October 6, 1892 J 



NA TUKE 



^ 



The last number of the Btrichte der Deutschen Botanischen 

 Gesellschaft contains an interim report on the progress of the 

 negotiations concerning the nomenclature of genera, started by 

 a committee of botanists at Berlin to supplement the decisions 

 of the International Botanical Congress held at Paris in 1867. 

 The proposals submitted last April to the consideration of 329 

 German and Austrian and 377 foreign botanists were the follow- 

 ing:— (i) The year 1752 to be taken as the initial date for 

 priority in names of genera, and 1753 for the names of species. 

 (2) Nomina nuda and semi-nuda to be rejected. Drawings and 

 dried specimens without diagnoses to establish no claim to 

 priority of a genus. (3) Similarly sounding generic names to 

 be retained, even if differing only in the ending or by a single 

 letter. (4) The names of the subsequent great or well-known 

 genera to be preserved, even if they ought to be rejected by the 

 strict rules of priority, especially in cases where no change in 

 the names used up to the present can be proved. 360 replies 

 had been received up to the time of the report, amongst them 

 being 157 from Germany, 63 from Austria, and 19 from Great 

 Britain and Ireland. The great majority expressed approval, 

 at least, of the first three proposals. The botanical authorities 

 of the British Museum favour the suggestions, those at Kew are 

 against them. 



M. G. Trouve has built a luminous fountain for Mme. Patti, 

 at her residence at Craig-y-Nos, an account of which appears 

 in No. 1 1 of the Coniptes rendns. " The weight of this fountain 

 is about 10,000 kgr., and the basin measures 6 m: in diameter. 

 The illuminating jJSwer is represented by fourincandescent lamps 

 of 1 10 volts, each consuming 6 amperes. Thus the total electric 

 energy amounts to 2640 watts ; this gives, at three watts per 

 candle, a light intensity of over 800 candles. The lamps are 

 centred at the focus of four parabolic reflectors grouped under 

 the glass chambers whence the water springs. As in the chamber 

 fountains, the metallic ajutages, which would have cast shadows, 

 are eliminated. The water which falls from the upper to the 

 lower basin is utilised to drive a small bucket-wheel, which 

 governs the rotation of two superposed discs, concentric or other- 

 wise, made of coloured glasses, which turn in the same or in the 

 opposite sense, with equal or unequal velocities as required, 

 between the reflectors and the glass. This combination of two 

 discs with opposite rotations renders possible a variation in the 

 play of colours of the liquid sheaves, which succeed each other 

 with the unexpectedness of the kaleidoscope. The motive power 

 can be chosen at pleasure. It may be hydraulic, electric, or by 

 clockwork, of forms and dimensions in keeping with the 

 character of the decoration. These fountains need neither 

 expenses of installation nor costs of maintenance, and their price 

 depends solely upon their artistic perfection and their import- 

 ance. Hitherto the construction of luminous fountains has only 

 been hindered by the impossibility of sufficiently illuminating 

 the jets. To-day the problem is reversed. Since the light can 

 be projected without sensible loss to great heights, the only 

 difficulty will be to give a sufficiently high pressure to the 

 water." 



•The Manchestei- Field Naturalists' and Archaeologists' So- 

 ciety closed the out-door session by a visit to Buxton on 

 Saturday, September 24. The field meetings were well at- 

 tended during the session, and the introduction of an itinerary 

 for each excursion, detailing the natural history features of 

 the district, was of service. The president, Mr. Charles 

 Bailey, F.L.S., usually gave the address upon the botanical 

 specimens observed. At Buxton, the chairman of the directors 

 of the Winter Gardens conducted the party through the 

 grounds, and undertook to convey to his colleagues the 

 desire of the Society that the county ferns and native pha- 

 nerogams, so far as they will live at the altitude of the gar- 

 NO. I 197, VOL. 46] 



dens, which are a thousand feet above the sea, should be 

 introduced. 



At a meeting of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' 

 Society, held in the Norwich Museum on September 27, Mr. 

 Southwell exhibited, by permission of Mr, T. Ground, of Mose- 

 ley, Birmingham, a Siberian pectoral sandpiper {Tringa acu- 

 tnenata), killed at Yarmouth by that gentleman on August 29, 

 which he believed to be the first European example of this bird 

 hitherto recorded. 



The administrative report of the Marine Survey of India for 

 the official year 1891-92 has been published. Dr. A. Alcock, 

 Surgeon-Naturalist to the Survey, shows that in his department 

 the year has been by no means unproductive. He expresses 

 his belief, however, that the results would be tenfold greater, 

 both from the scientific and from the economic points of view, 

 if, in the survey of inhabited coasts, the naturalist could 

 follow the ship from camp to camp ashore, visiting it at short, 

 convenient intervals for medical purposes, but otherwise devot- 

 ing all his time to systematic exploration of the grounds worked 

 by the fishermen — grounds of marvellous richness still quite 

 unexplored and unappreciated. 



Among the animals Dr. Alcock has specially observed is the 

 red ocypode crab, which swarms on all the sandy shores of 

 India. The bigger of its two chelae, or nippers, bears across 

 the "palm" a long finely-toothed ridge, and on one of the 

 basal joints of the "arm," against which the " palm" can be 

 tightly closed, there is a second similar ridge. When the 

 "palm" is so folded against the base of the "arm," the first 

 ridge can be worked across the second, like a bow across a 

 fiddle, only in this case the bow is several times larger than the 

 fiddle. The remarkable resemblance of the whole arrangement 

 to the stridulating apparatus of many insects led Prof. Wood 

 Mason some time ago to infer a similarity of function ; and he 

 asked Dr. Alcock to observe the crabs, and to listen for the 

 sounds which he supposed them to be capable of making. Dr. 

 Alcock is now able to give facts which establish the truth of 

 Prof. Wood Mason's idea. The sounds can be heard, and their 

 effects seen, if one crab, which may be called the intruder, is 

 forced into the burrow of another, which may be called the 

 rightful owner. The intruder shows the strongest reluctance 

 to enter, and will take all the risks of open flight rather than do 

 so, and when forced in he keeps as near the mouth of the 

 burrow as possible. When the rightful owner discovers the 

 intruder he utters a few broken tones of remonstrance, on 

 hearing which the intruder, if permitted, will at once leave the 

 burrow. If the intruder be prevented from making his escape, 

 the low and broken tones of the rightful owner gradually rise in 

 loudness and shrillness and frequency until they become a con- 

 tinuous low-pitched whirr, or high-pitched growl, the burrow 

 acting as a resonator. Dr. Alcock concludes that the use of 

 the stridulating organ appears to be that a crab, when it has 

 entered its burrow, may be able, by the utterance of warning 

 notes, to prevent other crabs from crowding in on top of it. 



Dr. Fritz Noetling has been investigating the amber and 

 jade mines of Upper Burma, and sets forth the results of his 

 inquiry in the new number of the Records of the Geological 

 Survey of India. The strata in which the amber is found 

 belong to the tertiary formation, probably to the lower mioccne. 

 Dr, Noetling does not think that Burmese amber would be 

 received with much favour in Western markets — first, because 

 it does not include the milky-white, clouded variety which has 

 for a long time been so much appreciated in Europe ; second, 

 because of its fluorescence. This is the bluish tinge which ap- 

 pears when the amber is looked at under a certain angle — a 

 tinge which is sometimes so strong that fine yellow pieces seem 

 to be of an ugly greenish colour. 



