NATURE 



[April 8, 1920 



fields are of a good size and well adapted to the use 

 of implements of a large, up-to-date form, while the 

 light and early character of the land should render it 

 specially suitable for small arable dairy holdings. 



The revival of Oriental research is happily marked 

 by the reappearance of Prof. Flinders Petrie's admir- 

 able journal. Ancient Egypt. Great changes have oc- 

 curred since the outbreak of hostilities. In Egypt the 

 main actors are gone — Sir Gaston Maspero, his son 

 Jean Maspero, Legrain, and Barsanti. On the English 

 side the losses have been equally severe — Sir A. Ruffer, 

 H. Thompson, I. Dixon, and K. T. Frost, all victims 

 of the war; and at home the early death of Prof. 

 Leonard King has left history and archaeology crippled. 

 But, so far as was possible, work has gone on, par- 

 ticularly under the new conditions in Palestine, where 

 a school of archaeology, under the superintendence of 

 Prof. Garstang, is being founded. The British School 

 in Egypt is starting work with a large staff, and in 

 the United States, under Prof. Breasted, the Oriental 

 Institute of the Chicago University has been opened. 

 But funds are badly wanted both in Egypt and in 

 Palestine, and though this is an unfavourable time 

 _for such an appeal, there is good hope that British 

 archaeologists will provide the necessary assistance. 



In the Museum Journal (vol. x., No. 3, September, 

 1919) Mr. H. V. Hall discusses the question of African 

 art. So much has been said, Mr. Hall remarks, about 

 the uniformity of African culture that the variety 

 which exists tends sometimes to be overlooked. The 

 people of eastern and southern Africa are chiefly 

 interested in the products of the animal, those of 

 central and western Africa in the products of the 

 vegetable, kingdom. Speaking broadly, the region east 

 of the lakes and south of the Zambezi-Congo water- 

 shed is the home of pastoral tribes, and the Congo 

 and the Lower Niger races practise agriculture. 

 Hence the latter have more leisure to devote to art- 

 work. The question of foreign influence on the negro 

 is of great importance. There are at least four routes 

 from the north and north-west by which the dark 

 heart of the continent can be reached. A growing 

 mass of evidence points to the conclusion that, even 

 in historic times, these routes have never been quite 

 barred to civilising influences ; especially in the expan- 

 sion of old Egypt the solution of many problems of 

 culture apparently indigenous in Central Africa must 

 be sought. 



A COMMITTEE appointed by the Royal Anthropological 

 Institute is engaged in collecting information regard- 

 ing megalithic monuments. As an example of the 

 scientific method of conducting such a survey, Messrs. 

 J. S. Wilson and G. A. Garfitt, in the March issue of 

 Man, supply a map of the Eyam Moor circle in Derby- 

 shire. This work is important in connection with 

 Sir Norman Lockyer's investigations. " In the survey 

 of the Eyam Moor circle several large stones were 

 noted on the near horizon towards the N.E. and E. 

 The f>ath of the sun at sunrise for the latitude of 

 the circle, after making allowances for refraction, was 

 NO. 2632, VOL. 105] 



calculated for different declinations of the sun and 



plotted on the chart. It will be seen that the position 



of prominent stones plotted on the diagram appears to 



mark the position of sunrise at midsummer and at 



the equinox. On the diagram the position of sunrise 



is shown for the present obliquity of the ecliptic, or 



sun's apparent declination of 23° 27', also for an 



I obliquity of 23° 57', which, according to the estimates 



j of astronomers, would have been correct 2000 years 



I before the Christian era. The small difference in the 



! position of the sun indicates the difficulty of fixing the 



age of a monument by this means." 



The Department of Agriculture, Federated Malay 

 States, in view of the necessity for an increased local 

 production of foodstuffs, has issued a special Bulletin 

 (No.. 30) on "Food Production in Malaya," compiled 

 by Mr. F. G. Spring and Mr. J. N. Milsum. The 

 booklet contains 112 pages and 12 plates, costs one 

 dollar, and brings together a large amount of useful 

 information. It includes sections on seasons and 

 rainfall, types of land (whether coastal or inland), 

 soils, tillage, agricultural machinery, rotation of 

 crops, manures, and insect pests and other diseases. 

 Suitable cereal, pulse, and root crops are described, 

 and their cultivation, harvesting, yield, and economic 

 uses considered in some detail. The principal cereals 

 are ragi (Eleusine coracana) and rice ; various 

 millets and sorghum form subsidiary crops ; the chief 

 pulses are green and black gram, cow-pea, and the 

 ground-nut; and the chief root-crops sweet potato, 

 yams, and manihot (tapioca). 



A SYSTEMATIC enumeration of the palms of the 

 Philippines is given by Dr. O. Beccari in the Philip- 

 pine Journal of Science (vol. xiv.. No. 3). One 

 hundred and twenty species are at present known to 

 be Indigenous, which, with the exception of about a 

 dozen species of relatively wide geographic distribu- 

 tion, are endemic forms. }n discussing the relation- 

 ships of the palm-flora. Dr. Beccari concludes that 

 the Philippine species have in great measure 

 originated in the archipelago, but their phylogeny 

 may be traced to species growing chiefly in Borneo, 

 Celebes, the Moluccas, and Indo-China, excluding 

 I about a dozen species which, possessing adaptafions 

 I for easy dissemination, have a rather wide distribu- 

 1 tion. A small Polynesian element is represented by 

 \ Adonidia, the only genus peculiar to the archipelago, 

 i and Heterospathe. In the Philippines a few large 

 genera have given rise to numerous species, whereas 

 In Polynesia monotypic or oligotypic genera are 

 numerous, and no genus contains a great number of 

 species. 



The Meteorological Magazine for March gives a 

 short notice of the work of the International Meteoro- 

 logical Conference held in Paris in October last, 

 taken from the account of the conference published in 

 Paris by the Bureau Central M^t^orologique. Further 

 details will be welcomed when they are published by 

 the meteorological authorities in our own country. 

 The preceding meeting of the body was held at 

 Innsbruck in 1905, so that much advance in the 



