February 9, 1893] 



NATURE 



349 



legitimate claims of those who are engaged in cultural industries 

 above that limit. Good progress has been made in the scientific 

 work connected with the herbarium and library, and numerous 

 subjects, such as the extension of grape culture, the distribution 

 of valuable economic plants, experiments in onion and tomato 

 culture, fodder plants for the hills, have received attention. 

 Students from Harvard University were engaged during the year 

 in studying and making collections of tropical plants, and one of 

 these devoted himself to preparing glass models of flowers and 

 fruits with dissections to illustrate the science of botany. Two 

 apprentices, natives of Lagos, West Africa, were attached to the 

 Hope Gardens, with the view of qualifying themselves to take 

 charge of botanical stations in their own country. 



Mr. Fawcett's opinion respecting the practical aims and 

 functions of departments like his are conveyed in the following 

 words : " Botanic Gardens in the tropics do the work on the 

 plant side of Agricultural Departments in temperate climates. 

 They are in themselves experimental stations, and are much 

 more efficient in introducing new cultural products, and in dis- 

 tributing plants and imparting useful information than most agri- 

 cultural departments. The whole of the Botanic Gardens in the 

 British Empire are more or less in communication with one 

 another, exchanging seeds and publications, and all look up to 

 the Royal Gardens at Kew as to their head for advice and assist- 

 ance. Imperial Federation is already in existence as regards the 

 Botanical Gardens and their work. If any special variety of 

 plant or any new culture comes into notice information and 

 plants are sought either directly from the local institutions, or 

 more probably through Kew as the botanical clearing house. The 

 Director of Kew has at his disposal the services of experts in 

 every branch of botanical inquiry, and he is always most willing 

 to assist colonial establishments in every way. Besides, any 

 intricate question that arises in chemistry, in diseases of plants, 

 in insect pests, in the commercial value of new products, can 

 nearly always be determined by reference to Kew. Colonial 

 botanical gardens are therefore not isolated units, but branches 

 of an organisation as wide as the British Empire itself." 



The first part of " A Handbook to the Flora of Ceylon," by 

 Dr. H. Trimen, F.R.S., director of the Royal Botanic Garden, 

 Paradenyia, will shortly be published. It will be illustrated 

 by twenty-five coloured plates, and the entire work is intended 

 to consist of four similar parts. 



The first number of .ffryZ/i^-a, anew monthly botanical journal 

 for Western America, has been published. It is edited by Mr. 

 Willis L. Jepson, under the direction of members of the botanical 

 department of the University of California. 



Mr. T. SoiTTHWELL records in the February number of 

 the Zoologist the occurrence of Sowerby's whale {Mesoplodon 

 bidens) on the Norfolk coast. On December 19 last he 

 received a telegram stating that a strange "fish" was ashore 

 at Overstrand, near Cromer ; and on the following day he and 

 Mr. S. F. Harmer, of the Museum of Zoology and Anatomy, 

 Cambridge, went to Overstrand, where they found an adult 

 female of this rare species. About 8 a.m., on Sunday, 

 December 18, one of the Over.strand fishermen saw from the 

 cliff an object lying in shallow water near the beach, which he 

 at first took to be a log of wood, but soon perceived to be a 

 large " fish." After obtaining assistance, he fastened a noose 

 over its tail and secured it by an anchor, till it was placed on a 

 trolley and drawn up the gangway to a shed on the cliff where 

 the visitors saw it. The animal was alive when first observed, 

 but died before it was taken from the water. Before the arrival 

 of the visitors it had been eviscerated, and a very advanced foetus 

 removed from it. The total length of the old female, measured 

 in a straight line to the centre of the tail, was 16 feet 2 inches, 

 and that of the young one 5 feet 2 inches ; across the flukes of the 

 NO. 1215, VOL. 47] 



tail the adult measured 3 feet 8 inches. The present, says Mr. 

 Southwell, is the nineteenth known example of this remarkable 

 animal, all of which have been met with in the North Atlantic 

 during the present century ; but, with the exception of one 

 taken in 1889 at Atlantic City, which came into the possession 

 of the United States National Museum at Washington, and of 

 which no account has, he believes, at present been published, 

 in no other instance has an example in perfect condition come 

 under the notice of a cetologist. Individuals or their remains 

 have been found in Scotland and Ireland, but the only previous 

 English example was met with at the mouth of the Humber in 

 September, 1885. 



Colonel H. W. Feilden, in the course of an interesting 

 paper on animal life in East Greenland, contributed to the 

 February number of the Zoologist, suggests, as he has done 

 before, that the Musk-ox might with advantage be introduced 

 into Great Britain. He sees no reason why it should not thrive 

 on the mountains of the Highlands of Scotland. In the winter 

 season the Musk-ox is covered with a long-stapled fine wool in 

 addition to its coat of hair. This wool is of a light yellow colour, 

 and as fine as silk. Sir John Richardson states that stockings made 

 from this wool were more beautiful than silk ones. Young 

 Musk-oxen are very easily reared and tamed, and. Colonel 

 Feilden thinks, there could not be any great difficulty in catch- 

 ing either old or young in Jameson's Land. 



Governor Flower has recommended that all ofthe New York 

 State's pecuniary contributions to agriculture should be turned 

 over to Cornell University, with power to apply the same in such 

 a manner as the trustees and faculty of that institution may 

 devise. To the New York Nation this seems an excellent 

 suggestion. The agricultural disbursements from the State 

 Treasury, except the portion specifically set apart as premiums 

 for agricultural fairs, have become, it says, as distinctly a part 

 ofthe " spoils system "of politics as the work on the canals or the 

 appointments of wardens in the State prisons. The Dairy Com- 

 mission was started with an appropriation of 10,000 dollars for 

 the purpose of suppressing oleomargarine. The expenditure 

 has grown to 100,000 dollars per year, while the fight against 

 oleomargarine is not a whit more effectual than it was in the 

 beginning. 



The Government of Cape Colony has now at work, in charge 

 of its own experts, eight water-boring diamond drills, and there 

 is a great demand on the part of farmers for the use of the 

 instruments. Experiments have been made on twenty-seven 

 farms, on twenty-two of which water has been found. The 

 Agricultural Journal of Cape Colony says that the results have 

 sometimes been astonishingly successful. On a farm in the 

 division of Cole-.berg, for instance, three holes were sunk, the 

 first two unsuccessfully. In the third, however, the water was 

 struck, first at 2 feet 6 inches, then at 8 feet 6 inches, then at 

 16 feet, then 22 feet, then 32 feet 6 inches, and on reaching a 

 depth of 47 feet a stream of water shot up above the ground, 

 gauged at 21,600 gallons in twenty-four hours, delivered through 

 a I -inch pipe, and with every indication of the supply proving 

 permanent. In most cases the water is of excellent quality. 

 Some exceedingly interesting experiments are about to be tried 

 in Bushmanland by the Government. Sites are now being 

 selected for a line of boreholes right across the country. It is 

 well known that the veld makes splendid sheep-runs after 

 occasional rains, and should the experiments prove successful, 

 the value of the land will be greatly increased. With respect 

 also to the Government railway grant of 6000 square miles of 

 land in Bechuanaland, it is intended thai water shall be bored 

 for there as soon as drills can be set at liberty. 



Prof. O. C. Marsh gives in ihe February number of the 

 American Journal of Science an interesting restoration of 



