September 2, 1920J 



NATURE 



29 



of the interesting plants which have flowered in the 

 Gardens. Dr. Hill refers to the possibility of growing 

 New Zealand flax as a crop for the production of 

 fibre in the Scilly Isles in co-operation with 

 growea-s in Cornwall. 



Pkof. .\l(;lstine He.nrv and Miss Margaret Flood 

 contribute to the Proceedings of the Royal Irish 

 Academy (vol. xxxv., B5, May, 1920) a botanical and 

 sylvicultural account of the species of Douglas fir 

 comprising the genus Pseudotsuga. The Douglas fir 

 of North America is one of the great timber trees of 

 the world, and includes two species, one the Pacific 

 Coast, Oregon, or green Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga 

 Douglasii), and the other the Rocky Mountains, 

 Colorado, or blue Douglas fir (P. glauca). The 

 Oregon species forms forests of immense trees on 

 the Pacific Coast, and is now much cultivated in the 

 British Isles, where its rapid growth and enormous 

 yields of timber in a short term of years render it 

 very valuable. The Colorado species throughout its 

 home in the Rocky Mountains is much inferior in size 

 and vigour, and is of little or no value in commercial 

 afforestation in this countr>. The paper is mainly 

 concerned with a comparative study of these two 

 species, but is extended to include an account of the 

 whole genus. In all, seven species have been dis- 

 tinguished; besides the two already mentioned, 

 a third American species with ver)- large cones 

 occurs in Southern California, another in Japan, 

 and there are also three very closely allied 

 species, two native in Yunnan and one in For- 

 mosa. The microscopic structure of the leaves has 

 been found to be a distinct and constant character in 

 each species, evkfently correlated with the special, 

 climate in which the tree is native. The oil obtained 

 by distillation of the leaves of the Colorado and 

 Oregon species respectively proves to be very distinct 

 in chemical composition. 



The Meteorological Service of the Philippines has 

 r. lently issued part iii. of the Report of the Weather 

 Bureau for 1917. The report is entirely statistical, 

 imd contains the observations made at the secondarv 

 stations during the year. All the results are care- 

 fully collated and examined at the Central Observa- 

 tory under the supervision of the director, the Rev. 

 Jos«5 Algu<5, S.J., and the tables fill 360 pages, closely 

 printed. The stations extend from latitude 6°-2o° N. 

 .'iiul longitude ii8°-i44<' H. Obser%ations at first- and 

 s«( ond-class stations are for each four hours, six 

 d.iily, for most elements, and annual summaries are 

 Riven for these stations at the end of the volume. 

 I Observations at third-class and rain stations arc made 

 twice daily. In all cases the results are separated 

 into months, and the means and totals given. 

 Thi- stations in all number -fifty-four. For world- 

 ni<tcorology, and especially for aviation, the Meteoro- 

 l'>t;ical Service of the Philippines is doing work of a 

 v<ry high order. Data are given for atmospheric 

 pressure, air temperature, relative humidify, rain, wind 

 direction and movement, and cloud form and direc- 

 tion. A rough examination of the wind directions 

 an<I the movement of the clouds is of considerable 



NO. 2653, VOL. ro6] 



interest. The movement of wind is greater, and calms 

 are far less numerous, during the day than at night. 

 Easterly and north-easterly winds prevail generally 

 during the winter, and southerly and westerly winds 

 during the summer. There is a distinct range of wind 

 in the twenty-four hours. Upper and lower cloud 

 observations are given twice daily ; the direction of 

 upper clouds is less regularly entered than that of 

 lower, and the latter show commonly a veering cf 

 four points or more in comparison with the surface 

 wind at the corresponding time. 



One of the Meteorological Office publications, a 

 section of the Geophysical Journal, gives daily values 

 of certain elements at the Meteorological Office 

 observatories. The data, which are not all observed 

 every day, include air pressure, temperature and 

 humidity, wind direction and velocity, sunshine and 

 rain, cloud amount and weather, solar radiation and 

 grass minimum, magnetic elements, earth tempera- 

 ture, atmospheric electricity, earthquakes and aurora, 

 nephoscope observations, and pilot-balloon soundings. 

 The normals are not of equal value, as we find at 

 Kew Observatory 45, 35, 30, and 12 years for different 

 elements, and at St. Louis (Jersey) 26, 25, 23, 22, and 

 16 years ; while of the four wind observatories three 

 give the daily maximum gust, while the fourth can 

 give only the velocity during the windiest hour. There 

 are other points of considerable dissimilarity between 

 the different observatories. Eskdalemuir is, of course, 

 of recent foundation, but it does not seem necessary 

 to quote five-year normals in the ninth year, and it 

 would be better to adopt fresh normals every year 

 until at least the tenth in the case of a new observa- 

 tory. The South Kensington normals are for a seven- 

 year period, so that the quinquennium is obviously 

 not insisted upon. The information about the height 

 of the anemometer head above the cups at Holyhead 

 appears to be conflicting, figures of 42 m., 6-i m., 

 and 40 m. being all derivable from the headings. 



The benefits accruing from a considered system of 

 engineering standardisation have met with but a tardy 

 recognition in Australia. It was not until the neces- 

 sities of war pressed the subject to the foreground 

 that any tangible steps were taken towards intro- 

 ducing a systematic scheme for engineering stan- 

 dardisation in the Commonwealth. The Institute of 

 Science and Industry has given considerable attention 

 to the matter, and after informing itself fully as to 

 what has been done in other countries, and con- 

 sulting various ex|x:rts in Australia, it has put for- 

 ward the outline of a scheme for the creation of an 

 Australian Engineering Standards Association. This 

 scheme has now been, agreed to by the engineering 

 societies, and a recommendation m.ide to the 

 Commonwealth Government for the establishment of 

 a Standards Association. In the meantime, the 

 Institute of Science and Industry has taken a further 

 step and issued an .Australian Stan<lard Specification 

 for Structural Stwl, with ap|>ondices as to the forms 

 of standard tensile test-pieces and data as to standard 

 sections, sizes, weights, and sectional areas. 



