May 4, 191 6] 



NATURE 



209 



A/. CH. LALLEMAND OX DAYLIGHT 

 SAVING IN FRANCE. 

 IV/T CH. LALLEMAND, who was appointed Com- 

 ^^^' missaire du Gouvernement to inquire into the 

 effect of a modification of time reckoning, when the 

 question was raised in an acute form nine years ago, 

 gave to the Paris Academy of Sciences on April lo a 

 reasoned statement of the whole problem. The ques- 

 tion he raises is : Would, even in the exceptional cir- 

 cumstances of the time in which we live, the advan- 

 tages of this change be of such a nature as to counter- 

 balance the profound disturbance which could not fail 

 to be introduced into the economic life of the people? 

 The conclusion at which he arrives is that the reform 

 in question offers illusory- or insignificant advantages 

 in return for certain and definite inconveniences. 



This decision is the result of a careful examination 

 of the changes that have been made in the methods 

 of time reckoning in the past, and a review of the 

 exact conditions that obta'in in the present. In his 

 historical survey he demonstrates the jealousy with 

 which the French adhered to the observance of the 

 Paris meridian as the origin of time, and the dislike 

 exhibited to any proposal that interfered with the 

 mode of reckoning. In 1816, when the change was 

 made from apparent to mean time, so keen was the 

 antipathy displayed by the populace that an outbreak 

 was feared, and yet in that case the maximum altera- 

 tion was at most a quarter of an hour. But he is 

 more concerned to show that the position of the sun 

 in the sky affords the proper determination of time, 

 and that an arbitrary displacement of noon, combined 

 with differences of longitude, operates very unequally 

 in districts east and west of Paris. If legal autnorit>- 

 sanctioned the further displacement of an hour, as 

 proposed, though Nice, for example, would not be 

 injured, Brest time would, in extreme conditions, be as 

 much as i^ hours away from true time, an amount 

 that M. Lallemand insists is intolerable. 



The last change introduced into French time com- 

 putations was the adoption of the Greenwich meridian 

 as a common origin for time reckoning, and some 

 irritation is naturally felt that after this concession 

 was made, the English should propose to abandon 

 their system of time reckoning for at least half a year 

 in order to adopt what is practically German time. 

 Such instabilitj' of practice is inconvenient, but a 

 more direct source of trouble would arise from dis- 

 turbing the published ephemerides which give pheno- 

 mena expressed in Greenwich time. This duality of 

 timekeeping during six months of the year would be, 

 in the case of tides especially, a source of great annoy- 

 ance and perpetual confusion. 



M. Lallemand devotes a section to the consideration 

 of the advantages claimed by the advocates for the 

 reform. He examines the methods of street illumina- 

 tion, and claims that the people living in the country 

 districts, some four-fifths of the whole, would receive 

 a quite insignificant benefit. In many manufactories 

 as at present conducted, work goes on night and day, 

 and. no economy could be effected in this direction. 

 In Paris the illumination is reduced to a minimum on 

 account of the Zeppelin visits. The custom adopted 

 in colleges and schools would likewise prevent these 

 establishments profiting by the proposal. Cafes, 

 restaurants, theatres, concert-rooms, might now close 

 an hour sooner, if economy were so ardently desired, 

 and the desired result could be as easily secured by a 

 simple order of police as by a gmeral interference 

 with timekeeping. In any case, it is questionable 

 whether those interested in the management of such 

 places of amusement would not apply for an extension 

 of time and re-establish the status quo ante. 



Hygiene is as little likely to benefit as economy. 



NO. 2427, VOL. 97] 



It is an illusion to suppose that an arbitrary alteration 

 of the hands of the clock dial will promote early rising, 

 or retiring, on the part of those who have surrendered 

 themselves to other habits; it would be as reasonable 

 to attempt to fight alcoholism by diminishing the legal 

 capacity of the litre, in the hope of reducing in the 

 same proportion the quantity of liquid absorbed. It 

 is not true to suppose that the nominal hour and the 

 true hour have no influence in practice, or that the 

 habits of the people are decided solely by clocks, and 

 have no relation to the sun. The change in the break- 

 fast hour in Paris refutes such a notion. 



To prove that the abrupt advance of time in the 

 spring, and its equally sudden restoration in autumn, 

 would be accepted by the public with indifference, it is 

 usual to point to the ease with which travellers accom- 

 modate themselves to the change in time when pass- 

 ing the boundary of a longitude zone. The com- 

 parison is not convincing. In the particular case cited 

 the error of legal noon changes its sign but keeps 

 nearly the same absolute value, which is the only thing 

 that matters. 



FLORAS AND GEOGRAPHICAL 

 DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS. 

 /^UR knowledge of the flora of Siam, and especially 

 ^^ of the neighbourhood of Chiengmai, has grown 

 rapidly during the last few years owing to the extensive 

 collections made by Dr. Kerr, and more recently to the 

 activity of the forest officers. In the Kew Bulletin, 

 1911, an important paper entitled "Contribution to the 

 Flora of Siam " was published, the introductory matter 

 being supplied by Dr. Kerr and the determinations and 

 descriptions by Mr. VV. G. Craib. Since then seven 

 papers dealing with additional new species, described 

 by Mr. Craib, have been published in tiie Kew Bulletin 

 from time to time. In the last number of this journal 

 for 1915 (No. 10), the eighth " additamentum," con- 

 taining descriptions of twenty-seven new species, has 

 appeared, belonging to various natural orders. For 

 most of these Mr. Craib is responsible, but for three 

 new Ampelideae and a Dalbergia he is associated with 

 M. Gagnepain. 



The flora of the high mountains of Malaya is of 

 particular interest in connection with the geographical 

 distribution of plants, since here are to be found the 

 meeting ground of Australian and Himalayan plants. 

 Mr. H. N. Ridley in 1912 made an expedition to 

 Gunong Tahan in northern Pahang, the results of 

 which have just been published in the Journal of the 

 Federated Malay States Museums (vol. vi., part iii.), 

 and his account, taken in conjunction with what we 

 know of the flora of Mt. Ophir and Kedah Peak, makes 

 possible a general survey of the relations of the high 

 mountain flora of the Straits Settlements with the flora 

 of Kinabalu, in Borneo, and Australia, on one hand, 

 and with that of the northern regions on the other. The 

 Himalayan element found in the Tel6m Valley, Perak, 

 seems to be remarkably absent from Tahan, but in the 

 xerophytic regions of the sea coasts and the higher 

 mountains Australian plants are found. On Kinabalu, 

 however, the .Australian element is more pronounced 

 than on Tahan, and in New Guinea it appears yet 

 larger. It would seem that at one period an extensive 

 xerophytic area stretched from the .Australian region 

 bearing its characteristic flora, but that owing to 

 climatic changes it was swamped by a typical Malay 

 rain-forest flora, and only now persists on sandy sea- 

 shores and dry mountain tops. Five Kinabalu plants 

 found on Gunong Tahan are not known from else- 

 where in the Malay Peninsula, and since they have 

 neither drupaceous nor wind-bome seeds a former land 

 connection with Kinabalu is assumed. 



