February 12, 1920] 



NATURE 



639 



over England. The Greenwich records show that the 

 mean temperature was continuously above the average 

 after the first week. The mean for the month was 

 42-1°, which is 3-6° above the normal for the last 

 thirty-five years ; the mean maximum was 49° in 

 excess, and the mean minimum 2-1° in excess. There 

 were fourteen days with the thermometer at 50° or 

 above, and on four days the temperature was 55° or 

 above. So far as London is concerned, January was 

 warmer in 19 16, when at Greenwich the mean tem- 

 perature for the month was 3° warmer than January 

 this year; the January mean for 1916 was 453°, 

 whilst for 1917 it was 35-3°. In Canada January was 

 abnormally cold, the contrast with the British Isles 

 resembling greatly the winter of 1898-99. For the 

 nine weeks of winter from November 30 to the end 

 of January there was an excess of temperature, and 

 also of rainfall, over the British Isles. The controlling 

 factor was the frequent passage of disturbances from 

 the Atlantic, the centres of which, for the most part, 

 travelled in proximity to Scotland. 



The twelfth annual report of the National Museum 

 of Wales for 1918-19 is a record of steady progress. 

 Considerable advance has been made in the formation 

 of the Welsh portrait and topographical collections, 

 which will in the near future be extensively used for 

 educational purposes and for circulation. The most 

 important accession to the zoological department was 

 the collection of British Lepidoptera and birds' eggs 

 presented by Mr. A. F. Griffith, of Brighton. Speci- 

 mens, models, and drawings are being collected with 

 the view of forming a Welsh Naval and Military His- 

 torical Record, including aviation, which will not be 

 confined to recent years, but will embrace naval and 

 military incidents connected with Wales or in which 

 Welshmen have taken a conspicuous part. The im- 

 portance of the museum for education in Wales is 

 shown by the use of the collections for special studies 

 in different branches of natural science, and by visits 

 paid by parties of mining students to Cardiff for the 

 purpose. The museum officials do good service in 

 answering inquiries on scientific questions and by 

 identifying specimens submitted for examination. 



The Syndics of the Cambridge University Press 

 have issued a new Catalogue, to which is prefixed an 

 interesting note on the progress of printing in Cam- 

 bridge. 'ITie first printer, John Siberch, settled there 

 in 152 1, and eight books have been found bearing his 

 imprint. The modern history of the Press may be 

 said to have begun in 1698, when, thanks to the 

 labours of Richard Bentley, a great revival of typo- 

 graphy took place. Additions were made to the 

 buildings, new presses set up, beautiful types 

 imported from Holland, and a body of Curatores 

 Prseli Typographici, of whom the Press Syndics of 

 the present day are the successors, was appointed. 

 One of the most famous English printers, John 

 Baskerville, entered into an agreement with the Uni- 

 versity in 1761. Early in the nineteenth century stereo- 

 type plates, the invention of the third Earl Stanhope, 

 were successfully used. In 1824 part of the surplus 

 of the fund for erecting a statue of William Pitt was 

 NO. 2624, VOL. 104] 



devoted to the new Press buildings ; J. W. Parker 

 (1836-54) was the first to introduce steam-power; and 

 since then under the control of the Clay family — John 

 Clay, the late printer, died in igi6 — and of the present 

 printer, Mr. J. B. Peace, the work of the Press has 

 rapidly extended its operations, the result of which 

 is fully illustrated in the new Book Catalogue. 



In the "Historical Collections of the Essex Insti- 

 tute" (vol. Ivi., part i., January, 1920) Mr. F. B. C. 

 Bradlee gives an interesting account of the maritime 

 history of Newburyport, Massachusetts. Many 

 famous vessels sailed from this old Essex County city, 

 among the best known of which was the Dreadnought, 

 built in 1853, and after\yards celebrated for making 

 the shortest passage across the .Atlantic ever accom- 

 plished by a sailing vessel — nine days and seventeen 

 hours from Sandy Hook to Queenstown. She was 

 named by sailors the "Wild Boat of the Atlantic," and 

 was a semi-clipper, possessing the merit of being able 

 to bear driving as long as her sails and spars would 

 stand. Mr. Bradlee, in opposition to what he calls 

 "a small coterie in New York," claims to have proved 

 the correctness of the records of this famous voyage 

 of the Dreadnought in 1859, and gives a full account 

 of later ships sailing from Newburyport. 



In the issue of the Arinals of the Natal Museum 

 for May, 1919 (vol. iv., part i), a valuable paper is 

 contributed by Mr. Claude Fuller entitled "The Wing 

 Venation and Respiratory System of Certain South 

 African Termites," illustrated by eight folding plates. 

 The author's observations on the development of the 

 wing-veins have been dirfected towards an investiga- 

 tion of the conclusions of Comstock and Needham. 

 One of the main points wherein he differs from the 

 American authors is in the origin of the wing tracheae. 

 It is remarked that the tracheae of the wing-sac 

 develop from two or three buds, arising from the 

 spiracular trunk tracheae of the meso- and meta- 

 , thorax, and not upon the dorsal and ventral longi- 

 tudinal trunks, as enunciated in the general scheme 

 of Comstock and Needham. In a recent book by 

 Comstock, "The Wings of Insects" (1918), which 

 apparently was .issued while Mr. Fuller's paper was 

 in the press, an article is contributed by Chapman 

 on the basal connections of the wing tracheae, and it 

 appears that these recent observations are mor^ in 

 accord with those of Mr. Fuller than the earlier 

 .American work. It is evident, however, that the 

 origin of the wing tracheae in termites is less primi- 

 tive than in some other insects. The remainder of 

 the paper deals with the spiracles and the tracheal 

 svstem as a whole, together with a study of the vena- 

 tion in the completed wings of various species and 

 of the wide range of variation exhibited therein. 



It is well known that when .\merica was dis- 

 covered maize was widely cultivated by the aborigines, 

 but the wild source of the plant has remained obscure. 

 Various views concerning its origin have been enter- 

 tained, one being the theory of Mr. Collins, based 

 on breeding experiments and morphological com- 

 parisons, that maize arose as a hybrid between the 

 Mexican teosinte (Euchlaena) and some unknown grass 

 belonging to the Andropogoneae. Mr. Y. Kuwada in 



