278 



NATURE 



[July 21, 1892 



Among the other contents of this number of the Kciv Bulletin 

 is an account of the fibre industry in the Bahamas, communi- 

 cated to Kew by Sir Ambrose Shea, Governor of the Bahamas. 

 Extracts from a report by Mr. A. White, a naturalist attached 

 to the staff of Mr. H. H. Johnston, H.M.'s Commissioner and 

 Consul-General for the territories under British influence to the 

 north of the Zambesi, throw welcome light on the botany of 

 Milanji in Nyassaland. Mr. N. E. Brown contributes notes on 

 the botany of plants yielding Paraguay tea. There are also 

 sections on the Nonnen pest in Bavaria, the prickly pear in 

 Mexico, and the Palmyra bass fibre. 



The collection of hardy bamboos and allied plants having 

 outgrown the space allotted them in the beds near the Temperate 

 House of the Royal Gardens, Kew, a new garden has been made 

 for them in a wood near the Rhododendron Dell. Of this 

 garden the Kew Bulletin gives the following account : — It is in 

 the form of a shallow depression with sloping banks I2 feet 

 wide and a central pear-shaped bed 125 feet by 75 feet. To 

 make it, the surface soil had to be removed and the gravel taken 

 out to a depth of about 3 feet. A large quantity of new soil and 

 manure was added so that the bamboos have now a good depth 

 of rich soil. Two new paths leading to the Bamboo Garden 

 have been made, one from the Syon vista and the other from 

 the Stafford walk. The bamboos planted in the garden are — 

 Arundinaria Fortunei {'Qa.mhusTL Fortunei), A . Japonica {Ea.m.- 

 busa Metake), Bambusa albo-striata, B. gracilis, B. nana 

 (Hort), B. palmata, B. plicata, B. pumila, B. tessellata, 

 B. Veitchii, Phyllostachys bambusoides, P. nigra, P. Quilloi 

 (Bambusa Quilloi), P. violescens {'Qzmh\xs2i violescens), P. viridi- 

 glaucescens (Bambusa viridi-glaucescens), Tkamnocalamus Fal- 

 coneri (Bambusa Falconeri), and several others unnamed. 

 Besides bamboos it contains such plants as Arundo, Eulalia, 

 Crinum, Funkia, Yucca, &c. It is also intended to bring 

 together in this garden a number of the coarser growing 

 monocotyledonous plants which can be grown in the open air at 

 Kew. 



According to an official "Notification of the Trustees of 

 the Schwestern Frohlich Stiftung " at Vienna, certain donations 

 and pensions will be granted from the funds of this charity this 

 year in accordance with the will of the testatrix. Miss Anna 

 Frohlich, to deserving persons of talent who have distinguished 

 themselves in any branch of science, art, or literature who may 

 be in want of pecuniary support, either through accident, ill- 

 ness, or infirmity consequent upon old age. The grant of such 

 temporary or permanent assistance in the form of donations or 

 pensions is, according to the terms of the foundation deed, 

 primarily intended for Austrian' artists, literary men, and men 

 of science, but foreigners of every nationality, English and other, 

 may likewise participate, provided they are resident in 

 Austria. Particulars may be obtained at the Austrian Embassy, 

 London. 



Mr. T. S. Shearmen, of Brantford, Canada, has recently 

 issued a pamphlet, in which he claims priority in the discovery 

 of the fact that the influence of sun-spots on terrestrial magnetic 

 conditions depends upon the positions of the spots on the sun's 

 disc as seen from the earth. He states that he has succeeded 

 in convincing Prof. Young that this claim is justified. His 

 observations have led him to believe that, in the great majority 

 of cases, magnetic disturbances are most numerous when spots 

 are at or near the eastern limb. In many cases, however, 

 especially when the spots were very large, the disturbances have 

 been greatest when the spots were near the central meridian ; 

 but even then it is stated that on nearly every occasion in which 

 this has happened, another spot was making its appearance on 

 the eastern limb. M. Veeder (Nature, vol. xlvi. p. 29) also 

 concludes that in order for a solar disturbance to have its full 

 NO. II 86, VOL. 46] 



magnetic effect upon the earth, it is necessary that it should be 

 at the sun's eastern limb, and as nearly as possible in the plane 

 of the earth's orbit. 



In the tenth annual report of the Fishery Board for Scotland 

 a striking instance is given of the advantage which persons en- 

 gaged in the fishery industry derive from the electric telegraph. 

 The Orkney officer reports that on Saturday morning, August 22, 

 a large shoal of herrings was discovered about three to seven 

 miles off the island of Stronsay by a few boats which happened 

 to be at sea. Having ascertained the position of this shoal the 

 officer wired the particulars, for the fishermen's information, to 

 all the stations in Orkney. On the Monday following every 

 boat employed in the herring fishery in Orkney was on the fish- 

 ing ground indicated, with the result that the heaviest fishing 

 ever obtained in one day in Orkney (for the number of boats 

 employed) was landed on Tuesday, the average catch for the 

 whole fleet being fifty crans. The number of boats fishing was 

 108, and their total catch was 5400 crans, valued at ^^3240, a 

 large proportion of which would have been lost but for the 

 telegraph. Wick fishermen having also been apprised of the 

 circumstance, a number of the Caithness boats had good takes 

 on the same ground and landed them at Wick. Consequent 

 upon such a heavy and unexpected fishing, additional coopers, 

 gutters, packers, barrels, and salt had to be immediately sent 

 for from Wick so that the herrings might be cured while they 

 were in a fresh state, and this was accomplished by means of the 

 telegraph. 



An interesting exhibit of tobacco will be sent from Kentucky 

 to the Chicago Exhibition. There will be exhibits of different 

 varieties of plants in various stages of growth, and illustrations 

 of the manner of shipping and handling "the weed" from the 

 time the seed is put in the ground until the final product is ready 

 for use. The various ways in which tobacco is used in manu- 

 facture will also be illustrated. 



During the last few years much has been said about the 

 supposed European origin of the so-called Aryan race. The 

 honour of having first suggested this theory is usually attributed 

 to Dr. Latham, but, according to Dr. D. G. Brinton, it really 

 belongs to Omalius d'Halloy. In Science (June 24), Dr. 

 Brinton refers to a paper in the Bulletins de rAcadeinie Royale 

 de Belgique, tome xv. , No. 5, May, 1848, entitled "Observa- 

 tions sur la distribution ancienne des peuples de la race blanche," 

 in which Omalius begins by speaking of a series of notes pre- 

 sented by him to the Academy from 1839 to 1844. In these notes 

 he had sought to prove that the Asiatic origin of the white race 

 had never been demonstrated. Having recorded this fact, he 

 proceeds "to discuss the evidence, physiological, historical, and 

 linguistic, which had been thought to show that the Indo- 

 European peoples originated in Asia ; and combats it at every 

 point, marshalling his arguments to prove that the true white 

 type is distinctly European ; and that the ancient Sanscrit and 

 Zend are in no wise maternal languages of the Indo-European 

 stock, but merely sisters of the Greek, Latin, and ancient Ger- 

 man." The earliest date at which Dr. Latham expressed similar 

 views was 185 1. 



Some suggestive notes on Fuegian languages, by Dr. D. G. 

 Brinton, were read lately before the American Philosophical 

 Society. He refers to a very early Fuegian vocabulary, collected 

 by the French navigator, Jouan de la Guilbaudiere, during a 

 sojourn of eleven months in the Straits of Magellan during the 

 year 1695. It includes about three hundred words and short 

 phrases, and no part of it has been published. The MS. copy 

 of it in Dr. Brinton's possession he owes to the courtesy of M. 

 Gabriel Marcel, the Librarian of the Geographical Section of the 

 National Library of France. As M. Marcel intends to give it 



