February 23, 1905] 



NA TURE 



399 



In vol. v., No. 5, of the Records of the Australian 

 Museum, Mr. R. Etheridge describes the remains of a ple- 

 siosaurian reptile of the genus Cimoliosaurus from the Upper 

 Cretaceous of White Cliffs, New South Wales, which have 

 been completely opalised. This is the second skeleton of the 

 genus which has been obtained from these deposits in an 

 opalised condition. Precious opal occurred only here and 

 there — more especially in the transverse processes of the 

 neck — in the second specimen, the richness of the colour of 

 which bore no comparison to that in the example first 

 obtained. 



Mr. W. E. Clarke, of the Edinburgh Museums, sends us 

 a paper from the Annals of Scottish Natural History for 

 January on the vole and the shrew of Orkney. The vole, 

 which it will be remembered was recently discovered and 

 named by Mr. Millais, turns out to be remarkably interest- 

 ing, for it appears to come nearest to the water-vole, 

 although its dentition is of the type of the common field-vole. 

 The shrew, Mr. Clarke believes, will probably turn out to be 

 the pigmy species. Mr. Clarke has been assisted in his 

 investigation into the structure of the vole by Prof. O. C. 

 Bradley. 



Dr. Gilchrist's presidential address to the South African 

 Philosophical Society at the meeting in August last, which 

 is reported in the latest issue of the Transactions of that 

 body, deals with certain features of the marine fauna of 

 South Africa. It is shown that as the Cape seas receive 

 currents from different parts of the ocean, so the fauna is of 

 a particularly varied type, containing North Atlantic, Ant- 

 arctic, and Indian types, and even an element from the Far 

 East. 



The subject of the affinity of the endothiodont reptiles is 

 resumed by Dr. R. Broom in part iv. of vol. xv. of the 

 Transactions of the South African Philosophical Society. 

 The author emphasises their relationship to the dicyno- 

 donts, and shows that, while in the endothiodonts the ten- 

 dency has been to increase the development of the molars, in 

 the dicynodonts the latter teeth have been completely 

 eliminated. In our own opinion. Dr. Broom's work tends 

 to show that both groups should be included in a single 

 family. 



The report of the director of the botanic gardens and 

 domains, Sydney, for 1903 refers to the changes in the 

 gardens consequent upon the extension into the inner 

 domain. Tree-planting in the Centennial Park has been 

 continued, the additions during the year being principally 

 Acacia bincrvata. Eucalyptus botryoides, woolly-butt, Tris- 

 tania conferta, brush-box, and species of Casuarina. Many 

 of the various species of Eucalyptus have suffered from the 

 attacks of a coccid identified as Eriococcus coriaceus. 



The Philippine Islands are yielding a number of interest- 

 ing plants. A second list by Mr. E. D. Merrill has been 

 issued as a publication. No. 17 of the Bureau of Government 

 Laboratories, Manila. The author distinguishes twelve 

 species of Terminalia in his synopsis of the genus, three 

 being new. Among other new plants are four species of 

 Pandanus, three of lUipe ( = Bassia), and a climbing 

 Dischidia belonging to the section Conchopyllum in which 

 the leaves flattened against the supporting tree trunk serve as 

 a shelter for ants. 



A PROGRESS report on the strength of structural timber by 

 Dr. W. K. Hatt forms Circular No. 32 of the forestry series 

 published by the United States Department of Agriculture. 

 Tests were made with long-leaf pine, Pinus palustris, 

 loblolly, Pinus taeda, and a red fir, known also as Oregon 

 NO. 1843, VOL 71] 



pine, Pseudotsuga taxtfolia. Long-leaf pine is the standard 

 timber of construction, but is not always obtainable in long 

 pieces, when red fir takes its place ; red fir produces 

 long, straight timber, but shows considerable variation in 

 quality ; loblolly being principally sap-wood has to be treated 

 with preservatives if it is required for external work. Ex- 

 periments were also made with sweet gum, Liqiiidambar 

 styraciflua, to ascertain whether the timber could be bent 

 and put to the same uses as hickory, but the results were 

 not favourable. 



When we consider the enormous mass of material which 

 has been accumulated regarding the quantity of rain which 

 falls, it is remarkable how little attention appears to have 

 been giveui to the number and size of the drops. A very 

 simple and ingenious method of studying raindrops is de- 

 scribed in a paper in the Monthly Weather Review for 

 October, 1904, by Mr. W. .'V. Bentley. The raindrops are 

 allowed to fall into a layer of dry flour one inch deep, which 

 is exposed to the rain for a few seconds. The flour is 

 allowed to stand for some time, and the pellets of dough, 

 each representing a raindrop, are then picked out and may 

 be preserved. The method was tested by allowing measured 



■ * t 



';f. .M* 



*f? 'Pt V* '•:. •'•/ 



Fwrrns of raindrops, 

 al storm of August 2 

 aindrop samp'e per h 



Complete set of samples fr( 

 , 1904. Duration of storm, ; 

 ur was taken throughout the '. 



drops of water to fall from a height into the flour ; it was 

 found that the dough pellet difi'ered but little in size from 

 the drop which produced it. In the paper a series of interest- 

 ing photographs of such dough-pellets is given, illustrating 

 the variation in the size of the raindrops during the course of 

 showers of different types. The largest drops met with 

 somewhat exceeded a fifth of an inch in diameter ; this is in 

 agreement with the observations of Wiesner (quoted by 

 Hann in his " Lehrbuch "), which gave 7 mm. as an upper 

 limit. Mr. Bentley gives tables showing the relative 

 frequency of occurrence of drops of various sizes in rain 

 from various kinds of clouds. 



We have received from the secretary of the English 

 Ceramic Society a copy of its Transactions for the session 

 1903-4. The society, which has its headquarters at 

 Tunstall, Staffordshire, is still in its infancy, but it would 

 appear that its existence is likely to exert considerable in- 

 fluence for good on the future development of the English 

 potteries. The Transactions contain papers describing 

 attempts to solve special probleins in the industry, and the 

 keen discussion which followed their delivery is indicative 

 of the interest with which they were received. There can be 



