3S 



NA TURE 



[November io, 1904 



Some excellent photographs of rorquals " spouting " 

 illustrate a paper on these cetaceans by Dr. G. M. Allen 

 in the September issue of the American Xaluralist. In 

 height and volume the " spout " of all the species is much 

 less than was supposed to be the case by the older observers, 

 even that of the huge " sulphur-bottom " averaging only 

 about 14 feet in height, although it may occasionally reach 

 20 feet. In the same number Dr. t'. R. Eastman has an 

 article on fossil plumage, in which it is pointed out how 

 e.xtremely seldom are birds' feathers preserved in marine 

 deposits ; indeed, the only formations of this nature from 

 which they have been recorded appear to be the Solenhofen 

 limestones, the Cretaceous of Kansas, and the Monte Bolca 

 Eocene. 



The practice of planting trees and shrubs by stockmen 

 around their ranch-houses is advocated in a Builetin of the 

 New Mexico Experimental Station, in which the author, 

 Mr. Wooton, describes the native ornamental plants. 

 Poplars or cottonwood trees are recommended for shade, 

 also the hackberry, and a maple known as box-elder. The 

 indigenous flora contains many climbers, including species 

 of Ipomoea, Maurandia, and clematis, while for the gardens 

 on the Mesa native yuccas, the sotol, Dasylirion, and the 

 ocotillo are suitable. 



The latest number of the West Indian Bulletin, vol. v.. 

 No. 2, contains an article on the cold storage of fruit, in 

 which it is pointed out that previous to storage it is 

 necessary to have the fruit cool before and while it is being 

 packed. Reference is made to the installation of Hall's 

 system for cooling the fruit chambers on board the West 

 Indian Royal Mail Steamers Tagiis and Trent. A review 

 of the cacao industry indicates that Trinidad and Grenada 

 continue to show a satisfactory increase in their exports, 

 and Trinidad stands fourth in the list of cacao-producing 

 countries. 



Continuing the " Materials for a Flora of the Malay 

 Peninsula," Sir George King, F.R.S., with the cooperation 

 of Mr. J. S. Gamble, F.R.S., has worked out in the latest 

 part (No. 15) the uniovulate series of the Rubiaceae. This 

 coincides with the subdivision Cofifeoide^ adopted by 

 Schumann in Engler's " Pflanzenfamilien." The authors 

 retain Cephaelis as a generic name, and include under 

 Webera only a portion of the genus as understood by Hooker 

 in the " Flora of British India." The most important 

 genera are Ixora and Lasianthus, for the latter of which 

 no fewer than twenty-five new species are given. No species 

 of the Indo-Malayan genus Myrmecodia is recorded, and 

 only one species of Hydnophytum. 



We have received from Messrs. J. R. Gregory and Co., 

 of Kelso Place, London, W., the prospectus and first part 

 of the " Twentieth Century Atlas of Microscopical Petro- 

 graphy." This elaborate work is intended to supply draw- 

 ings, descriptions, and microscopic slides of typical rocks 

 to its subscribers ; while, for an additional guinea, chips of 

 the same rocks, mounted by a smooth face on glass plates, 

 are issued to complete the materials for studv. There are 

 many good points about the idea, and we do not know why 

 so capable a draughtsman as the author should veil his 

 Identity under the not very attractive title of " a senior 

 medallist and first-class honoursman in Natural Science of 

 the University of Edinburgh." The subject is not treated 

 systematically, and we note that, while the plates can be 

 arranged in a portfolio according to the owner's taste, the 

 text is paged continuously, and cannot be cut up. There 

 are many students, especially those forced to work alone, 

 NO. 1828, VOL. 71] 



who will welcome a book of this kind, accompanied as i» 

 is by the actual specimens that are described. 



The Royal Society has published its second annual issue 

 of that part of the " International Catalogue of Scientific 

 Literature " dealing with meteorology, including terrestrial 

 magnetism. Our readers generally will know that thi* 

 catalogue is an outgrowth of the catalogue of scientific 

 papers published by the Royal Society. This second issue 

 comprises mainly the literature of 1902, but includes some 

 works published in 1901. Not only the titles of papers 

 appearing in periodicals or as independent works are given, 

 but their subject-matter has been indexed. The referee of 

 this valuable contribution is Mr. T. D. Bell (librarian of the 

 Meteorological Oftice), which, we consider, is sutTicient 

 guarantee of the care that has been taken in the preparation 

 of the work. We note that a very important addition has 

 been made by including the contents of the Meteorologische 

 Zeitsclirift for 1902 as well as for 1901 which were omitted 

 in the first issue. But we also note some important 

 omissions which will probably be remedied in a future issue, 

 e.g. the valuable papers which appear in the U.S. .\lonthly 

 Weather Review. The Royal Society appears to receive 

 notification of very few daily weather reports, as only those 

 of four countries are included out of some twenty-five that 

 are actually published. 



Mr. John W. Butters, writing in the Edinburgh Mathe- 

 matical Society's Proceedings, advocates a much more ex- 

 tensive use of the principle of synimetry in teaching 

 geometry, a proposal with which many mathematicians will 

 no doubt agree. 



-An amusing anecdote about Linnca borealis is told by 

 M. \'. Brandicourt in Cosmos for October 1. This rare 

 plant was reported to have been discovered in 1810 by the 

 Empress Josephine when on a visit to the Montanvert at 

 Chamounix. But it transpired later that the specimens 

 were planted there by a certain Bonjeau, who wa- 

 pharmacist to Her Majesty, and the secret was let out by 

 the man who planted them in a letter to her asking for help 

 when he was incapacitated by an accident. .As M. Brandi- 

 court remarks, no one w'ill ever again find Linnea borealis at 

 the Montanvert or anywhere near — the Empress took them 

 all 1 



In the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 

 XXV., 4, Dr. J. Erskine Murray describes a simple differenti- 

 ating machine. In it the differential coefficient of a function 

 the graph of which has been drawn is obtained bv recording 

 the slope of the tangent at each point, and to give this the 

 machine is guided so that two near dots on a piece of 

 celluloid shall at each instant lie along the curve, while 

 a tracing point on a second sheet describes the required 

 graph of the first derived function as thus obtained approxi- 

 mately. This method, rough as it sounds in description, 

 is said to give valuable information in many statistical 

 problems where existing methods would prove too laborious. 



We have received parts i. to vii. of the Rendiconto of 

 the Naples .\cademy (January to July), and in them notice 

 obituary accounts of three members of the academy. .Antonio 

 de Martini studied medicine at Naples and Paris. In 1839 

 and 1840 he published with Salvatore Tommasi two papers 

 on the organism of reptiles and one on the lamprey, and 

 these were soon followed by many other papers. In 1847 he 

 was appointed professor of anatomy and physiology at the 

 veterinary college. The new morphology emanatirg from 

 <~iermany al that period attracted Martini's attention, and 



