584 



NATURE 



[April 23, 1896 



mediate neighbourhood of Knock Drin. They are mainly 

 critical or easily overlooked species as Chara demidata, 

 Braun (new to the British Isles) ; he also discovered new 

 localities for many very rare plants, as for Neotinea intacta, 

 Reich, f. ; for which see his paper in Jotirti. BoL, 1892, 

 p. 194. Among his Sikkim collections he found a small 

 undescribed Selaginella^ in which the macrospores are 

 covered with hairs (perhaps only extensions of the 

 tubercles frequently present) exceeding the breadth of the 

 macrospore — an extraordinary morphologic example of 

 the possibilities of unicellular development, and also of 

 interest to the student of fossil botany, where similar, 

 possibly Lycopodiaceous, spores occur. 

 ^ Botanists, strangers to Mr. Levinge, who called at 

 Knock Drin Castle, were received with domestic and 

 scientific hospitality at once ; they were instructed by the 

 beautiful gardens ; they were expedited to all the best 

 collecting grounds in Westmeath and neighbouring 

 counties, and the interesting plants put in their hands. 

 His friends will unanimously agree that no more delightful 

 man remains behind him. It is understood that he has 

 bequeathed his collection to the Dubhn Museum of 

 Science and Art. C. B. C. 



NOTES. 



The French Academy of Medicine has decided to divide 

 between Dr. Roux and Prof. E. Behring the 250,000 francs prize, 

 founded by M. and Mdme. Victor Saint Paul as a reward to 

 whomsoever should first discover a remedy for diphtheria. 



We regret to have to record the death of the Moscow 

 Professor of Zoology and Anthropology, Anatoly Petrovich 

 Bogdanoff. He was born in Southern Russia in 1834, and 

 after studying at the Moscow University, and writing, in 

 1858, his first dissertation on the colours of birds, he became 

 Professor of the same University in the year 1863. In 

 connection with this work he wrote an excellent text- book of 

 zoology, and a still better work, unique in its kind, namely, a 

 " Chrestomathy of Zoology," in three volumes, in which the 

 reader obtains a thorough scientific acquaintance with the different 

 classes of the animal kingdom by means of admirably chosen 

 abstracts from the best authors, considerable attention being 

 given to purely biological questions, and especially to the lowest 

 animals, as well as to their manners of life. A couple of 

 generations of Russian zoologists have been indebted to this 

 admirable work. In the sixties. Prof. Bogdanoff founded, 

 at Moscow, the well-known "Society of Lovers of Natural 

 Sciences, Anthropology and Ethnography," whose numerous 

 quarto volumes of Memoirs rank among the best scientific 

 publications in Russia ; and whose expeditions included the 

 well-known Turkestan expedition of the late Fedchenko and 

 Madame Olga Fedchenko. The chief anthropological work of 

 A. P. Bogdanoff was on the inhabitants of the grave-mounds of 

 the Moscow region. The full list of his nearly forty anthropo- 

 logical, and nearly thirty zoological works is given in the most 

 valuable publication, " Materials for the History of Zoology, 

 pure and applied, in Russia, chiefly for the last Thirty Years," 

 of which he was the editor, and of which three volumes have 

 already been published. His works for popularising biology, 

 especially on Darwin's ideas, and for extending the interest in 

 anthropology, are also numerous. 



The sixty-eighth meeting of German Naturalists and 

 Physicians will be held this year at Frankfort-on-Main, from 

 September 21 to 26. 



Our American correspondent writes, under date April 10 : 

 " Mrs. Elizabeth Mary Ludlow, mother of the late Robert Center, 

 has given his estate, valued at 150,000 dols., to Columbia 

 NO. [382, VOL. 53] 



College as an endowment of 'The Robert Center Fund for 

 Instruction in Music' An anonymous friend has given 10,000 

 dols. to be expended in the purchase of books for the library. 

 The Havemeyer family have given to Columbia College a fund 

 as a memorial to Frederic Christian Havemeyer, with which the 

 finest building in America for the study of chemistry will be 

 erected, at a cost of nearly 500,000 dols. on the new site of the 

 college. The building will be 80 x 208 ft, and four stories 

 high. It will be finished in hard enamel, with floors of asphalt ;. 

 and the corners of all rooms will be rounded so as to prevent 

 accumulation of dust and disease germs, and the drainage 

 system will permit every room to be washed out with a hose. 

 Work is rapidly progressing on the other buildings, the library, 

 the hall of physics, and Schermerborn Hall, which is devoted to 

 natural sciences. Plans for the hall of engineering have been 

 approved, and ground broken. The site of the chemistry build- 

 ing will be dedicated on May 2." 



The conditions of the iioo guineas road carriage competition 

 have now been settled by the proprietors of the Engineer, and 

 are announced in the current number of our contemporary. An 

 arrangement has been made with the Crystal Palace Company, 

 who have offered facilities at the Crystal Palace for showing the 

 carriages in work there, and for holding the subsidiary trials. 

 The judges will be Sir Frederick Bramwell, F.R S., Mr. J. A. F. 

 Aspinall, and Dr. John Hopkinson, P'.R.S. The competition is 

 to be international. The vehicles will be divided into four 

 classes and one supplemental class, in each of which a prize will 

 be given, as follows :— (a) For the best mechanically propelled 

 vehicle constructed to carry (including the driver) four or more \ 

 persons, the total weight, when fully loaded, not exceeding two \ 

 tons, a prize of 350 guineas ; {b) for the best mechanically pro- \ 

 pelled vehicle constructed to carry either one or two or lliree i 

 persons, the total weight, when fully loaded, not exceeding one 

 ton, a prize of 250 guineas ; {c) for the best mechanically pro- 

 pelled vehicle constructed to carry, in addition to the driver, not 

 more than one ton of goods or parcels, the total weight, when 

 fully loaded, not exceeding two tons, a prize of 250 guineas ; 

 [d] for the best mechanically propelled vehicle constructed to 

 carry, in addition to the driver, five hundredweight of goods or 

 parcels, the weight, when fully loaded, not exceeding one ton, a 

 prize of 150 guineas. (Supplemental). — For the vehicle, whether 

 for passengers or goods, propelled solely by a motor actuated by 

 the vapour of oil or spirit, having a loyver specific gravity than 

 o'8, or a flashing-point lower than 73° F., Abel's test, and 

 constructed to satisfy the requirements of any Act of Parliament, 

 and the rules to be made thereunder for the time being respect- 

 ively in force, which, in the opinion of the judges, best satisfies 

 the purpose for which it is built, a prize of 100 guineas. Any 

 method of propulsion other than muscular power may be em- 

 ployed, provided it be contained in the vehicle. Entries are to 

 be made on printed forms (to be obtained at the offices of the 

 Engineer) at any time prior to 6 p. m. on the last day of July, 

 1896. Preliminary runs will be made in the grounds of the 

 Crystal Palace with each of the vehicles in succession. The 

 practical working run will consist of a run on the public 

 roads of not less than 100 miles out and 100 miles home, or 

 a total of not less than 200 miles over a course to be announced 

 three days prior to that fixed for the run. It will probably be 

 arranged for Monday, October 12. Any vehicle which does not 

 complete the "practical working run " at a W2«?w«w average 

 speed of five miles an hour, to include all stoppages, to be dis- 

 qualified. 



In reference to the article on " The Tick Pest in the Tropics," 

 contributed by Mr. C. A. Barber to these columns last June 

 (vol. lii. p. 197), Dr. M. Francis, Veterinarian of the Texas 

 Experiment Station, has drawn our attention to an account by 



