October 29. 1891] 



NA TURE 



6-. I 



ings, experiments are to be carried out at the most suitable 

 the experimental stations about to be established throughout 

 the colony, with a view to the propagation of the finest varieties 

 of the respective fruits. With the same object in view applica- 

 11 has been made to Mr. T. Hardy, of South Australia, for a 

 niber of cuttings of various vines he has cultivated, and to Sir 

 muel Davenport, of Beaumont, South Australia, for cuttings 

 the olive and fig trees grown by him. The whole of these 

 tings will go to form the standard collections of all the 

 ."erent kinds of fruit which it is intended to establish at each 

 the experimental stations. 



I N the Revue Agricole, published in Mauritius, M, A. Daruty 

 Grandpre gives an account of his attempts to raise sugar-cane 

 I rem seeds. The seeds were sent from Barbados by the 

 < idvernor in March 1890. M. de Grandpre planted them with 

 greatest care, and after five days was fortunate enough to 

 lin five minute seedlings out of the hundred seeds used. 

 Ilie young plants he raised did not all prove equally vigorous, 

 and he was able to save only one, which, at the time when his 

 report was written, had formed a fine clump of twenty shoots 

 with long ribbon leaves. "I believe," he says, " that we may 

 with reason cherish the most sanguine hopes from the propaga- 

 tion of sugar- cane from seeds— more especially if we try an 

 intelligent system of cross-fertilization of the varieties we pos- 

 sess—rather than by planting cuttings, which maintain without 

 appreciable alteration the respective characteristics of the parent 

 plants. Thus we shall be able to supplement the weak points 

 in our best varieties of sugar-cane by crossing them with others 

 which are remarkable for the qualities it is intended to infuse 

 into them, and we shall moreover obtain, by a process of selec- 

 tion, a cane rich in saccharine matter, which will enable us to 

 compete successfully against the highly improved sugar-beet." 



Mr. a. W. Morris contributes to the current number of the 

 Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society an interesting 

 paper on abnormal horns of the Indian antelope. We have as 

 yet little definite information as to the cause or causes of such 

 abnormalities. Mr. Morris suggests that severe injuries to the 

 skull, inflicted either during battle or through some accident, 

 are the main causes that produce abnormalities, the horn on the 

 injured side being thrown out of its natural course by the con- 

 cussion or damage sustained. 



The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia prints in 

 its Proceedings a list of the Echinoderms obtained by Mr. 

 Frederick Stearns, of Detroit, in the Bahama Islands in the 

 years 1887 and 1888. The list has been drawn up by Mr. J. E. 

 Ives. It includes a description of a new species of Amphiura. 



A VALUABLE revised list of British Echinoidea, by Mr. 

 William E. Hoyle, has been printed in the Proceedings of the 

 Royal Physical Society, Edinburgh, and is now issued 

 separately. The author gives a brief diagnosis of each species, 

 such as will enable the collector to identify it on the spot. 



Messrs. J. and A. Churchill have published a second 

 ediiion of the English translation of Dr. A. Chauveau's " Com- 

 parative Anatomy of the Domesticated Animals." Dr. George 

 Fleming is the translator and editor. In preparing the new 

 edition, Dr. Fleming has kept in view the ntcessilies of ad. 

 vancing veterinary education in the English-speaking schools. He 

 has introduced, therefore, a considerable number of "amend- 

 ments, alterations, and additions." 



Messrs. Henry Sotheran and Co. propose to issue a 

 work entitled "Game Birds and Shooting Sketches," by J. G. 

 Millais, F.Z.S. The work will illustrate the habits, modes of 

 capture, and stages of plumage of game birds, and the hybrids 

 and varieties which occ.r among them. 

 NO. I 148, VOL. 44] 



The University College of North Wales has issued its^ 

 Calendar for the year 1891-92. 



Lectures on the following subjects will be given at the Roy.il 

 Victoria Hall on Tuesday evenings during the month of 

 November: -November 3, Mr. F. W. Rudler, " Some Very 

 Ancient Britons" ; November 10, Dr. Rideal, "London 

 Fogs"; November 17, Dr. W. D. Halliburton, " Skin and 

 Bones " (second lecture) ; November 24, Rev. C. E. Brooke^ 

 " A Holiday in the Far West." 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a White-fronted Lemur [Lemur albifrons i) 

 from Madagascar, presented by Mr. J. M. Nicholl ; a Ring- 

 tailed Coati {Nasim rufd) from South America, presented by Mr. 

 A. D. Watson ; a Buffon's Skua {Stercorarius parasitica,)^ North 

 European, presented by Mr. Edward Hart, F.Z.S. ; two Com- 

 mon Cuckoos [Cuculus canorus), British, presented respectively 

 by Mr. H. Lindsay and Miss Ord ; a Burbot [Lota vulgaris) 

 from the Trent, presented by Mr. F. T. Burrows ; a Macaque 

 ^.IovlVq^ [Macacus cynomolgus ?) from India, a Lion Marmoset 

 {Midas rosalia) from South- East Brazil, an Australian Cassowary 

 {Casuarius australis) from Australia, deposited. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



The Zodiacal Light and Aurgr/IJ.— On the supposition 

 that the zodiacal light is an extension of the solar corona, and 

 that the latter mainly consists of light reflected from meteoiitic 

 particles circling round the sun over the spot zones and parallel 

 to the plane of the equator, Mr. M. A. Veeder explains 

 (Rochester Academy of Sciences, January 26, 1891) why in 

 middle [latitudes the phenomenon is brightest in March and 

 October, in the former case after sunset, and in the latter before 

 sunrise, and also the fnct that at these times one margin of the 

 band is better defined than the other, and more exactly included 

 within the plane of the ecliptic, whilst at other seasons there is^ 

 decreasing brightness, and both edges become ill-defined. 



An investigation of observations of .aurorse and magnetic per- 

 turbations shows that they may be arranged iu periods having 

 the same length as that of a synodic rotation of the sun. And 

 it appears that the areas most frequented by sun-spots are most 

 actively concerned in the production of aurorae. Extending the 

 research, Mr. Veeder believes that the belt-like distribution of 

 atmospheric pressure about the magnetic polts as a centre is 

 very largely dependent upon magnetic induction of solar volcanic 

 origin, conveyed from the sun to the earth through the mediunv 

 of the coronal extensions referred to above. 



Comet ^ 1891.— The following orbit has been computed by 

 Prof. Campbell for the comet discovered by Prof. Barnird on.. 

 October 2 : — 



T - 1891 November 875 G.M.T. 



ir = ii°7 44 ^ 



A =215 38 )MeanEq. 1891. 

 i = 75 50 

 q = I 0166. 



On October 30 the comet is in the position R. A. loh. 531U. 7s.,. 

 Decl. - 54° 43'. It is therefore not visible in our latitudes. 



Two New Asteroids. — A new minor planet, (!)i^, of the 

 thirteenth magnitude was discovered byM. Charlois on October 

 8, and another, (S^, by Dr. Palisa on October 11. 



The latter observer has given the name of Thora to (^ 



Olga to (3^, and Fraternitas to (w\. 



Double Stars.— Mr. S. W. Burnham announces that he 

 is preparing a general catalogue of all the double stars discovered 

 by him, and would be glad to receive any unpublished measures 

 of them, Nos. i to 1224. 



Jupiter's First Satellite.— Some recent observations 

 made at Lick Observatory show that the first satellite of Jupiter 

 is ellipsoidal, and that one of its longer axes is directed to ther 

 planet's centre. 



