;36 



NATURE 



[June 26, 1919 



ficent foliage. P. hispanica has been considered by 

 many authors to be a variety of P. occidentalis, but 

 the achenes clearly show it to be of hybrid origin. 



The history of the other peculiar planes, here 

 regarded as hybrid seedlings of the second generation 

 on account of their botanical characters, is obscure. 

 They may ultimately prove to be identical with young 

 seedlings of P. acerifolia which are now growing at 

 Kew and Glasnevin, when these in after years acquire 

 adult foliage and bear fruit. This would be a posi- 

 tive proof of their hybrid origin. 



The botanical characters of the two parent species, 

 of the London plane, and of the supposed descendants 

 of the latter, six of which are in cultivation, have 

 been carefully investigated by Prof. Henry, assisted 

 by Miss M. &. Flood. The numerous differences 

 observable in the achenes, fruit-balls, and leaves of 

 these trees prove to be exactly of the same kind and 

 range as occur in hybrids artificially produced, and 

 afford presumptive evidence that from P. acerifolia, 

 an accidental cross between two wild species, the 

 other planes, such as P. pyramidalis, P. hispanica, 

 etc., only known in the cultivated state, are 

 descended. 



When the seed of a first-cross is sown the seedlings 

 produced constitute a mixed and varied crop, in which 

 are variously combined the characters of the two 

 parents. The best proof, then, of the hybrid nature 

 of P. acerifolia is the fact that it does not come true 

 from seed, which appears to have been known to 

 Lorberg in 1871; and to Gadeceau in 1894. Two 

 sowings made in recent years establish this very 

 clearlv. There are now eight seedlings' planted in 

 the Queen's Cottage grounds at Kew which were 

 raised from seed of /'. acerifolia that was sown in 

 .^pril, 191 1. These range in height from 4 ft. to 

 10 ft., and are verv diverse in foliage, some closely 

 resembling P. orienialis, and others resembling 

 P. occidentalis, a few being intermediate. One of 

 them appears to be identical with P. hispanica. 

 There are also two seedlings at Glasnevin, which are 

 the only survivors of a set raised at Cambridge in 

 19 10 from seed of a large London plane growing 

 near the main gate at Kew. The rest of the set died 

 from drought, having been transplanted into a field 

 in that dry year. These two seedlings are extremely 

 unlike in foliage; one has leaves indistinctly lobea, 

 resembling those of P. occidentalis ; the other has 

 deeolv lobed leaves, and differs little from P. orientalis. 



The artificial production of a cross between 

 P. orientalis and P. occidentalis has not been possible 

 in this country, where there exists no adult living 

 tree of the latter species from which pollen could be 

 obtained. An attempt to reproduce P. acerifolia by 

 cross-pollination of the Occidental and Oriental planes 

 might be made in the United States, using the native 

 tree as the female parent. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge.— Mr. R. H. Rastall, of Christ's Col- 

 lege, has been appointed University lecturer in 

 economic geology, Mr. Herbert Stone LTniversity lec- 

 turer in forestry, and Mr. F. Debenham. of Gonville 

 and Caius College, University lecturer in surveying 

 and cartography. 



Mr. T. C. Nicholas, of Trinity College, has been 

 appointed assistant to the Woodwardian professor of 

 geologv, and Mr. J. M. Wordie, of St. John's Col- 

 lege, demonstrator of oetrologv. 



Mr. A. W. Hill, of King's College, and Mr. E. H. 

 Rayner, of Trinitv College, have been approved for 

 the degree of Sc.D. 



NO. 2591. VOL. 10,^" 



Edinburgh. — ^The University Court, on the recom- 

 mendation of the Senatus, has resolved to re-estab- 

 lish the lectureship in military history and strategy. 

 It has also been resolved to institute a diploma in 

 public health. 



Dr. H. S. Allen, reader in physics. King's College, 

 London, and secretary of the Physical Society of 

 London, has been appointed lecturer in natural philo- 

 sophy. 



Mr. S. C. Monk has been appointed lecturer in 

 electrical engineering at the Devonport Technical 

 School. 



The resignation of Dr. R. L. Weighton of the chair 

 of engineering at Armstrong College, Newcastle-upon- 

 Tyne, is announced. 



The first award of the William Gibson research 

 scholarship for medical women (minimum 250/. per 

 annum) has been made to Miss M. Esther Harding. 

 The scholarship is held for two years. 



It is announced in the Times that Capt. S. E. 

 Whitnall, University demonstrator of human anatomy, 

 Oxford, has been appointed professor of anatomy at 

 McGill University, Montreal, Canada; and that the 

 same University has appointed Capt. John Tait, lec- 

 turer in experimental physiology in the University of 

 Edinburgh, to the Drake professorship of physiology. 



American university women have founded a fellow- 

 ship as a memorial to Miss Sidgwick, one of the 

 two women members of the British Educational Mis- 

 sion which paid a visit last year to the L'nited States, 

 where the "death of Miss Sidgwick occurred. The 

 fellowship is to be awarded annually to a British 

 woman for a year's graduate research work at an 

 •American college or university. For 1919-20 it will 

 be tenable at Columbia University. New York. Par- 

 ticulars mav be obtained from, and applications made 

 to. Miss L.'C. Kempson, Bedford College for Women, 

 Regent's Park, N.W., before July i. 



The council of the University College of South 

 Wales and Monmouthshire has appointed Dr. A. H. 

 Trow to the office of principal of the college. Prin- 

 cipal Trow became head of the department of botany 

 at the College of South Wales and Monmouthshire 

 in 1893, and obtained the ' degree of D.Sc. of the 

 LTniversity of London in 1899. He has been Acting- 

 Principal of the college since the retirement of Dr. 

 E. H. Griffiths in September, 1918. His chief pub- 

 lications are on the biolo^v and cytology of aquatic 

 fungi and on frenetics. His studies of the common 

 groundsel constitute a valuable addition to our know- 

 ledge of the inheritance of quantitatively variable 

 characters. The work that will devolve upon Prin- 

 cipal Trow for the next few years under the scheme 

 of reconstruction to be effected as the result of the 

 Report of the Royal Commission on University ^jj 

 Education in Wales' will be of a critical character, .; 

 and of vital importance for the growth and evolution Ji 

 of the institution. 



School Science Review, the new publication pro- 

 moted bv the Association of Science Masters (formerly 

 the Association of Public School Science Masters), will 

 be greatly appreciated by all interested in the progress 

 of science. To teachers themselves it will supply that 

 long-felt want : a medium for the regular interchange 

 of opinions from the schools point of view, and for 

 vhe record of new ideas in courses and experimental 

 work ; to wider educational circles it will show clearly 

 what is being done in the leading schools for the 

 advancement of science. The first number runs to 

 thirtv-two pages of most readable material. Mr. C. L. 

 Rrvani, oT Harrow, writes a valuable account of the 



