1 ID 



NATURE 



[June 4, 1891 



open ; there has always been a possibility of vision along 

 the colHmating axis prolonged. Lines of sphinxes have 

 been broken to ensure this ; at Medinet Abou, on the 

 opposite side of the river to Karnak, we have outside 

 this great temple a model of a Syrian fort. If we pro- 

 long the line of the temple from the middle of the 

 Naos through the systems of pylons, we find that in 

 the model of the fort an opening was left, so that the 

 vision from the Sanctuary of the temple was left abso- 

 lutely free to command the horizon. 



It may be said that that cannot be true of Karnak, 

 because we see on the general plan that one of the 

 temples, with an azimuth of 71° N., had its_ collimating 

 axis blocked by numerous buildings. That is true ; but 

 when one comes to examine into the date of these 

 buildings, it is found that they are all very late ; whereas 

 there is evidence that the temple was one of the first, if 

 not the very first, of the temples built at Thebes. 



Mariette spent a long time in examining the temple 

 of Karnak. His idea is that the part of the temple near 

 the Sanctuary represents the first part of the building ; 

 and at that time the great temple of Karnak— enormous 

 though it is now — was so small and entirely out of the 

 way of the line of the axis of the temple of Maut that its 

 existence might have been entirely neglected. There 

 was first a square court hke the court of the Tabernacle, 

 and very shortly after that a very laboured system of 

 pylons was introduced to restrict the light. The next 

 stage shows the Sanctuary thrown back away from the 

 court ; then, after that, more complication is introduced 

 by the addition of pylons, until finally, after two or three 

 extensions, the length of the temple was quadrupled. 

 So that the proof is positive that at first the horizon of 

 the temple of Maut was left perfectly clear. Why it was 

 subsequently blocked I shall suggest afterwards. 



The next point to be noticed is that there is in very 

 many cases a rectangular arrangement, so that if the sun 

 were observed in one temple and a star in the other, there 

 would be a difference of 90^ between the position of the 

 sun and the position of the star at that moment. This 

 would, of course, apply also to two stars. Sometimes 

 this rectangular arrangement is in the same temple, as at 

 Karnak, sometimes in an adjacent one, as at Denderah. 



If we look at Denderah we find that we have there a 

 large temple inclosed in a square temenos wall, the sides 

 of which are parallel to the sides of the temple ; and also 

 a little temple at. right angles to the principal one. 



It is hardly fair to say that a rectangular arrangement, 

 repeated in different localities, is accidental ; it is one 

 which is used to some extent in our modern observatories. 

 The perpetual recurrence of these rectangular temples 

 shows, I think, that in all the pairs of temples which are 

 thus represented, there was some definite view in the 

 minds of those who built them. 



Another point is that, when we get some temples point- 

 ing a certain number of degrees south of east, we get 

 other temples pointing the same number of degrees south 

 of west, so that some temples may have been used to 

 observe risings and others settings of stars in the same 

 declination. It is then natural of course to conclude 

 that these temples were arranged to observe the rising 

 and setting of the same stars. 



J. Norman Lockyer. 



{To be continued.) 



BOTANICAL ENTERPRISE IN THE WEST 

 INDIES. 



"\1W'E have several times had occasion to mention the 



** mission of Mr. D. Morris, the Assistant Director 



of the Royal Gardens, Kew, to the West Indies, in 



connection with the extension and organization of 



NO. II 2 7, VOL. 44] 



botanical stations in the British colonies of that re- 

 gion ; and the Kew Bulletin for May and June, as 

 we have already noted, contains his report thereon. 

 It is a lengthy and interesting document, from which 

 we propose to extract some particulars that may be 

 welcome to our readers, and serve to put on record 

 the reviving enterprise in the development of the natural 

 resources of that part of the Empire. The primary ob- 

 ject of Mr. Morris's visit was to settle the practical details 

 of a scheme for establishing and administering a number 

 of smaller botanical gardens in connection with the 

 larger gardens of Trinidad and Jamaica. The main 

 purpose of these gardens is to raise plants of economic 

 value, suitable for cultivation in the various islands, " and 

 to do all that is possible to encourage a diversified system 

 of cultural industries, and thus relieve the planters from 

 the results inevitable from the fluctuations of prices in 

 the one or two staples to which they have hitherto con- 

 fined their attention " ; but they will also be made, as far 

 as possible, pleasant places of public resort. Mr. Morris 

 met with a hearty reception everywhere, and great interest 

 was manifested in the work by the negro freeholders, in 

 some of the islands, as well as the English colonists. 

 The men in charge of these experimental stations, as 

 they may be called, rather than botanical gardens, are 

 mostly trained men from Kew ; and Kew is the centre 

 from which plants and seeds of economic plants likely 

 ,to succeed in the West Indies are distributed. Mr. 

 Morris left Kew in November last, and returned home 

 at the end of February. Advantage was taken of his 

 outward journey to send by the same ship, under his 

 immediate supervision, a number of Wardian cases filled 

 with Gambler plants. Gambier, it may be added, is the 

 name of a substance used in tanning, obtained from 

 Uncaria Gambier, Roxb. ; and the plants had been raised 

 at Kew from seeds received from the Straits Settlements, 

 several attempts to introduce plants from the East having 

 failed. How the plants were successfully carried to the 

 West Indies we learn from the following passage in the 

 report : — 



" Owing to the cold weather, the cases containing the 

 plants on board the Atrato were placed below in the 

 main saloon. There was very little direct light in the 

 daytime, but the question of warmth was for the moment 

 of more importance than that of light. It was also hoped 

 that they could be placed on deck in a day or two at the. 

 most. The weather during the whole of the first week, 

 however, continued very cold, and it was impossible to 

 expose the plants on deck. Under these circumstances 

 it was fortunate that the electric light, with which every 

 part of the ship was supplied, was available to try an 

 experiment of some interest. Although the plants re- 

 ceived very little light during the day, they had a good 

 supply of the electric light during the night, and the plants 

 in the cases more fully exposed to the electric light were 

 afterwards found to be in a much better condition than 

 the others. It is well known that plants will thrive under 

 the influence of artificial light, but in this instance there 

 was so little direct light available during the day, that the 

 plants had to depend almost entirely on the light they 

 received at night. The Gambier plants are particularly 

 sensitive as regards a diminution of light. During the 

 prevalence of fogs at Kew they have been known to drop 

 their leaves within a day or two, and to remain bare 

 during the rest of the winter. This may have been, in 

 some measure, also due to the injurious influence of the 

 fog itself. 



" The use of electric light for the safe transit of such 

 valuable plants as are obliged to be despatched from this 

 country during the winter months is evidently capable of 

 being greatly extended. It may also be utilized in the 

 case of tropical plants arriving in this country from 

 abroad, during the prevalence of cold weather. Such 

 plants could be placed below directly the weather is 



