May 5, 1892] 



NA TURE 



^5 



address are on the genus aster, by Prof. G. L. Goodale ; the 

 Michaelmas daisy as a garden plant, by the Rev. C. W. Dod ; 



erennial sunflowers, by Mr. D. Dewar ; and the culture of 



unflowers, by Mr. E. H. Jenkins. 



The " University Extension " movement has spread to the 

 United States. We learn from the Botanical Gazette that Prof, 

 J. M. Coulter, President of the University of Missouri, is lectur- 

 ing to large University Extension classes in Evansville and New 

 Albany, Indiana, and Louisville, Kentucky. Each course in- 

 cludes twelve lectures on the general morphology and physiology 

 of plants. 



Australians have had bitter experience of the mischief which 

 rabbits are capable of doing, and now they seem likely to have 

 trouble of a similar kind from the introduction of foxes. An 

 Australian journal, quoted in the May number of the Zoologist 

 says that foxes have already spread over a wide area, and are 

 most destructive both to lambs and poultry. They attain 

 greater size and strength in Australia than in England, and 

 the mild climate is highly favourable to the increase of their 

 numbers. " It must be very disheartening," says the writer, "to 

 all who have stock of any kind to lose, to find themselve 

 confronted by some new enemy introduced by thoughtless 

 or selfish persons. If some energetic steps are not soon taken, 

 nothing can prevent the spread of foxes over the whole 

 continent." 



Mr. D. L. Thorpe writes from Carlisle to the Zoologist that 

 starlings in that district often reproduce the notes of the 

 oystercatcher and curlew with wonderful accuracy. On 

 April 3 he was surprised to hear the call of the landrail ; 

 it appeared to be the familiar "crake-crake" of that bird 

 undoubtedly, but on further investigation he ascertained that a 

 starling was reproducing the call-note of the rail. The bird had 

 remembered his lesson of last summer remarkably well. Mr. 

 Thorpe also mentions that, during severe weather in January 

 last, a friend of his (the Rev. H. A. Macpherson) was astonished 

 one day to hear the call-note of the common sandpiper repeated 

 with such nicety as to completely deceive him, until the starling 

 was detected in the act of rehearsing this summer cry. 



A CAPITAL lecture on Egyptian agriculture was delivered by 

 Prof. Robert Wallace at the meeting of the Society of Arts on 

 April 27, and is printed in the current number of the Society's 

 Journal. Referring to the Tewfikieh College of Agriculture, 

 Prof. Wallace says that it was named in honour of the late 

 Khedive (Tewfik Pasha), who took a special interest in its 

 success. It had its origin in a desire which sprang up little 

 more than two years ago in the Egyptian Government to develop 

 the agricultural resources of the country by calling in the aid of 

 science. The result has been a success far beyond the most 

 sanguine anticipations. During the first year of its existence 

 the College contained about 60 students, selected from about 

 300 applicants, and the numbers of the second, the current year, 

 which began last October, have not fallen oflF. A number of 

 the sons of large land-owners have taken advantage of the 

 instruction offered, and it is hoped by this means to spread in 

 all directions a knowledge of improved varieties of crop plants, 

 improved rotations, improved implements, and improved 

 methods, not neccessarily altogether new to the country, but 

 deserving of being more widely known. 



Mr. W. F. Liesching, writing in the new number of the 

 Selborne Society's Magazine on ants in Ceylon, says he saw one 

 day a string of ants streaming forth, evidently in search of 

 " pastures new." He flicked away the leader, and waited to see 

 the result. An immediate halt was made by the foremost ants, 

 and a scene of the utmost confusion ensued. The ants from 

 behind kept arriving at the scene of the catastrophe, and there 

 NO 1 1 75, VOL. 46] 



was soon a black crowd of ants huddling and jostling one 

 another. Some detached themselves from the main group and 

 took a turn round, trying to find traces of their leader. At last 

 the tail end of the line arrived, and after brief consultation they 

 all started off again, and a line soon began to unravel itself from 

 the tangled mass moving back to the hole from which the whole 

 company had so lately started on " pleasure bound or labour all 

 intent." While Mr, Liesching was watching the return journey, 

 a leech stung his leg. He took the creature off, and put it down 

 in the line of march. Ants will carry off a worm, why not a 

 leech? It was, however, most amusing to see how carefully all 

 avoided the leech. 



Henry Brugsch Pasha read an interesting paper on Lake 

 Maris at the meeting of the Societe de Geographic Khediviale 

 on April 8. He had just returned from a visit to the neighbour- 

 hood of the supposed site of the lake, so that the subject was 

 fresh in his mind. The Times has given a good abstract of the 

 paper. M. Brugsch said there was abundant monumental evi- 

 dence that at a very early period of Egyptian history there 

 existed near the plateau of Hawara an immense basin of water, 

 which gave its name to a whole province, the Fayum, or 

 " lake district." In ancient times there were forty-two divisions 

 or nomes of Egypt, each having its own capital, local govern- 

 ment, and cultus, and all more or less worshipping Osiris. From 

 these the Fayum was excluded. It was divided like ihe parent 

 country into nomes with their governors, and save in th** necro- 

 polis at Hawara was given over to the worship of S^^bak, the 

 crocodile god. It was known in the hieroglyphs as To She, the 

 lake district, which in Coptic became P-ium, the maritime dis- 

 trict, and survives to-day in the Arabic Fayiim It is evidt-nt 

 from the celebrated Fayflm papyrus, of which there are two 

 copies, that the term Mer-uer, the great water or lake, was also 

 applied to it ; and perhaps herein lies the origin of the name 

 "Moeris." The waters of this lake must have reached to the 

 plateau of Hawara, the necropolis of the inhabitants of a town 

 called Shed, on the site of which stands the modern city of 

 Medinet-el-Fayflm. It was in ancient times a Royal residence, 

 and contained a magnificent temple dedicated to Sebak, whose 

 dimensions far exceeded those of the temples at Thebes. Tra- 

 dition gives Amen-em-hat III. of the twelfth dynasty as the 

 constructor of Lake Moeris, and his burial-place is the crude 

 brick pyramid at Hawara ; but fragments bearing the cartouches 

 of Amen-em-hat I. and Usertsen II., found near Medinet, would 

 prove it of more ancient date. Moreover, it was hardly possible 

 that a town of such dimensions as Shed would be built at any 

 distance from water. A canal named Hune, or Hunet, cut from 

 the Nile, fed the lake and provided for the needs of the city ; the 

 mouth of it was called in the hieroglyphs La Hune, "the open- 

 ing of the canal," a name which survives in the modern " El- 

 Lahfin." There is an interesting allusion to this "opening of 

 the canal " in the celebrated Stela of Piankhi, written about the 

 eighth century B.C. M. Brugsch also suggested that Ra-pa-ro- 

 hunet, " the temple of the mouth of the canal," might give us 

 the derivation of the word labyrinth. 



We have received the third number of Natural Science, the 

 new monthly review of scientific progress. Among the con- 

 tributors are Prof. G. Henslow, Mr. G. A. Boulenger, Sir J. 

 W. Dawson, and Prof. W. C. Williamson. 



Messrs. Charles Griffin and Co, have published the 

 " Year-book of the Scientific and Learned Societies of Great 

 Britain and Ireland." This is the ninth yearly issue. It pre- 

 sents lists of papers read before various Societies during the 

 year 1891, together with information as to official changes. 

 In most cases the Societies themselves have contributed the 

 lists of papers. The names of those Societies concerning which 

 no information has been received are entered in the index only. 



