596 



NA rURE 



[April 20, 1893 



■growing around ihe smaller circle are carved "with curious 

 fini>lematical devices and figures"; whilst Mr. M:\clonald in- 

 forms us that on the Bora ground of the Page and Isis River 

 Natives, as many as a hundred and twenty marked trees occur 

 roinul about (Journ. Anthrop. Inst. Gt. Brit. Ireland, 1878, vii., 

 I'. 256). Confirmation is further afforded by Mr. W. O. 

 llodgkinson, who saw a Bora ground on the Macleay River 

 will) " trees minutely tatooed, and carved to such a considerable 

 altitude that he could not help feeling astonished at the labour 

 bestowed on the work" (Smyth, " Aborigines of Victoria, 1878," 

 i., p. 292). 



If, as previously stated, according to current report, the 

 designs on the trees be the same as those on the 'possum rugs, 

 the transfer of them to the trees surrounding a grave must have 

 had some important and lasting meaning to the survivors. The 

 figures on the rug may have indicated some degree of ownership, 

 a crest, coat of arms, or monogram, as it were, and in such a 

 case the reproduction on the trees surrounding a grave may be 

 looked upon as an identification of the deceased. Henderson 

 speaks of the tree carvings as symbols. " A symbol is after- 

 wa ds carved upon the nearest tree, which seems to indicate the 

 particular tribe to which the individual may have belonged " 

 ("Obs. Colonies of N.S. Wales and V.D. Land, 1832," p. 149). 

 Or had they a deeper esoteric meaning, one only known to the 

 learned men of the tribe? Smyth states ("Aborigines of Vic- 

 toria, 1878," i., p. 28S) that the figures on the inner sides of the 

 'possum rugs " were the same as those on their weapons, namely, 

 the herring-bone, chevron, and saltier." How easily these same 

 devices can be traced, in a general way, both on the carved trees 

 and some of the wooden weapons, is amply shown by many of 

 the excellent figures given in Smyth's work. This painstaking 

 author, in briefly dealing — too briefly, in fact — with this interest- 

 ing subject, says {Ibid. p. 286. The italics are mine) : " The 

 natives of the Murray and the Darling, and those in other parts 

 adjacent, carved on the tree^ near the tombs of deceased warriors 

 stra7tge figures having meanings no doubt intelligible to all the 

 tribes in the vast area watered by these rivers." By the Kamilarai 

 (T. Honery, Journ. Anthrop. Inst. Gt. Brit, and Ireland, 1878, 

 vii., p. 254) they were regarded as " memorials of the dead. 



It is much to be regretted that before the last remnant of this 

 fast-disappearing race has passed away, a translation, or at any 

 r.ite an explanation of these matters, cannot be obtained. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 

 American yoiirnal of Science, April. — Distance of the stars 

 by Doppler's principle, by G. W. Colles, Jun. This principle 

 may be applied to the calculation of the distances of stars in 

 the manner suggested by Fox Talbot and discussed by Prof. 

 Rambaut. If the velocity of a component of a binary star be 

 measured spectroscopically when it is moving in the line of 

 sight, and its orbit be studied by means of the micrometer, the 

 velocity at any point of the orbit, and hence also the size of the 

 orbit, may be determined. This, divided by its angular magni- 

 tude, gives the distance of the system. From theoretical con- 

 siderations the author calculates the ratio of the mean velocity 

 across the line of sight of a large number of stars distributed 

 equally over the celestial sphere to their mean velocity along 



the line of sight, and finds this ratio to be -. He then shows 



2 

 that the mean distance of all these stars will be approximately 

 arrived at by multiplying this ratio by the sum of the observed 

 velocities in the line of sij^ht, and dividing by the sum of the 

 observed corresponding angular velocities. Calculating from 

 observations of ninety-five stars in the northern hemisphere, a 

 mean distance of 150 "9 light years is obtained, or, taking Vogel's 

 observations only, 80 "5 light years. — The radiation and absorp- 

 tion of heat by leaves, by Alfred Goldsborough Mayer. Two 

 leaves of the same species of plant were each glued upon one 

 of the polished tin sides of a Leslie cube. One of the leaves 

 was then painted over with dead-black, and the cube was filled 

 with water kept at 40° C. The radiation from the two leaves 

 was measured by means of a thermopile. It was found that 

 almost all the leaves radiated as well as lampblack. The effect 

 of a thin film of dew was to reduce the radiation to 78 per cent, 

 and to 66 per cent, if the dew stood out in beads upon the sur- 

 face. The absorption of dark heat rays by leaves interposed as 

 a diaphragm was found to be highly selective. A single elm 

 leaf transmitted 20 per cent, of the radiant heat. A second leaf 



transmitted 78 per cent, of this, and a third over 83 per cent, 

 of that transmitted by the second. Wild cherry leaves trans- 

 mitted 9 per cent., and chicory 4 percent, more heat when their 

 chlorophyll was abstracted by ether or alcohol. — Also papers by 

 Messrs. II. L. Wheeler, W. P. Ileadden, W. H. Melville, J. 

 F Kemp, E. A. Smith, R. T. Hill, M. I. Pupin, F. A. Gooch, 

 and P. E. Browning. 



Thk most important article in the Botanical Gazette for De- 

 cember, 1892, is the one to which we have already alluded, in 

 which Mr. R. Thaxter proposes the establishment of a new 

 order of Schizomycetes with the name Myxobacteriaceae. In that 

 and the following numbers (January — March, 1893) Prof. D. H. 

 Campbell gives his account, most of which we have reprinted, of 

 his visit to the Hawaiian Islands ; Mr. G. W. Martin completes 

 his description of the development of the flower and embryo-sac 

 in Aster and Solidago ; Mr. F. B. Maxwell gives a comparative 

 study of the roots of Ranunculacese, in which he makes three 

 types of structure on the basis of the changes which take place 

 through secondary growth. Mr. A. Schneider has a note on 

 the influence of anaesthetics on the transpiration of plants ; he 

 finds that both this function and the vitality of protoplasm are 

 both retarded by the action of ether, the protoplasm being 

 finally killed. Prof. J. E. Humphrey gives a full account of 

 the life history of Monilia fructigena, a parasitic fungus which 

 causes great destruction of pears and stone-fruit in America. In 

 an article on non-parasitic l)acteria in vegetable tissue Mr. H. 

 L. Russell sums up his conclusion that vegetable, like aniuial 

 tissues, are normally free from micro-organisms, but that in 

 healthy vegeta>ile tissues many species of t)acteria are able to 

 exist for a not inconsiderable length of time. We have also 

 articles desciibing new species of flowering plants discovered on 

 the American continent, and a r/.f«w/ of the botanical papers 

 read at the New Orleans meeting of the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science. 



In the numbers of the Journal of Botany from January to 

 April the articles of most general interest, in addition to the 

 continuation of others already noticed, are : — A list of the 

 M)cetozoa of South Beds and North Herts, by Mr. Jas. 

 Saundeis ; Dr. M. T. Masters, on some cases of inversion, in 

 which he gives illustrations of the reversal of the normal 

 relative position of organs or of elements of tissues ; a provi- 

 sional list of the marine algae of the Cape of Good Hope, by 

 Mis-; E. S. Barton; a list of the mosses of Guernsey, by Mr. E. 

 D. Marquand ; notes on Sc Ich freshwater algce, by Mr. W. 

 West, in which two new species are described; notes on the British 

 species of Campylopus, a genus of Musci, by Mr. H. N. Dixon. 

 Under the head ol "Laboratory Notes," Mr. S. Le .M. Moore 

 describes the beat way of making Millon's reagent ; anew way 

 of demonstrating continuity of protoplasm (Millon's fluid); and 

 the action of cold Millon's fluid on iron-greening tannins, and 

 on cell walls giving proteid reactions. 



NO. 1225, VOL. 47I 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, February 2. — "A New Portable Miner's 

 Safety-lamp, with Hydrogen attachment for delicate Gas- 

 testing ; with exact Measurements of Flame-cap indications 

 furnished by this and by other Testin;.;-lauips." By Prof. 

 Frank Clowes, D.Sc. (Lond.), University College, Nottingham. 



The author, availing himself of his "test-chamber," already 

 described in the Proc. Roy. Soc. vols. 1. li. has examined 

 the indications of fire-damp furnished by the different safety- 

 lamps at present in use ftDr testing purposes. These lamps 

 include the ordinary oil-lamp, the Pieler alcohol lamp, the 

 Ashworth benzoline lamp, and the hydrogen-oil lamp, recently 

 devised by the author. 



The introduction of a standard hydrogen gas-testing flame 

 into an ordinary oil safety-lamp was first effected by the author, 

 and was described by him in the papers refei red to above. But it 

 has now been brought into a far more convenient and portable 

 form ; the most recent development of the lamp is described 

 and explained by illustrations in the present paper. The 

 hydrogen gas is stored in a little pocket steel cylinder, under 

 about 100 atmospheres pressure : this can be immediately 

 attached to the safety-lamp when required, and can be made to 

 furnish a standard 10 millimetre hydrogen flame which will burn 

 continuously for forty minutes from the cylinder-supply. The 

 hydiogen is kindled from the oil-flame, without opening the 



