September 23, 1915J 



NATURE 



93 



■was delivered as a lecture before the society in April 

 of this year. The paper is illustrated by a number 

 of excellent reproductions of the trees and shrubs 

 mentioned in their native habitats from Vancouver to 

 California. The region near Mount Rainier, dis- 

 covered by Vancouver in 1792, is the home of many 

 fine conifers, notably Ahies nobilis, Thuya gigantea, 

 Douglas firs, etc., and a number of interesting shrubs, 

 seeds of which were collected by Mr. Balfour. The 

 Siskiyou Mountains, on the borders of S. Oregon 

 and N. California, were also visited in order to see 

 that rare and interesting conifer, Picea breweriana, 

 the weeping spruce, of which some excellent photo- 

 graphs are reproduced. Possibly not more than 5000 

 trees of this species exist in the wild state, but it has 

 now been introduced to Britain, and the young trees 

 are thriving well. The drooping branchlets, some 

 6-8 ft. long, hang down like those of the weeping 

 willow. The last region described in the paper is the 

 Monterey district of California, the home of those 

 well-known and useful conifers Pinus insignis and 

 Ctipressus macrocarpa. The latter is illustrated by 

 photographs of picturesque old specimens. These 

 trees, the native habitat of which is now a very 

 restricted area, were long ago introduced to Europe, 

 Chile, New Zealand, and the Cape, where they are 

 thriving as in their native country. 



Lignum nephriticum, the wood which, infused 

 with water, yields a yellow solution possessing a re- 

 markable blue fluorescence, has been an object of 

 interest ever since it was first brought to Europe from 

 Mexico, soon after the discovery of America. Robert 

 Boyle made a systematic study of the solution in 1663, 

 Avhich may be regarded as the first serious investiga- 

 tion of the phenomenon of fluorescence, but consider- 

 able doubt has existed as to the exact scientific 

 identity of the tree yielding the wood. The most 

 recent contribution to the history of Lignum 

 nephriticum is published in the Journal of the Wash- 

 ington Academy of Sciences (vol. v., No. 14, August 

 19, 1915) by Mr. W. E. SafTord. He gives the name 

 Eysenhardtia polystachya (Ortega), Sargent, to the 

 tree, and states that its botanical identity has re- 

 mained uncertain until the present time. This state- 

 ment, however, is scarcely correct, since the tree was 

 referred to the genus Viborquia by Ortega, a name 

 superseded by. the later name of Eysenhardtia of 

 Humboldt, Bonpland, and Kunth. These authors 

 correctly named the plant E. amorphoides in 1823, 

 and Mr. Saflford, following Sargent, merely restores 

 Ortega's old specific name, Viborquia polystachya, 

 making Eysenhardtia amorphoides a synonym of E. 

 polystachya. The story of Lignum nephriticum^ with 

 in account of its remarkable properties and its 

 ^vnonymy, was set out at some length in the Kew 

 Bulletin, 1909, pp. 293-305, by Dr. Stapf, and Mr. 

 SafTord adds very little to the account there given. 

 His paper is of value, however, because he reproduces 

 Ortega's original illustration of Viborquia polystachya 

 and also a photograph of specimens recently collected 

 at Tamaulipas, Mexico. It was owing to its sup- 

 posed diuretic properties that the wood of this legu- 

 minous tree received the name Lignum nephriticum. 

 NO. 2395, VOL. 96] 



We learn with regret that a heavy gale which 

 passed over the island of Dominica caused a con- 

 siderable amount of damage to the Botanic Garden. 

 About 100 trees, some of large size, were uprooted, 

 and many others are reported to have had their tops 

 blown off or to have been seriously damaged by the 

 loss of branches. Unfortunately, a number of species 

 of rare trees represented in the Garden by only a 

 single specimen have been destroyed. The clearing 

 of the devastated area will be a work of many weeks, 

 and at least a generation must elapse before the 

 Dominica Gardens can be restored to their former 

 interesting and beautiful condition. Some of the lime 

 estates in the island were also badly damaged, not 

 only owing to the loss of crop, but also by the up- 

 rooting of a considerable number of trees. 



In Bulletin No. 47, issued by the Agricultural Re- 

 search Institute, Pusa, Mr. Peter Abel describes a 

 tour of the sugar factories in the Bihar district of 

 northern India, made at the invitation of the Indian 

 Government, with the object of advising on the 

 machinery in use and the general management of the 

 plants. Judged by the standard of the West Indies 

 and America, these Indian factories are small, and run 

 on such primitive lines that many of the labour-saving 

 devices generally used in the west are not applicable. 

 The approaches and exits were in most cases badly 

 arranged, resulting in blocks and confusion of the 

 bullock carts delivering cane. As the feeding of the 

 mills is done entirely by hand a great deal of labour 

 could be avoided by the use of suitable derricks for 

 handling the cane, and at the same time give a more 

 regular feed to the mills. The methods of clarifica- 

 tion appeared to be capable of considerable improve- 

 ment, many of the appliances being defective or badly 

 situated for inspection and cleaning. In most of the 

 factories the evaporators and vacuum pans were 

 adequate, but in only two were the crystallisers suffi- 

 cient in number to ensure the maximum reduction of 

 the sucrose in the molasses. Since the quality of 

 sugar depends to a great extent upon clarification, 

 the inefficiency of this section of the plants is respon- 

 sible for the inferiority of the average product. One 

 small factory, however, possessing an adequate clarify- 

 ing and crystallising plant, was producing two sugars 

 of excellent quality. Although the Indian factories do 

 not at present obtain a satisfactory extraction, a few 

 modifications and additions would enable them to 

 obtain results very little behind those of the best works 

 in Java. 



The Carnegie Institution of Washington has just 

 published Prof. E. C. Case's fifth contribution to our 

 knowledge of the vertebrate fauna of the Permo- 

 Carboniferous red beds of North America (Publication 

 No. 207). More than half of the work is an exhaustive 

 technical description of the geological formations 

 themselves in all known regions, with numerous 

 quotations from the writings of other authors. The 

 second part is more general, and includes a valuable 

 summary of the results of Prof. Case's own researches. 

 The vertebrate fauna is one of estuaries, swamps, 

 alluvial plains, and open woodlands. Among the 

 fishes, even the sharks have a fresh-water appearance. 



