20 



NATURE 



; [MAJiqH 4, ,i^;8o 



Thb sfirst of three Ghadwick public lectures on 

 " Military Hygiene in Peace and War "will be delivered 

 by Gen. Sir John Goodwin, Director of the Army 

 Medical Department, on Monday next, March 8, at 

 5.15 p.m., in the lecture-room, Royal Society of Arts, 

 John Street, .Adelphi, W.C.2. Immediately preceding 

 the lecture Ghadwick gold medals and prizes for ser- 

 vices in promoting the health of the men of the Navy 

 and Army will be presented to Surg.-Gomdr. E. L. 

 Atkinson, R.N., and Brig.-Gen. W. W. O. Beveridge, 

 A. M.S. 



An extremely interesting account of the nesting 

 habits of the storm-petrel by Mr. Audrey Gordon 

 appears in British Birds for February. The author's 

 notes were made during a brief stay on one of the 

 smaller islands of the Inner Hebrides. Of the court- 

 ing habits of this bird nothing is known, but the 

 author believes that certain weird noises uttered while 

 on the wing during dark and stormy nights or when 

 the nights were misty are to be regarded, as part of 

 the courtship performances of the males. During this 

 time the birds would seem to be circling round the 

 nesting area at a great pace, like nocturnal swifts. 

 While this is going on an incessant "purring" can 

 b.e heard from the birds, which were probably the 

 , females, ensconced in rocky crevices. Mention is made 

 pf the bare patch on the crown of the nestling. This 

 deserves closer investigation. It is found also in the 

 young^ ostrich and in the nestling of the great crested 

 grebe, where it takes the form of a vermilion 

 heart-shaped prominence. 



In the Annals of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Pera- 

 deniya (vol. vii.), Mr. T. Petch continues the publica- 

 tion of his work on the fungi of Ceylon. " Revisions 

 of Ceylon Fungi," part vi., embodies a critical 

 examination of a large number of species and the cor- 

 relation of the specimens in the original collections 

 of Thwiaites in Ceylon with those sent by Thwaites 

 to Berkeley and Broome, now at Kew and the British 

 Museuni respectively, from which the species were 

 described. Incidentally, an interesting question arises 

 as to which series is to be regarded as containing the 

 type-specimens. A second paper, '' Gasteromycetae 

 zeylanicae,^' contains a list of these larger fungi, in- 

 cluding those originally recorded by Berkeley and 

 Broome, as well as more recent additions. A full 

 account of one of these, a remarkable phalloid 

 form, which the author has studied in detail, appears 

 in the Transactions of the British Mycological Society 

 (vol. vi., part ii.), where it is described as the type 

 of a . nfew genus, Pharus. 



The Annals of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Pera- 

 deniya (vol. vi., part iv.), contains an account, by 

 Mr. G. Bryce, of the structure and development of 

 the srnall woody "burrs" or "nodules" which are 

 found in the cortex of the rubber-tree, Hevea 

 brasiliensis. The nodules increase from the size of a 

 pea to' that of a hen's egg, and may sometimes pro- 

 duce'' .large sheets of woody tissue, As they 

 grow larger the stem becomes gnarled and warted, 

 the cortex cracks and latex oozes out, and the tree 

 becomes useless for tapping. These nodules occur 

 NO. 2627, VOL. 105] 



only on trees which have been tapped, and ai:H)ear -to- 

 be the result of physiological changes, the nature ^nd 

 cause of which are at present unknown, in tjie con- 

 tents of the latex-vessels. They are formed round 

 altered latex-vessels or round lesions or areas in the 

 cortex into which latex has oozed and coagulated. 

 The tendency to nodule formation appears to be con- 

 fined to certain predisposed individual trees, and this 

 abnormal condition is apparently not infectious. The 

 nodules in Hevea are somewhat similar in structure 

 to the isolated woody nodules which occur in the 

 cortex of beech, pear, and apple. They consist of a 

 central dark brown core, appearing as a point or 

 line, of cortical elements, surrounded by a zone of 

 wood derived from cambium and forming the bulk of 

 the nodule. They are quite distinct from the globular 

 woody shoots, such as are well known in beech, and 

 are formed by the subsequent growth of dormant 

 buds which have lost their original connection with 

 the woody cylinder of the stem. These occur in both 

 tapped and untapped trees of Hevea, but never form 

 large masses of woody tissue as do the nodules. 



A CATALOGUE of meteorological instruments has just 

 been issued by Messrs. C. F. Casella and Co., Ltd., of 

 Westminster. It is interesting to see the return of pre- 

 war activity in this direction; necessarily a largely 

 increased cost has occurred in the manufacture of the 

 instruments, ranging from 33 to 75 per cent. Full details 

 are given of the respective instruments, and there is 

 much information as to the placing and the exposure 

 required bv meteorologists to render the observations 

 of scientific value. Many may require the instruments 

 only for casual use, but occasions will occur when 

 the observations may be of real value to meteoro- 

 logists. The catalogue gives a large range of choice 

 with regard to price, and without doubt even the 

 cheaper instruments noted are trustworthy. From a 

 scientific point of view a mercurial barometer should 

 be preferred to an aneroid. In the class of thermo- 

 meters, perhaps a .Six's maximum and minimum 

 thermometer should be less preferable than the more 

 ordinary maximum and minimum thermometers ; 

 experience has proved it to be more liable to get out of 

 order. Referring to terrestrial radiation thermometers, 

 it is recommended that the instrument should be 

 placed at a height of about 2 in. above short grass ; 

 to fall into line with the recommendations of the 

 Meteorological Office, the bulb of the thermometer 

 should just touch the blades of short graiss. Good 

 illustrations are given of the various self-registering 

 instruments, and the catalogue affords an easy means 

 of selecting an outfit for all meteorological jpurposes. 



In the December, 1919, issue of Terrestrial Mag- 

 netism and Atmpspheric Electricity the editor, Dr. 

 L. A. Bauer, directs attention to the difficulties raised 

 by the directors of magnetic and electrical observa- 

 tories who do not c^rry out the decisions as to the 

 observations and their reduction arrived at after 

 adequate discussion at meetings of the International 

 Commission on Terrestrials Magnetism and Atmo- 

 spheric Electricity. Although at the Innsbruck 

 mejeting of the Commission in 1905 it was resolved 

 without anv dissentient that ,future tabulation of the 



