80 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[Aprit,, 1902. 



neiKlibourliood of a prominence. Mr. Perriiie, oi the Lick 

 Observatory, has recently examined i)hoto^ra|)h8 of the 

 sun taken at Delira Dun on several (lavs just i)efore and 

 after the eclipse, and it results that a spot which came 

 into view on the I'.'th was. at the lime of eclii>se, on the 

 further side of thi' sun, and about -i" from the limb. The 

 spot was surrounded by facuhe. and it is considered that 

 the spot, faeulie, prominence, and coronal disturbance 

 had probably a common orii,'in. That the action which 

 produces a spot may exert an influence on the coronal 

 streamers in its immediate nci^libourhood seems sufficiently 

 l)robable, but it does not' follow that the streamers owe 

 their origin to the same disturbances which cause the 

 appearance of spots. — A. F. 



Botanical. — A new bot.inical publication lias been 

 started in Ceylon under the title of Annnh of tin; Royal 

 Botanic Gnrdenfi, Peradeniya, edited by the Director of the 

 (iardens, Mr. J. C. Willis. Two parts have now appeared. 

 In the first, Mr. Willis gives an mteresting history of the 

 Ceylon Botanic Gardens, and deals with them in reference 

 to the many advantages which they afford as a centre for 

 botanical study. The later part contains, among other 

 papers, " The Botany of the Maldive Islands," by Messrs. 

 J. C. Willis and J. S. Gardiner. The Maldives are a large 

 archipelago of coral islands lying in the Indian Ocean, 

 between 7-6'' N. and 0-42= S. lat., and between 72-33° 

 and 73'44° E. long. The islands have a flora of about 

 284 species of flowering plants and ferns, about 197 of 

 which are cultivated species or weeds. One of the most 

 interesting plants is Cladium jamaicense (Cyperaces) 

 which, though widely distributed, is not known from 

 India or Ceylon except from high elevations in Kashmir. 

 It occurs in Mauritius. 



The early history of botany and the illustration of 

 botanical books, as re])resented in the celebrated Herharins 

 and Hortus SanUati:', is dealt with in Dr. J. F. Payne's 

 admirable treatise, which appears in the Transactions of 

 the Bihlioijraphical Society for last year. The Herbanus 

 was the first book published in Germany containing wood- 

 cuts of plants. The first dated edition appeared at Mainz 

 in 1484, and this, as far as can be ascertained now. was 

 really the earliest date at which the work was published. 

 Several undated editions exist, and one, printed in the 

 Low Countries, has been considered by some bibliographers 

 to have priority over the Mainz edition of 1484. The 

 HoHns Sanitatis, or Herharins zu Tentsch, was also printed 

 at Mainz, and bears the date " 28th March, 1485." It 

 was evidently issued by the printer of the Herharins, 

 Peter Schoffer, and, appearing in the following year, has 

 been regarded as a second edition of that work in German. 

 Dr. Payne, however, shows the improbability of this. The 

 Hortus' Sanitatis was published early in 1485, and must 

 have been in preparation for some years before the 

 Herharins was printed. 



In the Bulletin de la Societe Botaniqne de France, 1901, 

 p. 107, Monsieur Bois gives an account of a new Labiate 

 which promises to be of considerable importance on 

 account of the edible tubers which it freely produces. 

 This plant, known to the natives as Ousaunifing, and 

 described as Plectranihus Coppini by the late Prof. Cornu, 

 is found in the Soudan. Besides this species, several 

 Labiates belonging to the genera Plertmntlius and Coleus, 

 each more or less valuable economically, are mentioned. 

 In a later paper, whicti appeared in the DMHin du 

 Museum d'Histoire Natiirelle (Paris), 19>>1, Monsieur Bois 

 refers to the introductiou into the Jardin des Plantes, 

 Paris, of Phyllactis pratensis, which also has edible tuberous 

 roots. This plant belongs to the Valerianace;e, and has 



properties similar to those of the Valerian. Its tubers are 

 straw-coloured, twenty-seven millimetres long, and nearly 

 the same in diameter, and emit a strong odour. The 

 natives of Mexico, whence the tubers were received, eat 

 them when cooked as a remedy for liver complaints. — S.A.S. 



ZooLOoicAL. — That much still remains to be done 

 before we are fully acquainted with even the larger 

 mammals of the world is evident by the announcement 

 made at a recent meeting of the Zoological Society of the 

 existence of a previously unrecognised species of elk in 

 Siberia. This elk, of which a skull with antlers and a 

 detached pair of antlers were exhibited, differs from the 

 elks of Norway and North America (which form merely 

 local varieties of a single species) by the absence of any 

 distinct expansion, or " palmation," of the beam of the 

 antlers, and the small number and large size of the tines 

 in which they terminate. It was proposed to call this 

 very distinct species of elk Alces hedfordim, in honour of 

 the Duchess of Bedford. Unfortunately the precise locality 

 whence the specimenscameis not definitely known, alt hough 

 it is believed to be eastward of the Altai. The specimens 

 exhibited to the Society were obtained by Rowland Ward, 

 Limited, of Piccadilly ; and the same firm have sub- 

 sequently received five other pairs of antlers. No less 

 than five out of these seven specimens are now in the 

 museum of Mr. Walter Rothschild at Tring. It may be 

 added that in a recent issue of the Bullet in oi the American 

 Museum, Mr. E. W. Nelson announces the discovery of a 

 new species of "elk" in Arizona. The animal in questicm 

 is, however, a wapiti, and probably a local race rather 

 than a species. This American misuse of terms is much 

 to be deprecated. 



In their Repn-t for 1901 the Council of the Royal 

 Zoological Society of Ireland announces that the mena- 

 gerie at Dublin has never contained so large or so fine a 

 collection of lions as at present. There are seven cubs 

 approaching maturity, five of which are exhibited in one 

 den. The Report contains an excellent photograph of 

 three of the group. 



The subject of lions reminds us that, in a description 

 of fossil mammals from Colorado, published in the Memoirs 

 of the American Museum, Mr. W. D. IMatthew discusses 

 the manner in which the great extinct sabre-toothed 

 tigers (or lions) of the genus Machairodus used their 

 enormous upper canine teeth. These formidable tusks (in 

 some cases nine or ten inches in length) were so long that 

 if the animal opened its mouth only to the same extent as 

 a modern tiger they would obviously block the gape and 

 be worse than useless. And it has accordingly been sug- 

 gested that these animals attacked with their jaws closed, 

 stabbing with the projecting extremities of the upper 

 tusks. It is obvious, however, that such a mode of attack 

 would discount whatever advantage might be gained by 

 the abnormal length of the tusks, while it would appa- 

 rently tend to injure the lower jaw. Moreover, as the 

 author points out, it is difiicult to conceive when this 

 mode of biting could have been adopted, as there must 

 have been a time when the tusks, although too long for 

 use in the ordinary manner, would not have projected 

 beyond the border of the lower jaw. It has long been 

 known that in the mode of articulation of the lower jaw 

 to the skull the sabre-tooths differed markedly from 

 ordinary cats, and this leads Mr. Matthew to suggest that 

 when attacking they dropped the lower jaw vertically, 

 and thus left the entire length of the upper tusks fully 

 exposed. Obviously, in such a position, the creature could 

 not bite in the ordinary manner, and the author suggests 

 that the sabre-tooths "killed their prey (which probably 



