June i8, 1891] 



NATURE 



163 



tried to forestall him in the description of the Chaffinch of 

 Pdlma, which he was the first to discover. The editor of the 

 loumalfiir Ornithologie, in which the paper first appeared, also 

 adds some strictures on the ways of British naturalists. Dr. 

 Koenig apparently has some grounds for his complaint, but a tu 

 quoque argument could be upheld against him, for he persists in 

 calling a Regulus by his new name of satelles, though he admits 

 that it is Re^ilus teneriffa of Seebohm, and he does not refer to 

 the British Museum " Catalogue of Birds," in which he will find 

 that his identifications of the Madeiran and Canarian Fringillce 

 were all published long before he gave them to the world as new 

 facts. These small matters do not, however, affect the importance 

 of the essay, which is worked out with remarkable care, and is, in 

 fact, a monographic review of the ornithology of Madeira, 

 Teneriffe, and Palma. Eight coloured plates illustrate the 

 article. 



In a paper lately read before the Scientific Section of the 

 Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, Mr. John 

 Watson maintains that the re-development of lost limbs is not 

 unusual among insects. He himself has had three cases in 

 which limbs have been re-developed, and one case of complete 

 cicatrization. Re-development, he says, can take place either 

 at the larval or the pupal stages of an insect's metamorphosis. 



The British Consul at Hankow, writing of the varnish exported 

 from that city, says he is informed that it is the gum of a tree — 

 the Rhus vernicifera. On this tree, before daylight, incisions are 

 made ; the gum that runs out is collected in the dark, and strained 

 through a cotton cloth bag, leaving behind a large amount of 

 dirt and refuse. This operation can only be performed in the 

 dark, as light spoils the gum and causes it to cake with all the 

 dirt in it. It cannot be strained in wet weather, as moisture 

 causes it to solidify. When the Chinese use this varnish, they 

 rub it on with a sort of mop, or swab, made of soft waste silk. 

 It should only be used in wet weather, as, if the atmosphere is 

 dry when it is rubbed on, it will always be sticky. As used by 

 the Chinese, the varnish takes about a month to dry, and during 

 the time it is drying it is poisonous to .the eyes. The Consul 

 thinks that this gum may have been one of the ingredients of the 

 celebrated Cremona varnish, and he suggests that it might be 

 worth the while of musical instrument makers to make experi- 

 ments with it with a view to producing a varnish that would 

 give a mellow instead of a glassy sound. 



The Insect-house in the Zoological Society's Gardens is now 

 in excellent order, and well deserves a visit. In addition to the 

 Silk-moths that are usually present during the warm weather, 

 the Papilioninse, or Swallow-tail butterflies, afford at the present 

 time the chief display. The perfect insects of several species of 

 the genus Papilio have appeared — P. cresphontes, ajax, and 

 asterias from North America, P. alexanor from the Mediter- 

 ranean shores, and the handsome P. viaackii from Japan. The 

 last- named has been seen for the first time in the house this 

 year, and offers a striking contrast to the other species of the 

 genus that have previously been exhibited in the Gardens, it 

 being of black and golden-green colours instead of the yellows 

 and l)lacks that we are accustomed to in our European Swallow- 

 tails. P. cresphontes has appeared in large numbers in the 

 house, but no varieties have been obtained. This also is the 

 first season for two other beautiful Papilioninae, viz. Doritis 

 apollina from Asia Minor, and the Japanese Sericina telamon. 

 The latter shows considerable difference in the markings of the 

 sexes. The North American Limenitis disippus can be at 

 present seen in all its stages, and is well worthy of attention, 

 the caterpillar moving along the leaf-stalks with a peculiar 

 interrupted gait. Of the Sphinx moths, the South European 

 Deilcphila aleclo has already appeared, and D. nica is expected. 

 These insects are, however, not seen to advantage in confine- 

 NO. I 129, VOL. 44] 



ment, as their superb powers of flight cannot be displayed in a 

 small compartment. Two examples of the Orthoptera are alive 

 in the \iOM%Q—Diap/iemorafemorata, one of the Stick- or Twig- 

 insects from North America, and Empusa egena -from Southern 

 Europe. The former has been reared from eggs laid in the 

 Insect-house, but these progeny are not so healthy as those 

 obtained from freshly-imported eggs. The Empusa is of a most 

 bizarre form, and belongs to the family Mantidae, the species of 

 which feed only on living creatures. The public is indebted to 

 Mr. S. H. Carver for the opportunity of seeing living scorpions ; 

 he has sent examples of two species of this group from Egypt, 

 both of which unfortunately are unidentified, there being obvious 

 difliculties in the way of carrying about live scorpions and com- 

 paring them with dried specimens. There is a third scorpion, 

 from South Europe, living with its Egyptian congeners ; it has 

 a small delicate tail, and is altogether a less frightful creature, 

 though assuming a menacing attitude with equal readiness. A 

 spider, Lycosa portosantana, from Madeira, is healthy, and is 

 a fine creature, though insignificant by the side of its neighbour, 

 a huge Mygale from South America. The latter, as well as 

 the scorpions, is fed with mice, which are given to it dead, 

 though in its native haunts a Mygale has been known to prey 

 on living individuals of these small mammals. 



In the current number of the Board of Trade Journal some 

 interesting facts as to cotton cultivation in Russian Turkestan 

 are given, on the authority of a Russian correspondent of the 

 Monde Economique. After the submission of the Khanates of 

 Central Asia, the trade of the country was carried on chiefly 

 with the towns of Russia in Europe, and was confined at first 

 to the export in small quantities of cotton grown from native 

 seeds, of rice, raw silk, and other similar products. It is only 

 during the last ten years that the industry of the country has 

 extended to any considerable degree, owing to the ingress of 

 speculators, and has changed its primitive character. There 

 have been established all kinds of works and factories, and in 

 1884 the cultivation of cotton of American origin was essayed. 

 This trial succeeded so well that all classes of society, including 

 even public officials, devoted themselves to this culture, which has 

 become one of the chief branches of industry in the country. The 

 new cotton produced in Central Asia is equal to that of America, 

 and finds an excellent outlet among the cotton spinneries and 

 mills of Russia, But the consumption in European Russia does 

 not suffice for the ambitious aims of native producers, and they 

 look forward to the possibility of opening up trade in the 

 foreign markets of Europe. 



The new number of the Internationales Archiv fiir Ethno' 

 graphie fully maintains the reputation of this excellent periodical. 

 Among the contents is a paper in which Dr. J. D, E. Schmeltz 

 continues his elaborate account of the collections from Corea in 

 the ethnographical museum at Leyden. Dr. Heinrich Schurtz 

 has an interesting article on the geographical distribution of 

 negro costume. As usual, the plates illustrating the various 

 contributions are most carefully executed, 



A FURTHER communication upon the new peroxide of sulphur, 

 SO4, by Prof. Traube, of Breslau, will be found in the current 

 number of the Berichte. This interesting substance is obtained 

 when solutions of sulphuric acid containing at least 40 per cent, 

 of acid are subjected to electrolysis, as a crystalline deposit upon 

 the anode. The crystals were first observed some time ago by 

 Berthelot, but were considered by him as identical with the oxide 

 S2O7, which he had previously obtained by the action of the 

 silent electrical discharge upon a mixture of sulphur dioxide and 

 oxygen. Prof, Traube, however, finds that the substance ob- 

 tained at the anode in the electrolysis of 40 per cent, solutions of 

 sulphuric acid is represented by the formula SO4, and is quite a 

 different substance from Berthelot's S-jO^. It is, as predict jd by 



