November 6, 1902] 



NA TURE 



15 



members of the New Zealand Institute, not only possesses the 

 interest which attaches to the impressions obtained by a personal 

 visit, bvt is additionally so as it is still possible to trace the 

 original vegetation and study the changes which are taking place 

 owing to the introduction of animals and foreign plants. A 

 remarkable and regrettable instance of the latter is the almost 

 complete annihilation of the plant well named Myosolidium 

 nobilc, which originally lined the shore just above high-water 

 mark. The sheep feed on the leaves and the pigs grub up the 

 rhizomes, and now this plant is limited to quite a few localities. 

 A striking feature of the island is the large Te Whanga lagoon, 

 which occupies about one-third of the island. This, however, 

 is not so important botanically as the swamps, which represent a 

 transition stage from lagoon or lake to drier localities which 

 rapidly become forest lands. Not the least curious feature, and 

 one which has been noted but not satisfactorily explained in 

 other countries, is the occurrence of plants with xerophytic 

 characters growing in the swamps. Such an one is a peculiar 

 Restiaceous plant, Leptocarpus simplex, which grows in the 

 wettest parts, while another is Olearia traversii, which, however, 

 may be taken as an indication that the swamp is passing into a 

 dry condition. 



Messrs. James Swift and Sox have sent to us, for trial, 

 one of their compound microscopes of recent type, fitted with 

 their newly patented " Ariston " fine-adjustment. The essence 

 of this is the setting of the micrometer-screw and its milled head 

 upon a closed tube, which, like a jacket, surrounds the pillar. By 

 the attachment to the head of this jacket of a couple of levers, 

 upon the upper part of which the screw reacts by means of a fine 

 point, there is assured a successful elimination of the trouble- 

 some side-movement resulting from a bending of the metal 

 composing the limb when the fine-adjustment is subjected to 

 pressure. In thus ensuring to the operator the comfort of abso- 

 lute rigidity, the conditions employed give with a coarse screw 

 a slow rate of speed and a very delicate result. The apparatus 

 is entirely satisfactory, and can be fitted to certain of Messrs. 

 Swift's microscopes at small cost. It is worthy their newer 

 mechanical stage, their ruled " finder," and the devices, simple 

 but effectual, which they have from time to time introduced into 

 the construction of their instruments for compensation in wear 

 and tear. In these and other similar matters of recent years, 

 Messrs. Swift have shown themselves constantly on the alert 

 for improvement. In the excellence of their T V-in. homogeneous 

 oil immersion, they have produced an English-made lens of 

 first-rate capacity which is a marvel of cheapness ; and it must 

 not be forgotten that in the early days of the modern student's 

 microscope they were the first to introduce the Jackson type of 

 stand, just as we believe it was the Englishman Collins who 

 similarly first produced the iris-diaphragm, which, like it, was 

 a triumph for British manufacture. 



The Report of the U.S. National Museum, under the direc- 

 tion of the Smithsonian Institution, for the year ending June 30, 

 1900, is, as usual, remarkable for the many interesting papers 

 it contains and the wealth of beautifully executed illustrations 

 which accompany them. The first part of the volume contains 

 the report of the assistant secretary, and includes sections con- 

 tributed by the head curators of the departments of anthro- 

 pology, biology and geology. Part ii. makes up nearly 600 of 

 the 73S pages to which the report runs ; it contains seven con- 

 tributions, some of which may fairly be called monographs. 

 Mr. W. H. Holmes, head of the anthropological department of 

 the museum, describes his anthropological studies in California, 

 his contribution being illustrated with fifty excellent plates. 

 The pictures of the baskets made by the Tulare Indians and the 

 scenes showing incidents in their everyday life are particularly 

 fine. An exhaustive study of aboriginal American harpoons, in 

 NO. I/23, VOL. 67] 



which they are treated as a study in ethnic distribution and in- 

 vention, is by Dr. O. T. Mason, the curator of the division of 

 ethnology. Nineteen plates and nearly a hundred figures 

 accompany this article. The Commissioner of the Imperial 

 Maritime Customs Service of China, Mr. A. E. Hippisley, gives 

 a sketch of the history, with twenty-one plates, of ceramic art 

 in China, and supplies a catalogue of the Hippisley collection 

 of Chinese porcelains. The remaining papers are, " Contri- 

 butions to the History of Musical Scales," by Mr. C. K. 

 Wead, of the U.S. Patent Office; "A Collection of Hopi 

 Ceremonial Pigments," by Mr. W. Hough; a "Descriptive 

 Catalogue cf the Collections of Gems in the U.S. National 

 Museum," by Mr. Wirt Tassin ; and a catalogue of the meteorite 

 collection, by the same author. 



Messrs. C. Griffin and Co., Ltd., have recently pub- 

 lished a ninth edition, revised and enlarged, of Prof. A. Jamie- 

 son's "Elementary Manual on Steam and the Steam Engine." 

 From the same publishers we have received the fifth edition of 

 Prof. Jamieson's " Elementary Manual of Applied Mechanics," 

 which has also been enlarged. 



A number of stereoscopic slides of scientific interest have 

 been prepared by Messrs. Erdmann and Schanz, Bedford Hill, 

 Balham, London, S.W. Among the subjects represented are 

 type studies from India and Ceylon, hoar-frost scenes and wild 

 animals. A compact and effective stereoscope with aluminium 

 hood is supplied by the same firm. 



Two more volumes belonging to the Scientia series, 

 published in Paris by M. C. Naud, have been issued. One, 

 No. 14 of the biological series, by Prof. A. Imbert, of the 

 University of Montpellier, is entitled " Mode de Fonctionnement 

 economique de l'Organisme. " Tne other, No. 20 of the 

 physico-mathematical series, is by M. H. Laurent, " Sur les 

 principes fondamentaux de la Theorie des Nombres et de la 

 Geometric" Each volume is a short monograph giving the 

 present state of knowledge of the subject surveyed. 



The thirty-fourth volume of the Proceedings of the London 

 Mathematical Society, which has now been published, contains 

 the papers communicated to, or read before, the Society from 

 March, 1901, to April, 1902, and some of the contributions 

 included in the publication are of high mathematical interest. 

 We have also received the second volume of "Mathematical 

 Questions and Solutions from the Educational Times." The 

 collection is edited by Miss Constance Marks, and is supple- 

 mented by papers and solutions which have not hitherto been 

 published. 



The volume containing the physical papers of the late Prof. 

 Henry A. Rowland, the preparation of which for publication 

 was announced in April of this year, is now nearly ready for 

 distribution to its subscribers. It has been edited under the 

 direction of a committee, consisting of President Remsen, 

 Prof. Welch and Prof. Ames, who have made every effort to 

 present to the world, in a suitable form, this memorial of their 

 colleague. The price of the volume will be one guinea per 

 copy for orders sent in advance of publication, after which the 

 price will be increased. Orders may be sent to Prof. Joseph S. 

 Ames, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland. 



A brilliant address on "The Rise of the Experimental 

 Method in Oxford " was delivered by Prof. Clifford Allbutt 

 before the Oxford University Scientific Club last May, as the 

 ninth Robert Boyle lecture. An abstract of the address was 

 given in these columns on May 22 (p. 90), and readers of it 

 could not fail to be struck by the richness and charm of the 

 style in which Prof. Allbutt dealt with his subject. The 

 complete discourse, %vhich has now been published by Mr. 



