i8 



N/i TV RE 



[iMarcii 3, 1910 



the muzzle and palate are also wide, although somewhat 

 less so than in the Angolan genus, the hind portion of the 

 palate retaining the flattened form characteristic of 

 Rousettus and its allies. In Epomophorus, on the other 

 hand, the palate is narrow and deeply hollowed out behind, 

 thereby differing from the same region in all other 

 members of the fruit-eating group. Lastly, we have the 

 genus Micropteropus, characterised by the extreme short- 

 ness of the skull, which approximates in this respect to 

 that of Cynopterus. 



A SHORT paper on the gametophytes of the orchid, 

 Calopogon pulcliellus, is contributed by Miss L. Pace to 

 the Botanical Gazette (August, 1909), which adds to the 

 gradually accumulating information regarding develop- 

 mental details of the megasporangium. The formation of 

 a single sporogenous cell, as generally observed, and 

 absence of any parietal cells, coincides with the typical 

 loutine in orchids, but anomalous conditions appeared in 

 several ovules where two mother-cells were found either 

 contiguous or with nucellar tissue lying between. The 

 figures are suggestive of two archesporia side by side, but 

 the ultimate fate of these cells was not determined. Four 

 megaspores were usually formed, although dividing walis 

 between them were wanting ; owing to disintegration of 

 three of the nuclei, the chalazal nucleus alone persisted to 

 become the nucleus of the embryo sac. Evidence in favour 

 of double fertilisation is adduced. 



A BROCHURE dealing with the cultivation of fibre plants 

 in India has been issued as Bulletin No. 15 of the Agri- 

 cultural Research Institute, Pusa. There is a noteworthy 

 division into peasants' crops, capitalists' crops, and fibres 

 worth experimental attention. The first category com- 

 prises jute, Hibiscus cannabinus, Crotalaria juncea, and 

 cocoa-nut; the second includes rhea, agave, Sansevieria, 

 and flax, while plantain and sida fall into the third 

 category. The cultivation of jute has not spread to any 

 appreciable extent beyond the provinces of Bengal and 

 Assam. Hibiscus cannabinus is preferred to jute in certain 

 regions, notably the Vizagapatam and Kistna districts in 

 Madras, because it requires less water. Sann hemp, 

 Crotalaria juncea, thrives in districts of moderate rainfall; 

 there is an established industry in the fibre in parts of 

 the Central and United Provinces and of Assam, but the 

 plant is more frequently grown to supply green manure 

 or fodder. 



The • principal article in Symons's Meteorological 

 Magazine for February is devoted to the " Proposed 

 Imperial Meteorological Organisation," discussed at an 

 informal conference of meteorologists at the Winnipeg 

 meeting of the British Association last year. The circular 

 letter drawn^ up by. the committee then appointed for trans- 

 mission to meteorological authorities of the British Empire, 

 inviting cooperation in contributing data on a common 

 plan for publication by a central agency, is reprinted, and 

 states that, primarily, information is required as to 

 pressure, temperature and rainfall, and their fluctuations 

 from the normal, and it is suggested that the form adopted 

 by the Solar Commission of the International Meteor- 

 ological Committee, whose headquarters at the present 

 time are in London, in connection with the Solar Physics 

 Observatory, should be followed. Monthly tables relating 

 to the climate of different parts of the British Empire 

 have appeared in Symons's Meteorological Magazine for 

 many years; the editor heartily welcomes the establish- 

 ment of a more general system, under official auspices ; 

 at the same time, he does not think that a new system 

 of expressing meteorological observations is desirable' 

 NO. 2105, VOL. 83] 



The meeting at Winnipeg expressed an opinion in favour 

 of the use of absolute units for pressure and temperature ; 

 for the present, however, the circular states, it is not 

 proposed to ask the various authorities to come to any 

 final decision upon the point. 



From the February Bulletin of the American Mathe- 

 matical Society we learn that the Gottingen Academy of 

 Sciences has awarded 5/. to Dr. A. Wieferich, of Miinster, 

 who has shown that the equation xP+^p^zp cannot be 

 solved in terms of positive integers, not multiples of p, if 

 2P — 2 is not divisible by p'. The announcement is followed 

 by the comment : — " This surprisingly simple result repre- 

 sents the first advance, since the time of Kummer, in the 

 proof of the last Fermat theorem." 



In the Annals of Mathematics (October, 1909) Mr. Frank 

 Oilman discusses the theory of floating tubes as applied to 

 the measurement of currents in open channels of water. 

 The method was first described by Mr. T. A. Mann in a 

 paper communicated to the Royal Society in 1779, and was 

 used by R. T. Krayenheff in Holland (18 13), M. de Buffon 

 on the Tiber (182 1), Destrem on the Neva (1835), and 

 Francis in America (1852). The tubes ranged from 6 feet 

 to 10 feet in length, and were allowed to float down the 

 stream over a measured course of 70 feet. Other experi- 

 ments mentioned are those of Captain Cunningham in 

 India (1874-9), of which a detailed discussion is given in 

 the paper, M. A. Graeff (1883), and Messrs. Humphreys 

 and .Abbot on the Mississippi River (1851-76). 



The University of Illinois has established an engineering 

 experiment station to carry on investigations along various 

 lines of engineering. Especial attention has been paid to 

 problems bearing on fuel, and the two last bulletins issued 

 deal with this subject. The first of these, by J. M. Snod- 

 grass, is on fuel tests with house-heating boilers. Central 

 heating by steam is more common in the United States 

 than in this country, but the figures given are not without 

 interest over here. The fuels used, of which complete 

 analyses are given, included anthracite, gas coke, bitu- 

 minous coal, and briquettes of various kinds. The tests 

 were very complete, and deal with questions of efficiency, 

 cleanliness, cost of control, smoke, and soot. The boiler 

 efficiencies determined varied from 45 to 66 per cent. The 

 experimental data are discussed in a very complete manner, 

 especially from the cost point of view. The only point 

 open to criticism is the unnecessary number of significant 

 figures in the experimental results. Thus we find the 

 calorific value of a coal given as 14,229 B.T.U. per lb., 

 and boiler efficiencies are given to 001 per cent. Three 

 significant figures in the calorific value probably represent 

 the limit of accuracy attainable in such experiments when 

 the sampling difficulties are taken into account ; an 

 accuracy of i in 14,000 in a thermal measurement is 

 certainly unattainable. 



The second bulletin, by S. W. Parr and Percy Barker, 

 deals with the occluded gases in coal. These experiments 

 are of practical importance in two directions, first as 

 bearing on the spontaneous combustion of coal, and 

 secondly as showing how to prevent deterioration of stored 

 coal. Coal commences to give off inflammable gases as 

 soon as it is mined, and at the same time absorbs oxygen 

 from the air, both these changes taking place with greater 

 rapidity the finer the state of division of the coal, and both 

 being almost entirely suppressed when the coal is sub- 

 merged in water. 



The Zeitschrift fiir physikalische Chemie (January 25) 

 contains a paper, by J.,T. Barker, on the determination 

 of the vapour pressures of toluene, naphthalene, and 



