 

 Vision." 



The University of California has organised a summer explor- 

 ing party, which will be occupied about nine weeks in journeying 

 through the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Mariposa, Mono, and 

 Inyo counties, and will bestow particular attention to geology, 

 palaeontology, and mineralogy. The party will be in charge of 

 Dr. Joseph Le Conte, assisted by Mr. Henry Edwards, Mr. F. P. 

 M'Lean, and Mr. F. Slate. 



Sir Charles Locock, Bart., F.R.S,, First Physician- 

 Accoucheur to the Queen, died on Friday last, at the age of 

 seventy-six years. 



■ The British Archseological Association meets this year at 

 Evesham, on Monday, August 16, when the President, the 

 Marquis of Hertford, will deliver the inaugural address. 



A Reuter's telegram states that an attack has been made on 

 the Palestine exploring party, none of whom have, however, been 

 hurt. The assailants were repulsed. 



The rector of the Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium) has 

 gone to Paris in order to consult with the ecclesiastics now engaged 

 in preparing to establish a Catholic University in that city. 

 The site has been already chosen, and is close to the place where 

 La Bastille was erected during the old Monarchy. The liberals 

 are not likely to establish a University of their own, if the 

 existing University satisfies their principal claims. 



A capital weekly journal, the Elctrical News and Tele- 

 graphic Reporter, whose first appearance we intimated a few 

 weeks ago, has just completed the first month of its existence. 

 It is edited with care and ability by Mr. Crookes, and is uniform 

 in size and price with the Chemical News. In the number for 

 July 22 there are nine articles of considerable scientific value and 

 others of no less general interest. We notice especially the 

 paper on Quadruplex Telegraphy and the Telegraph in China. 

 The notes are interesting, and the reports of electrical science from 

 the foreign journals are well done. We are glad to be able to 

 bring this useful journal under the notice of our readers. 



An examination will be held at Exeter College, Oxford, on 

 Thursday Oct. 14, for the purpose of election to two scholarships 

 in Natural Science, of the annual value of 80/. each, tenable for 

 five years. 



We have received the " Second Appendix" to the " Flora of 

 Liverpool," issued by the members of the Field Club. It con- 

 tains additional habitats for many species, and also include* 

 several species not previously recorded as growing in the dis- 

 trict, some of them of considerable rarity, as : Ranuncultit 

 Jluitans, Barbatea stricta, Carduus nutans, Doronicum Farda- 

 lianches, Cusenta Europaa, Mentha rubra, Siachys ambigua, 

 Atriphx triangularis, Rinnex pratensis, Alisme natans, Carex 

 divulsa, axillaris and fulva. Local " floras " are becoming so 

 numerous now, and the directions for finding certain plants so 

 minute, that there is some point in the remark of a facetious 

 foreign professor of botany, who said that we should soon have 

 have all our British plants separately labelled. This defect (in 

 our opinion) is rather conspicuous in the Appendix to the Flora 

 of Liverpool. It may be desirable to know something about th« 

 number of individuals of exceedingly rare though undoubtedly 

 indigenous species. 



Mr. Dall has presented a report to the United States Coast 

 Survey on the tides, currents, and meteorology of the Northern 

 Pacific. He finds proof of the existence of a northerly current, 

 denominated by him " the Alaska current," which had previously 

 been surmised. 



Vol. VI. of Mr. F. V. Hayden's Report of the U.S. Geolo. 

 gical Survey consists of a monograph, by Mr, Leo Lesquereux 

 on the Cretaceous Flora of the Western Territories, profusely 

 illustrated. Mr. H. Gannett, under the same direction, has 

 issued the third edition of a List of Elevations west of the Mis- 

 souri River. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include, a Chimpanzee ( Troglodytes niger) from W. 

 Africa, presented by Capt. Lees, Govenor of Lagos, W. Africa ; 

 three Amherst Pheasants ( Thaumalea amherstice) ; a Geoffroy's 

 Blood Pheasant {Ithaginis Geo^royii) and five Tettiminck's Tra- 

 gopans ( Ceriornis Temminckii) from China, deposited ; a Sam- 

 bur Deer [Cervus arisiotelis), two Brown Indian Antelopes 

 {Tetraceros subquadricornutus) from India, a Tora Antelope 

 {Alcelaphus tora) from Upper Nubia, an Elate Hornbill {Buceros 

 elatus), an Electric Silurus {Melapterurus beninensis) from W. 

 Africa, a Naked-throated Bell Bird {Chasmorhynchus nudicollis), 

 a Pectoral Tanager {Ramphoccelus brasilius), a Festive Tanager 

 (Calliste fesHva) from Brazil, purchased. 



