278 



NATURE 



[July 21, 



■where students find the theory of economic forestry practically 

 illustrated.' At the present time, Edinburgh is the only place 

 in Scotland where lectures on forestry are given ; and there 

 does not appear to be any immediate necessity for the establish- 

 ment of lectureships at other centres. It is the best policy to 

 concentrate our eflforts in one place, and to leave nothing 

 undone to improve the facilities for teaching here, rather than 

 to dissipate our strength in attempts to sustain the machinery of 

 instruction in several places. ... In view of the fact that 

 students, while attending the forestry classes in Edinburgh, are 

 either following other courses of study at the same time, or are 

 employed in the city, it is essential that a model forest for their 

 practical instruction should be provided within such a distance 

 of Edinburgh that they may be able to visit it and return on the 

 same day, as is now done by the students who visit woods in 

 the Lothians, Fife, and other places." 



A PRELIMINARY account of the fifth international balloon 

 ascents of June 8 last is given in del et Terre of the ist inst. 

 On the whole, the undertaking met with considerable success, 

 and the results show that an immense field is open for the 

 meteorological and physical investigation of the upper atmo- 

 sphere. The operations extended from the longitude of Paris 

 to that of St. Petersburg, and from the latitude of the latter 

 place to that of Rome. The three Austrian balloons travelled 

 in the direction of Hungary, and in the Austria, Lieut. 

 Hinteroiser reached the height of 4500 metres, and registered a 

 temperature of 17° '6 F. An unmanned balloon, which left 

 Paris in the morning, descended in Westphalia in the afternoon, 

 having reached a height of about i6,cX30 metres, and recorded a 

 temperature of minus 83° F. Of three unmanned balloons sent 

 up by M. Teisserenc de Bort, from his observatory at Trappes, 

 near Versailles, one travelled 160 kilometres, and registered a 

 temperature of minus 76° at an altitude of 12,500 metres. A 

 similar balloon from Strassburg recorded minus 58° at a height 

 of eleven kilometres. The highest level reached by the mounted 

 balloons was that manned by M. Berson, which left Berlin at 

 about 2h. 30m. a.m. It travelled 160 kilometres, and reached 

 a height of 5500 metres, but only registered a temperature of 

 10° '4, while another balloon, manned by Lieut. Siegsfeld, 

 registered 17° "6 at 4500 metres. A large unmanned balloon 

 from Paris carried for the first time one of Violle's actinometers. 

 This instrument worked perfectly, and has furnished some 

 interesting results, which do not, however, agree entirely with 

 theoretical ideas. Regret is expressed that this country has as 

 yet taken no part in the exploration. 



A REi'ORT has been received at the Foreign Office from the 

 acting British Consul-General at Hamburg, stating that a 

 Bill will probably be submitted to the German Government 

 for the construction of an inland canal passing through the 

 provinces of the Rhine, Westphalia, Hanover, and Bevergern 

 Elbe, to be known as the "Dortmund Rhine" Canal. The 

 estimated cost of the canal is 6^400,000/. 



The Committee of the Society for the Protection of Birds 

 has issued a circular letter urging landowners, shooting tenants 

 and farmers to use their authority with their keepers and others 

 to prevent the free destruction of birds on their land, and to 

 give instructions as to what birds only may be destroyed, 

 which, in the words of the circular, " should properly be only 

 those birds that, from their abundance in any particular 

 district, may do real harm." 



The geological history of the recent flora of Britain was 

 discussed by Mr, Clement Reid in the Annals of Botany for 

 August 1888 ; the author has now contributed further observ- 

 ations on this subject to the same journal for June of this 

 year. During the past ten years much new information has 



NO. 1499, VOL. 58] 



been gathered, and this is summarised in a table showing the 

 geological range of the various species of British plants which 

 have been found in a fossil state ; the chronological divisions 

 adopted being Preglacial, Early Glacial, Interglacial, Late 

 Glacial, and Neolithic. About one-seventh of our flowering 

 plants are thus recorded. The orders best represented are 

 mainly those which possess hard fruits or seeds specially 

 adapted for dispersal, and those with deciduous leaves. Mr. 

 Reid remarks that it is doubtful whether a single one of our 

 flowering plants is, strictly speaking, a native of Britain. The 

 whole flora has originated probably in other and various parts 

 of the world. We find now merely the species stranded by 

 successive waves of migration, which have brought together a 

 variety of continental forms, some Arctic, some Southern, a 

 few even American. These migrations were, in his opinion, 

 mainly compelled by climatic changes, though other agencies 

 have played an important part. He thinks it probable that a 

 far larger proportion of our plants was introduced by human 

 agency than is generally believed to have been the case. 



In all text-books, and on the latest maps of Siberia, the 

 coasts of the Arctic Ocean are represented as a flat tundra 

 soaked with water. Dr. K. Hikish points out, in an orograph- 

 ical sketch of North Siberia {Memoirs of the Russian Geo- 

 graphical Society, vol. xxi. "General Geography"), that this 

 is quite incorrect. Only the Ob region is a real low depression, 

 which attains the Arctic Ocean and ends in low flat shores. In 

 the east of the Yenisei there are no low depressions in Siberia, 

 with the exception of a small one at the mouth of the Lena. 

 The northern coasts of Siberia, from the Yenisei eastwards to 

 Bering Strait, are high, as was known from the earlier explorers, 

 and has been confirmed lately. There are only deltas at the 

 mouths of the Olenek, the Lena, the Yana, and the Indighirka. 

 In the east of the Kolyma the coasts become even hilly, 

 leaving but a narrow strip of low land along the sea beach. 

 Hilly tracts are met with at a short distance from the shores 

 inland. 



At a recent meeting of the Paris Biological Society, M. 

 Courmont gave an account of some experiments he had made 

 with anti-streptococcic serum. He immunised an ass by in- 

 oculating it with a culture of streptococci derived from a case 

 of human erysipelas, and thus obtained a serum which rendered 

 a rabbit perfectly immune against these streptococci. He had 

 also isolated eleven kinds of streptococci from erysipelas or 

 suppurating lesions in human beings, and tried the serum ob- 

 tained from the ass against these. Of the eleven different 

 streptococci seven only were influenced by the serum. Even 

 then, if an ass be inoculated with two samples of streptococci, 

 it is not possible to obtain a serum efficacious against all kinds of 

 streptococci, for the various kinds of this organism are too 

 diff"erent for one anti-streptococcic serum to overcome them all. 



The Colonial Bacteriological Institute, attached to the Cape 

 of Good Hope Department of Agriculture, has issued its report 

 for the year 1896. Though belated in appearance, it is a 

 valuable document as indicating the importance of the work 

 carried out at the Institute. Besides the elaborate experimental 

 investigations which have been conducted on rinderpest, we 

 note various other directions in which the activities of the staff 

 have been engaged. For example, no less than 1039 culture 

 tubes of a locust-destroying fungus have been forwarded to 

 diff"erent parts of the country, and the reports received as to the 

 efficacy of this fungus are very encouraging. In order that the 

 best results may be obtained, it is recommended that the Veldt 

 should be inoculated twice a year, as the cold of winter seems 

 to act deleteriously on the fungus. Mallein and tuberculin, for 

 the detection of glanders and consumption, are also now pro- 

 duced at the Institute, and arrangements were being made^ 



