April 21, 1892" 



NATURE 



597 



. flowering plants. — The other articles are of interest specially 

 to British botanists. 



The Atiierican Meteorological Journal for February contains 

 a carefully prepared summary of the proceedings of the Inter- 

 national Meteorological Conference at Munich from August 26 

 to September 2, 1891, by A. L. Rotch. As we have already 

 given a brief account of the Conference, and the report will 

 shortly be published, we need not further refer to Mr. Rotch's 

 article. — The Meteorological station of Naha, Liukiu Islands, 

 Japan, by Y. Wada, of the Tokio Observatory. The station 

 was established in July 1890, and is very favourably situated for 

 the study of the typhoons of the China and Japan seas, as a 

 great many pass near the station. As soon as the island is con- 

 nected by telegraph with Kiushu it will be the most important 

 of all the Japanese stations for storm-warnings on the coasts of 

 China, Corea, and Siberia. — The wind-rush at Washington, 

 D.C., on November 23, 1891, by Prof. H. A. Hazen. This 

 violent gale was probably the most destructive that has ever 

 been noted at that place. It passed across the city from a south 

 or south-west direction ; the wind at the Weather Bureau reached 

 60 miles per hour [80 miles and upwards have been 

 recorded in this country], but the effects show that during the 

 gusts it must have been very much greater. A cloud-burst 

 occurred during the gale, and the water in a canal which is 25 

 feet wide rose about 8 feet in a few minutes. The curve 

 showing the barometric oscillation will be found in the Monthly 

 Weather Review for that month. 



Bulletin of the New York Mathematical Society, vol. i. No. 5 

 (New York, February). — This number opens with a care- 

 fully drawn up account of Klein's modular functions, by F. N. 

 Cole ; the occasion being an able presentation of the theory 

 in the work " Felix Klein : Vorlesungen iiber die Theorie der 

 elliptischen Modulfunctionen, ausgearbeitet und vervollstandigt 

 von Dr. R. Fricke." Of this Mr. Cole remarks : " The clearness 

 of treatment and skilful grouping of the many intricate features of 

 the subject have rendered this theory now thoroughly accessible. 

 Dr. Fricke has contributed many of the intermediate steps 

 necessary to the symmetry and completeness of the subject." 

 The reviewer, also a pupil of Klein, supplies many little bits of 

 personal narrative. — The next article is an abstract by " S. N." 

 of the periodic perturbations of the longitudes and radii 

 vectores of the four inner planets of the first order as to the 

 masses, computed under the direction of Simon Newcomb. — 

 Then follows a brief sketch of solution of questions in the 

 theory of probability and averages, by G. B. Zerr. This 

 pamphlet forms Appendix ii. to the "Mathematical Questions 

 . . . from the Educational Times." — The notes give a brief 

 account of the Proceedings of the Society, and also contain an 

 addendum to Prof. Hatha way's article (in No, 3), "Early 

 History of the Potential. " 



Bulletin de V Acadimie des Sciences de St. Pitersbourg, nou" 

 velle serie, t. ii.. No. 2. — A preliminary communication (in 

 German) upon the rocks collected by M. Lopatin on the 

 Podkamennaya Tunguska. The series of Archaic rocks of 

 Siberia, which formerly were described as dolerites, and which 

 so constantly occur in Siberia, offer great difficulties as to their 

 petrographical determination, well known to all geologists. 

 The author now begins the publication of a most welcome 

 monograph on these rocks, based upon no less than 450 samples 

 analyzed under the microscope. The extension of these rocks is 

 immense, as they seem to spread, with small interruptions, in 

 the shape of an immense zone covering the space between 50° 

 and 70° N. lat., over Siberia, North America, South Greenland, 

 Ireland, Scotland, Norway, Sweden, and North Russia. The 

 author describes them as " Palaeozoic traps," or typical " plagio- 

 clase-pyroxene-olivine rocks," which offer all possible gradations 

 in their evolution. The communication being but a preliminary 

 one, nine different "types" are described and illustrated. — On 

 a new leucite rock from the same locality, by the same 

 author, also illustrated by a plate. — On the Perseids ob- 

 served in Russia in 1890, by Th. Bredichin (in French). The 

 observations were made by several astronomers at Pulkova, 

 Ostrogojsk, Kineshma, Moscow, and Libau. The weather 

 was not favourable from August i to 9, and quite unfavourable 

 on the 1 2th and 13th. Nevertheless, the author arrives at in- 

 teresting results in comparing the centres of radiation of the 

 meteors in 1890 with the orbit of the comet 1862 III. The 

 centres of radiation are given on a separate plate.— Com bina- j 



NO. II 73, VOL. 45] 



tion of the aldehydes with azoic compounds, by J. Bardilowsky 

 (French), being an inquiry into the mechanism of the reaction 

 between the aldehydes and the salts of aromatic amines. — Note on 

 the heat of combination of bromine and iodine with magnesium, 

 by N. Beketoff (French).— On Seldjuk verses, by C. Saleman 

 (in German). — Astronomical determinations in North Russia, by 

 O. Backlund (in German). — Remarks upon the Upper Silurian 

 deposits of the Baltic provinces, in connection with the work of 

 Prof. W. Dames (with a map), by Prof. Fr. Schmidt. 



Memoirs of the Kazan Society of Naturalists, vol. xxiii., i to 

 5, and Proceedings. — On the tundra of the Kanin peninsula, by 

 A. I. Jacoby, with a map. The author explored the western 

 coast, and gives many interesting facts as to the flora of the 

 tundra and its inhabitants. — On the biology of the Reliant hus 

 annuus, by A. Gordyaghin. Having discovered that the leaves 

 of the sunflower are visited by nearly twenty different species 

 of insects, and that some of them, especially the ants {Myrmica 

 IcEvittodis and Lasius niger), suck the leaves, the author sus- 

 pected the existence of " extra-nuptial " nectarise — the supposi- 

 tion being confirmed by a similar observation previously made 

 by Delpino ; and he made experiments to ascertain whether 

 drops of nectar do appear on the leaves. The observations 

 have confirmed the supposition ; they are being continued. — On 

 the noxious insects of the model farm of the Kazan School, by 

 A. Smirensky. — On the means of measuring the absorbing 



power of the soil, by B. Sorokin. The Proceedings contain : 



a list of 300 birds of the province of Astrachan, by W. Kleb- 

 nikoff ; the report of a Committee nominated for the explora- 

 tion of the soil in the province of Kazan ; a note on the produce 

 of a dry distillation of birch bark ; and a report upon ornitho- 

 logical researches in the province of Kazan, with a list of all 

 noticed birds. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 



Zoological Society, April 5.— W. T. Blanford, F.R.S., 

 in the chair. — The Secretary read a report on the additions 

 that had been made to the Society's Menagerie during the 

 month of March 1892. — Mr, Sclater exhibited and made 

 remarks on the heads of a pair of Swayne's Antelopes {Bubalis 

 s'vaynei) obtained by Mr. J. W. K. Clarke and his party in 

 Somali-land, and sent for exhibition by Messrs. Rowland Ward 

 and Co. — Prof. F. Jeffrey Bell read a note regarding the real 

 habitat of the Land Planarian Bipalium kewense, which, as it 

 appeared, was indigenous to one of the South Pacific islands. — A 

 communication was read from Mr. Edgar A. Smith, on the Land 

 Shells of St. Helena, based on a large and complete collection 

 of the terrestrial MoUusks of that island made by Captain W. H. 

 Turton, R.E., and deposited in the British Museum. Mr. 

 Smith estimated the total number of truly indigenous species of 

 this group in St. Helena to be 27, of which 7 only are now 

 living on the island — the remainder having been exterminated by 

 thedestructionof the primaeval forests. — Mr. F. E. Beddardread 

 some notes on the anatomy of the Indian Darter {Plotus melano- 

 gaster), as observed in a specimen of this species recently living 

 in the Society's Gardens. — Mr. Seebohm exhibited a specimen 

 of a Pheasant from the valley of Zarafshan in Central Asia, 

 which he referred to a new species, distinguishable from Ph. 

 principalis by its white collar, and proposed to call it Ph. 

 tarnovskii.— Mr. R. J. L. Guppy exhibited specimens of the 

 animal, the teeth and jaws, and the shell and egg of Bulimus 

 oblongus, and remarked briefly thereon. — Mr. G. B. Sovverby 

 read descriptions of seven new species of Land-Shells from the 

 United States of Colombia. — A communication was read from 

 Mr. W. Schaus, containing descriptions of some new species 

 of Lepidoptera Heterocera from Brazil, Mexico, and Peru. 



Geological Society, March 23.— W. H. Hudleston, 

 F.R.S., President, in the chair. — The following communications 

 were read : — On the occurrence of the so-called Viverra 

 Hastingsue of Hordwell in the French phosphorites, by 

 R. Lydekker. — Note on two Dinosaurian foot-bones from the 

 Wealden, by R. Lydekker. — On the microscopic structure, and 

 residues insoluble in hydrochloric acid, in the Devonian Lime- 

 stone of South Devon, by Edw. Wethered. Microscopic 

 examination of the Devonian Limestones of South Devon shows 

 that they have been built up by calcareous organisms, but that 



