February i8, 191 5] 



NATURE 



689 



fact that two species of elm in England are unable 

 now to produce fertile seed. 



The English elm produces good seeds freely in the 

 warm valley of the Tagus at Aranjuez in Spain, but 

 not in Madrid on the cold plateau 500 feet higher. 

 In England it invariably reproduces itself by root- 

 suckers. The Cornish elm produces ripe fruit in 

 Brittany. Certain forms of Alchemilla are unable 

 now to produce good pollen, yet form seed partheno- 

 genetically. In the Faroe Isles thirty-six species of 

 plants scarcely ever ripen their seeds ; and five species 

 never flower. The question of what plants in Ireland 

 are now in too northerly or too cold a climate requires 

 study in the field. 



Much has been written on the Lusitanian flora of 

 Ireland, involving the question how the .\rbutus is 

 confined as a native tree to Kerr\- and Cork, not being 

 indigenous elsewhere in the British Isles. Its nearest 

 station on the continent is near Paimpol in Brittanv, 

 where, on the abrupt and rocky slope of the cliff of 

 Trieux, for about one and a half miles, this species 

 is very abundant in a wood mainly composed of oak 

 <-md mountain ash. It is interesting to note that the 

 Cornish elm {L'hniis sincta), indigenous only in our 

 islands in Cornwall and Devon, is similarly met with 

 in Brittany. The English elm {Ulmiis cantpestris) is 

 probably also a Lusitanian species, occurring else- 

 where than in southern England only in Spain as a 

 wild tree. It appears to have entered England by the 

 -Severn valley, crossing over the Colswolds into the 

 Thames valley, and southwards as far as the Isle of 

 Wight. 



Prof. Henry, in addition to giving much historical 

 matter concerning the ancient forest*; of Ireland, 

 shows how the primitive woods and their remains 

 can be easily recognised by the occurrence in them of 

 a peculiar fauna and flora, which is absent in planta- 

 tions and in arable and pasture lands. .\ list is given 

 of these sylvicole animals and plants. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Glasgow. — The following additional examiners 

 have been appointed : — Surgery, Sir Charles B. Ball, 

 Bart. ; medicine. Sir Thomas (Dliver ; physiology. Prof. 

 E. P. Cathcart; geology. Dr. John Home; zoology, 

 Mr. H. H. Brindley; engineering. Prof. J. B. Hender- 

 son; mining, Prof. \V. H. Mc>Iillan. 



Forty-three members of the teaching stafT, pro- 

 fessors, lecturers, and assistants, are engaged in mili- 

 tary service at the present time, and nearly five 

 hundred commissions in the .Army and Navy have 

 been granted to students and junior graduates of the 

 University. One, who afterwards died of wounds, 

 received the Victoria Cross. 



London. — The Senate has conferred the titles of 

 Professor and Reader in the University upon the 

 ioUow'ing -.^Professors : — Dr. A. L. Bowley (London 

 School of Economics), statistics ; Mr. L. R. Dicksee 

 (London School of Economics), accounting and busi- 

 ness organisation; Mr. J. E. S. Frazer (St. Mar>''s 

 Hospital Medical School), anatomy; Dr. T. M. Lowr}- 

 (Guy's Hospital Medical School), chemistry; Mr. J. H. 

 Morgan (University College and the London 

 School of Economics), constitutional law; Dr. 

 W. J. R. Simpson (King's College), hygiene 

 and public health; Mr. J. H. Thomas (Uni- 

 versity College), sculpture; and Mr. G. Wallas 

 (London School of Economics), political science. 

 Readers : — Dr. R. W. Chambers (University 

 College), English language and literature; Mr. H. 

 Crompton (Bedford College), chemistry; Dr. J. S. 



NO. 2364, VOL. 94] 



Edkins (Bedford College), physiology; Mr. W. J. 

 Goudie (University College), theory and practice of 

 heat engines ; Mr. Niajor Greenwood (Lister Institute), 

 medical statistics; Dr. R. G. Hebb (Westminster 

 Hospital .Medical School), morbid anatomy ; Dr. R. T. 

 Leiper (London School of Tropical Medicine), helmin* 

 thology ; Dr. H. R. Le Sueur (St. Thoma!>'s Hospital 

 Medical School), chemistry ; Dr. F. S. Locke (King's 

 College), physiology; Miss Sara Melhtiish (Bedford 

 College), education ; Dr. F. G. Pope (East London 

 College), chemistrj-; Dr. H. E, Roaf (St. Mary's Ho;*- 

 pital Medical School), physiology ; Dr. O. Rosenheim 

 (King's College), biochemistry; Mr. J. Henderson 

 Smith (Lister Institute), bacteriology; Dr. J. F. 

 Spencer (Bedford College), physical chemistrA' ; Dr. 

 H. M. Turnbull (London Hospital .Medical College), 

 morbid anatomj'. 



Manchester. — The movement started last year for 

 the establishment of a Radium Institution in Man- 

 chester met with a generous response from the pubUc. 

 Thanks to the assistance of public men and the Press, 

 the committee that was appointed to carty out the 

 scheme was able to collect a sum of about 30,000/. 

 The radium department was established at the Royal 

 Infirmary, and began work on January' i in a 

 number of rooms that had been equipped at a cost 

 of 1000/., and started with about 800 milligrams of 

 radium metal. The contract for the radium, which 

 cost about 21,000/., was fortunately given to an 

 .American firm, and its delivery was not therefore 

 interfered with by the outbreak of the war. In order 

 to ensure the maximum efficiency, the Radium Com- 

 mittee, acting on the advice of Sir E. Rutherford, 

 Sir Wm. .Milligan, and other experts, took control 

 of the equipment of the laboratories ; and the standard- 

 isation of the radium was done in the physical labora- 

 tories of the University of Manchester. The com- 

 mittee has also drawn up a scheme for the distribu- 

 tion of radium either in the solid form as applicators, 

 or as emanation tubes from the liquid form, to the 

 other hospitals in Manchester and the district. Dr. 

 .Arthur Burrows is the radiologist at the infirmary 

 responsible for the administration, Mr. H. Lupton 

 is the physicist in charge, and Sir E. Rutherford acts 

 as consulting physicist to the department. 



Oxford. — The Committee for Rural Economy re- 

 ports that during the past academic year forty-eight 

 individual students worked in the department. The 

 soil survey of the district round Oxford ha> been con- 

 tinued, and a new research on the nitrogen in peat 

 has been started. The new buildings, erected at a 

 cost of nearly booo/., were completed and ready for 

 occupation in October last. Several papers have issued 

 from the school during the year, including six by Prof. 

 Somerville (Sibthorpian professor), a joint paper by 

 Prof. Somer\ille and Mr. Harper, and others by 

 Messrs. Harper, Morison, Doyne, Sothers, and Jones. 

 Prof. Somerville continues to edit the Quarterly 

 Journal oj Forestry. 



The annual report of the Delegates for Forestry 

 shows that the number of the students in the depart- 

 ment at the beginning of the year 19 14 was thirty- 

 eight. This number by the end of the year, in conse- 

 quence of the war, had declined to fourteen. .A visit 

 was paid, under the personal direction of the pro- 

 fessor of forestry. Sir W. Schlich, to the Foret de 

 Lvons, in northern France, and weekly excursions 

 were undertaken to Bagley Wood, where, by per- 

 mission of St. John's College, a forest nursery and 

 experimental plantations have been established. Here 

 periodical measurements are taken of many species of 

 forest trees. .Advice was sought and given in respect 

 j of twelve estates aggregating 9322 acres, and other 



