156 



NATURE 



[December 15, 1892 



'irregular, the air being warm and moist under the influence of 

 the cyclonic systems, but cold and relatively drier in the rear of 

 the disturbances ; in Scotland the frost was at times severe, the 

 lowest of the minima being as low as 8° in the east of Scotland. 

 In the early part of the present week a temporary improvement 

 took place, with a generally rising barometer and falling ther- 

 mometer, but these conditions soon gave place to a fresh dis- 

 turbance in the north-west, accompanied by south-westerly winds 

 generally. The Weekly Weather Report for the period ending 

 the loth instant showed that the temperature was below the 

 mean in all districts, the greatest deficiency being about 7° 

 over the northern parts of the kingdom. Rainfall exceeded the 

 mean in the north-west of England and the north of Ireland, 

 but in all other districts it differed little from the average 

 amount. Bright sunshine was more prevalent than for many 

 weeks past, except in the north of Scotland, where only 5 per 

 cent, of the possible amount was registered. 



A Foreign Office " Report on the Social and Economical 

 •Condition of the Canary Islands" (No. 246, 1892) contains 

 some details with respect to the climate. There is no record of 

 the freezing point having been touched at Laguna (Teneriffe), 

 1840 feet above the sea. At Vila Flor, also in Teneriffe, 4335 

 feet above the sea, the highest point where cultivation exists, 

 the lowest temperature recorded in 1890-91 was 28° ; the lowest 

 reading at the sea level during the same period was 49°. The 

 highest summer reading at Laguna was I04°'9 in 1885. The 

 average maximum temperature near the sea in the summer is 

 about 82°. The annual rainfall at Laguna is 29-4 inches, but at 

 Santa Cruz (Teneriffe), at the sea level, it is only about li inches, 

 and at Las Palmas it is as low as 8-4 inches. The greater part 

 of the rainfalls in the Monte Verde, wherethe vapour is carried 

 from the sea by the trade wind. The rain generally begins 

 early in October and ceases early in May. 



The country between the Nile and the Red Sea has not 

 always been so barren as it is to-day. There is ample evidence 

 that in former times bodies of cavalry from three to five hundred 

 in number ranged without commissariat difficulties over districts 

 which are now deserts. The Arabic names of the valleys are 

 names for trees, and there can be little doubt that at one time 

 the valleys abounded with the trees after which they were called. 

 How is the change to be explained ? Much light is thrown on 

 the problem by a most interesting paper printed in the new 

 number of the Kew Bulletin, to which it has been communicated 

 by Mr. E. A. Floyer, F.L.S., Inspector-General of Egyptian 

 Telegraphs. It is an extract from the report (which will be 

 published in French by the Egyptian Government) of the ex- 

 pedition despatched by the Khedive to this region in 1891. 

 The writer believes that the mischief has been done during the 

 last twelve hundred years, and that it is to be attributed to the 

 Arab and his camel ; the camel having eaten the leaves and 

 shoots of the trees, the Arab having converted into charcoal the 

 stem, root, and branch. The writer is inclined to state the 

 matter thus : So long as the valleys were all the Arab had to 

 depend on for feeding his camels, so long he preserved his trees 

 for his camels. But by degrees some Arabs got a footing in the 

 Nile Valley. They hired their camels to the farmer to carry 

 their harvest. They went back to their deserted valley and 

 brought away the trees in form of charcoal. Thus the land was 

 gradually made bare. If this explanation is correct — and there 

 is evidently much to be said for it — the writer points out that a 

 like cause may be invoked over large areas to explain, for 

 example, the disappearance of the frankincense and spices from 

 Southern Arabia, to explain the thousands of chariots and 

 horsemen in Palestine, and to explain how in early times a 

 greater fertility and population existed in many countries whose 

 history, like that of Palestine, seems out of proportion to their 

 present circumstances. It is a pity, by the way, that in so good 

 NO. 1207, VOL. 4.7] 



a paper nature should be spoken of as having produced in the 

 camel "a Frankenstein." Frankenstein in the story was not 

 the monster, but the monster's creator. 



It is by no means certain that the harm which the camel is 

 capable of doing in Egyptian territory has even yet been ex- 

 hausted. The writer of the report considers it possible that the 

 prosperity in Egypt in which all Englishmen are rejoicing may 

 seal the destriiction of the remaining trees, and leave the country 

 bare save of Calotropis procera and the plants which nourish a 

 few sheep and donkeys, attended by herdsmen, fed by grain 

 from the Nile Valley. " The camel," he says, " will then, 

 having so to speak burnt its boats, be domesticated in the Nile 

 Valley. And it is interesting to speculate as to how he will 

 develop there. Already the massive Cairo camel is a type 

 distinct from other camels, surpassing all in its cumbrous 

 massive proportions." 



The December number of the Kew Bulletin contains, besides 

 the paper on the disappearance of desert plants in Egypt, inter- 

 esting sections on the Taj Gardens, Agra ; Indian gutta-percha ; 

 the Gold Coast botanical station ; Ramie machine trials at New 

 Orleans; Lord Bute's "Botanical Tables" ; and miscellaneous 

 notes. Reference was made to the " Botanical Tables" in the 

 historical account of Kew, printed in the Bulletin in 1891, p. 291. 

 Since that was written the authorities at the Royal Gardens have 

 had an opportunity, through the gracious permission of the 

 Queen, of examining the copy in the Royal Library at Windsor, 

 which formerly belonged to Queen Charlotte, to whom the work 

 was dedicated. On the fly-leaf of the first volume of the Windsor 

 copy is the following note in pencil, written by the Rev. 

 John Glover (appointed Royal Librarian by William IV.) : — 

 " Of this work only sixteen copies were printed for presents, at 

 a cost, it is said, of more than ;^ 10,000. This copy belonged 

 to Queen Charlotte, and was purchased at the sale of Her 

 Majesty's Library for, I believe, ;£'ioo." There seem, however, 

 to have been only twelve copies. The general nature of the 

 contents is indicated in the Bulletin. There are nine volumes, 

 and the work contains 654 plates, all of them apparently drawn 

 and engraved by John Miller,an excellent German artist — Johann 

 Sebastian Mueller, who thus anglicised his name. 



Ceylon is sending to the Chicago Exhibition a complete 

 reproduction of a Buddhist temple and many interesting speci- 

 mens of ancient Sinhalese art, including, according to the Ceylon 

 Observer, "exquisitely- carved pillars, massive doorways and 

 dados, beautiful windows and frescoed panellings of courts." 

 There will also be, among other things, a display of jewellery, 

 lace, and pottery. It is hoped that these treasures will do some- 

 thing to further in America " the interests of the most modern 

 product of Ceylon, tea." 



At the recent meeting of the Congress of Americanists at 

 Huelva, Mrs. Zelia Nuttall, of the Peabody Museum of American 

 Archaeology and Ethnology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, pre- 

 sented a preliminary note on the calendar system of the ancient 

 Aztecs. Guided by a statement in a Hispano-Mexican MS. 

 which she has recently discovered in the National Central 

 Library of Florence, Mrs. Nuttall claims to have found the key 

 to the Aztec calendar system. She exhibited tables showing 

 that the Mexican cycle was 13,515 days, and that it comprised 

 52 ritual years (less five days at the end of the cycle), of 260 

 days each, or 51 lunar years of 265 days each, based on nine 

 moons, or 37 solar years each of 365 days. At the end of the 

 fifty-first lunar year 10 intercalary days placed the solar years in 

 agreement with the lunar years in such a manner that the new 

 cycle recommenced in the same solar and lunar positions as the 

 13,515 preceding days. Each period commenced with a day 

 bearing one of the four names: acatl, tecpatl, calli, tochtli. 

 The calendar system and tables, 14 metres long, designed to 



