May 21, 1914] 
ject that the discovery of this phenomenon of pre- | 
determination has shattered almost all accepted beliefs 
about the fibre of cotton, and has at the same time 
coordinated the old data afresh into a straightforward 
story. The practical applicability of the results is 
slight, since every boll passes through a different life- 
history, on account of the continuous fruiting of the 
plant. 
In 1913 a series of daily pickings was made 
from a group of pure-strain plants growing in field- 
crop conditions, over a period of ninety days, with 
parallel records of flowering, etc. The examination 
of these having keen delayed by unavoidable circum- 
stances, the present note has been prepared. It should 
be noted that this last material is unique in the 
history of long-staple cotton. 
These results were obtained incidentally during my 
tenure of the post of botanist to the Khedivial Agri- 
cultural Society, and to the Egyptian Government at 
the Giza Cotton Experiment Station, 1904-13. 
W. LAWRENCE Batts. 
NEW ZEALAND SURVEY.! 
a Be report before us gives a full account of the 
work of the Department of Lands and Survey, 
New Zealand, for the year ending March 31, 1913. 
As in previous years, not only surveying, but also the 
direction of the magnetic observatory falls within its 
purview. Most of the work dealt with in the report 
has been undertaken in connection with cadastral 
requirements, and the higher grade work, which is 
termed ‘‘standard”’’ survey, is in great request in 
town and suburban holdings, where land that could 
probably have been purchased sixty or seventy years 
ago for a mere trifle is now reported as having a value 
of 12001. a foot. Under such conditions work of 
the highest precision is essential, but the new 
secondary triangulation is as yet available for a 
small part of the country only. This triangulation is 
the equivalent of second order triangulation, since the 
triangular error is kept below 6”, and is usually con- 
siderably less. This is as much as can be expected 
from the instrument used, a 1o-in. vernier theodolite, 
and the Conference of Surveyors-General supported 
the New Zealand Survey in the opinion that a modern 
instrument of higher class was indispensable. A 
standard bar of nickel-steel 1o links long has 
been obtained from the Société Genevoise, Geneva, as 
well as a comparator from the Cambridge Instrument 
Company for use with it. Both of these have been 
examined and verified at the National Physical 
Laboratory. Four bases, from 5-2 to 11-5 miles in 
length, have been measured since 1909, but only two 
are as yet part of the finally accepted triangulation. 
In the magnetic observatory a new set of Eschen.-. 
hagen-Toepfer magnetographs wére received at the 
end of 1912, and were installed at Amberley, thirty- 
four miles north of Christchurch. ‘ 
Considerable assistance was given to the officers and 
scientific staff of the British Antarctic (Terra Nova) 
expedition, who took magnetic observations and deter- 
minations of gravity as controls to the work carried 
out in the Antarctic. The report also publishes ten 
seismograms of those recorded during the year by the 
Milne seismograph. Maps showing the progress of 
the work and extracts from Conference of the Sur- 
veyors-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, 
which was held at Melbourne in May, 1912, complete 
a report which is of much interest, and contains a 
record of much valuable work. Ride? Ge IL. 
1 Report on the Survey Operations for the Year r912-13. Department of 
Lands and Survey, New Zealand. By James Mackenzie, Surveyor General 
Pp. 77+6 maps+5 diagrams. (Wellington, 1913.) : 3 
Waw2325, VOL..93)| 
NATURE 
399 
THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF RESEARCH 
BY THE CARNEGIE INSTITUTION 
OF WASHINGTON. 
aieo Year Book for 1913 of the Carnegie Institu- 
tion of Washington is now available. The in 
formation provided in its 336 pages shows convinc- 
ingly that there has been no relaxation of effort on 
the part of the trustees of the institution to administer 
wisely the funds placed at their disposal for the 
| encouragement of scientific research, and that the re- 
sults arrived at by the men of science who have 
received assistance are as promising and as full of 
interest as in previous years. 
The following list shows the amounts of the grants 
made for the present year and the purposes to which 
they are being devoted :— 
Administration 10,000 
Publication ae - 12,000 
Division of Publications 2,000 
Departments of Research - 1273020 
Anthropology 4,000 
Embryology 5,380 
Minor Grants 18,980 
Index Medicus 2,500 
Insurance Fund ... 5,000 
Reserve Fund See Bee w+. 50,000 
Exhibit at Panama-Pacific  Inter- 
national Exposition 2,000 
£249,789 
The next table shows the departments of scientific 
investigation to which the larger grants were made by 
the trustees for the financial year 1912-13, and the 
amounts allotted from these grants by the executive 
committee during the year :— 
cS 
Department of Botanical Research ... 7,601 
Department of Experimental Evolution 19,028 
Geophysical Laboratory Sy sac) 5000 
Department of Historical Research ... 5,920 
Department of Marine Biology 6,378 
Department of Meridian Astrometry... 5,036 
Nutrition Laboratory ee eee KORs nO 
Division of Publications (office ex- 
penses oa 1,800 
Solar Observator nee ad see) BaRlZO 
Department of Terrestrial Magnetism 42,053 
Researches in Anthropology 1,400 
Researches in Embryology 3,000 
150,252 
The following extracts from the résumé of the in- 
vestigations of the year included in the report of the 
president of the institution, Dr. R. S. Woodward, will 
give some indication of the work which has been 
initiated and encouraged :— 
All the departments of research of the institution are 
now well-defined organisations, each of them inde- 
pendent of and more or less isolated from the others, 
and each of them devoted to a field which, while in 
some cases related to, does not encroach upon, the fields 
of others. Each of them possesses a degree of auto- 
nomy which calls for a corresponding degree of 
freedom in the character of their annual reports and 
accounts of progress. 
Studies of the Salton Sea, carried on during the past 
seven years by the department of botanical research in 
collaboration with a number of contributing specialists, 
have been brought together during the year in a 
volume now in the press under the title ‘‘The Salton 
Sea: A Study of the Geography, the Geology, the 
Floristics, and the Ecology of a Desert Basin.” 
