Oct. 21, 1875] 



JNATURE 



54' 



used as food ; they are carried from place'to place in junks laden 

 entirely with them ; they contain a quantity of oil of a sweet or 

 bland nature. In the manufacture of olive oil, much more eco- 

 nomy is exercised than was formerly the case. In the olive- 

 growing countries the pulpy portion of the fruit, which was 

 formerly tin-own away aftei being pressed, is now bought up at 

 the rate of from thirteen to sixteen shillings per ton, and sub- 

 mitted to chemical action and powerful steam pressure, by which 

 means about twenty per cent, more oil is obtained. This oil is 

 of course of an inferior quality to that obtained from the first 

 expression. After this remaining oil is extracted, the seeds, 

 which are crushed in the process, are finally burnt as fuel or used 

 as manure. The foregoing notes will show the kind of matter 

 dealt with in the Official Catalogue of Waste products. 



From the Report, dated June 1875, of Mr. George King, 

 Superintendent of the Calcutta Botanical Gardens, we see that 

 during the past year many important improvements have been 

 effected in the Gardens. Among other things a fine raised terrace 

 has been constructed, on which a large new plant-house is now 

 being erected. This noble conservatory, when finished, will, it 

 is expected, be the greatest addition to the Garden which has been 

 made for years, and will give facilities for the cultivation of deli- 

 cate plants hitherto unknown in Calcutta. This building is 200 

 feet in length by 66 feet broad. The collections in the two 

 orchid houses and in the other conservatories have been much 

 increased during the year, considerab';e additions having been 

 received from Sikkim, the Khasi Hills, the Andaman?, and 

 Burmah, also a few plants from the Neilgherries. A number of 

 plants were also sent to the Garden by Mr. Lister, the second 

 gardener, who accompanied the Dufila field-force as a botanical 

 collector. " But," Mr. King justly remarks, in reference to this, 

 " when the floral weaUh of Assam, of Eastern Bengal, and of 

 Burmah is considered, not to mention the west and south of 

 India, the collection in this Garden appears miserably small. In 

 an imperial institution such as this, the natural productions of 

 the whole Indian empire should, as far as the climate will per- 

 mit, be represented. I see no way of forming such a typical 

 collection until a good trained European col'ector be attached 

 permanently to the establishment. At present I have to rely for 

 supplies of plants from distant parts of India on correspondence 

 with private parties, who, although usually very willing to help, 

 are unfortunately often unskilled in botany or gardening, and 

 neither know what plants to send nor how to pack them safely 

 for transit. The only experts, not employed in the Garden, 

 whose services I can command for collecting, are the manager of 

 the Cinchona plantation and his assistants, and their efforts are 

 of course confined to Sikkim. Had I a collector as one of the 

 regular garden staff, I could send him about to distant districts 

 of which the flora is little known or poorly represented in the 

 Garden, and the result would be that in a few years a very fine 

 collection might be got together both of living plants in cultiva- 

 tion and of dried specimens in the Herbarium. Another great 

 advantage would be that this Garden would be put in a position 

 such as it has not hitherto occupied for exchanging plants with 

 similar institutions all over the worid. The cost of maintaining 

 such a collector would not be great, and the extremely liberal 

 manner in which the Gardens have been' supported by Govern- 

 ment during the past year leads me to hope that this desideratum 

 will soon be supplied." 



There is being printed for the National Library of Paris two 

 volumes of catalogues of French History. The series will be 

 completed in fourteen volumes. There are also being printed 

 two new volumes of the catalogue of Medicine, containing all the 

 theses supported before the several French schools for a number 

 of years. These two volumes will make the catalogue of Medi- 

 cine complete in four volumes. 



We learn from the Journal of Botany that Prof. Kcrncr, o 

 Innsbriick— to whose valuable contributions to botanical literature 

 we have frequently called attention, especially relating to the 

 distribution of plants as aFocted l)y climatal and geological con- 

 ditions—will shortly succeed the venerable Fenzl as Professor of 

 Botany at the University of Vienna. 



A PAPER by Dr. T. Spencer Cobbold has been reprinted from 

 the VeUrinarian of this month, on the destruction of elephants 

 by parasites, with remarks on two new species of entozoa, and 

 on the so-called earth- eating habits of elephants and horses in 

 India. 



Mr. Sct-ATER has issued an appendix to his " Revised List of 

 the Vertebrated Animals in the Zoological Gardens," containing 

 the names of the additions since the year 1871, among the most 

 important of which are the superb series of Rhinoceroses, five 

 species in all; the Chinese Water Deer of Swinhoe; the 

 Mourning Kangaroo ; the Red Oven-bird ; Bouquet's Amazon, 

 and three fresh species of Cassowary. 



The principal papers in this month's part of Petermann's 

 Miitheilungen are : An account of a journey to Patagonia, by 

 Dr. Karl Berg, of the Public Museum of Buenos Ayres, in 

 which particular attention is given to the natural history of 

 the country ; " Chinese Travellers of the Middle Ages to Western 

 Asia," by Dr. E. Bretschneider, of Pekin ; "Travels on the 

 Araguaya, Brazil, in January 1865," by Dr. Conto de Magalhaes ; 

 " Contributions to a Knowledge of the Oasis El-Chargeh," with 

 a map, by Dr. G. Scliweinfurth ; and a short paper, with map, 

 on Weyprecht's survey of the North Coast cf Novaya Zcmlya in 

 September and October 1872. 



The BuUelin of the French Geographical Society for Sep- 

 tember contains a careful paper by M. Jules Girard on the Ele- 

 vations and Depressions which have been observed along the 

 coast of France. This part also contains the conclusion of the 

 Abbe Pelitot's valuable contribution to the Geography of the 

 Athabaskaw-Mackenzie region of North America, and a paper 

 by M. E. Allain on the Statistics of Brazil. 



The French Government is sending to China a doctor, M. 

 Durand Fardel, in order to study the important question of con- 

 tagious diseases, and to elucidate the so much vexed question of 

 quarantines. 



In the Health Section of the Social Science Congress, Prof. 

 Wanklyn read a paper on the waters of the Nile, showing the 

 amounts of chlorine and of hardness at different periods. The 

 rise of the Nile commences at the end of May, and lasts through 

 June, July, and August, up to about the [middle of September, 

 when the decrease continues till Christmas. From Christmas 

 till May the amount is tolerably constant. Just at the time of 

 the beginning of the rise of the waters the chlorine is i "8 grains 

 per gallon, but at the time when the Nile has attained its greatest 

 size it is onlyO"3gr., and it remains very little above that pro- 

 portion to the end of the year. In marked contrast with the 

 variableness of the chlorine is the constancy of the hardness. 

 Prof. Wanklyn's explanation is that the storm-water which adds 

 so much to the bulk of the Nile sweeps over the country without 

 penetrating far below the surface, and such water passing over a 

 country long ago denuded of salt could convey but little chlorine. 

 He thinks that the debris carried down mechanically by the flood- 

 water contains abundance of finely divided carbonate of lime, so 

 that the storm-water would always be saturated by carbonate of 

 lime. Hence the constant hardness. The water which feeds 

 the Nile, apart from the storm- water, contains I'S grains per 

 gallon ; and it is the accession of storm-',vatcr with chlorine that 

 causes the relative reduction. Similar features will probably be 

 found in other large rivers which have a fl loJ period. 



