NATURE 



[March 30, 1905 



Ijnsere Pflqnzen, By F. Sohns. Dritte Auflage. 



Pp. iv+178. (Leipzig: Teubncr, 1.904.) Price 



2 60 marks. 

 Children's Wild Flowers. By Mrs. J. M. Maxwell. 



Pp. viii+171. (Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1904.) 



Price ys. 6d. net. 



The derivation of many botanical names being very 

 uncertain, it is probable that the subject appeals 

 more to the philologist than the botanist. Who shall 

 say, for instance, whether the speedwell takes its 

 name from a saint Veronica, or should be derived 

 from " vera icon " or " vera unica " ? \'ernacular 

 names are perhaps more easily explained, but vary 

 greatlv in different districts. Similar difficulties 

 occur with German popular names, so that Mr. Sohns 

 has a number of problems of an indeterminate nature 

 to solve in his book, which deals with the nomenclature 

 of plants and their place in mythology and folklore. 

 Generally the author's arguments are care.ully 

 deduced and convincing, and, as might be expected, 

 the correct derivation is not always obvious. 

 Tausendgueldenkraut, the popular name of Erythraea 

 centaurca, suggests a connection with " centum 

 aurum," but the specific name is undoubtedly given in 

 honour of the Centaur Chiron, who was skilled in 

 medicine, and the German name, which was at first 

 hundert guelden Kraut, has apparently given place to 

 Tausendgueldenkraut, where thousand is used in a 

 hvperbolic sense, and thus the Centaur's plant has 

 become associated with a fanciful expression. In 

 addition to etymology, the book contains many 

 references to popular superstitions. On account of 

 the dissimilaritv between German and English 

 popular names it cannot be expected that the book 

 will appeal strongly to English readers, but a third 

 edition points to its suct:ess in Germany. 



The book by Mrs. Maxwell is intended to interest 

 children in wild flowers by narrating the legends and 

 stories connected with them. Scientific description is 

 practically limited to habitat and comparative 

 characters for distinguishing between the species of a 

 genus, and coloured illustrations are provided as a 

 means of identification of the plants. Obviouslv the 

 purpose of the writer is not to train the powers of 

 observation or inculcate accuracy, but rather to 

 stimulate the faculties of imagination. 



Superstitions about Aitimals. By Frank Gibson. 

 Pp. 208. (London and Newcastle-on-Tyne : Walter 

 Scott Publishing Co., 1904.) Price 3s.' 6d. 



This is an unpretentious little book which will interest 

 many people. It brings together some of the most 

 common superstitions about animals, " dealing with 

 them in a light and popular way," with copious quota- 

 tions from the poets. One of its aims is to sweep 

 away those superstitions that are foolish and de- 

 grading, to clear the air for a free appreciation of the 

 real wonders of nature. For " there is no subject 

 under heaven which will give more pleasure or lasting 

 and real profit than that of Natural Historv. " Mr. 

 (iibson deals first with omens, such as the ticking of 

 the death-watch ajid the baying of a dog; he goes on 

 to distortions of facts of natural history, such as 

 " salamanders in the fire," " crocodile's tears," " the 

 hibernation of swallows "; he ends up with creatures 

 of the imagination, like the " basilisk," the 

 "phoenix," and the "griffin." The author is a 

 devout admirer of the real things of nature with an 

 unusual knowledge of the poets both great and small. 

 He has not seriously tackled the diftlcult side of his 

 subject — the attempt to account historicallv and psycho- 

 logically for the origin and persistence of the more 

 important superstitions. He has forgotten the salt. 

 NO 1848, VOL. 71] 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions 

 expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake 

 to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected 

 manuscripts intended for this or any other part of N.ATURE. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] 



A Great Oxford Discovery. 



In a recent study of some eighteenth century naturalists' 

 writings I was a good deal struck by the amount of atten- 

 tion devoted to the problem of whether the white man 

 was a sport from negroid stock or the negro a sport from 

 a white race. The matter was discussed from every stand- 

 point, physiological, geographical, and theological, but the 

 consensus of opinion, based chiefly on the existence of 

 albinotic and pied negroes, and on the misunderstood 

 effects of leucoderma, was that the white might be a 

 negro sport, but that there was no evidence of a black 

 sport in the case of the white races. If such an opinion 

 were correct, and the white man only a negro sport, we 

 should certainly expect to find the negroid cranial type com- 

 mon among the white races. Two distinguished Oxford 

 men of science have just thrown remarkable light on this 

 problem. They have given a very simple series of con- 

 ditions by which crania can be classed into skulls of 

 negroid, non-negroid, and intermediate types. These con- 

 ditions depend entirely on a classification of nasal and 

 facial indices, and by their processes our authors are able 

 to distinguish between the negroid, non-negroid, and 

 intermediate types among prehistoric Egyptian crania. 

 Not being an anatomist, I am quite unable to judge of 

 the processes by which they have reached their criteria, 

 and the photographs which accompany their volume are 

 of so obscure a character — indeed, in the present state of 

 cranial ptiotography somewhat unworthy of a university 

 press — that they hardly allow the uninitiated even with a 

 lens to appreciate the justification which the authors 

 find for their classification in the outward appearances of 

 their cranial groups. I thinic, however, we may safely 

 give the greatest weight possible to a judgment formed 

 by the Oxford professor of human anatomy and the Oxford 

 reader in Egyptology in a folio volume just issued bv the 

 syndics of the University Press. 



Taking their classification as beyond discussion. I have 

 applied it : — 



First, to a fairly long series of admittedly negro crania, 

 all males. I find 7.3 per cent, are non-negroid, 3q.o per 

 cent, are truly negroid, and ;;3 7 per cent, are inter- 

 mediate. It is clear that we only need to let the negroes 

 rhanee their skins, and a sensible percentage will be non- 

 negroid. 



■Se'-ondly, to a fairly long series of English skulls, male 

 and female. I find of Englishmen 20 per cent, are negroid, 

 .'fi per cent, non-negroid, and 34 per cent, are intermediate 

 in type. .Among Englishwomen 11 per cent, are negroid, 

 4S per cent, non-negroid, and 41 per rent, are of inter- 

 mediate type. Thus of the w^hole English population 

 slightly more than 50 per cent, are either pure negroid or 

 partially negroid : while in an outw^ardly pure negroid 

 group, upwards of do per cent, are non-negroid or mixed 

 wilh non-negroid elements. 



I have not yet had time to apply Prof. Thomson and 

 Mr. Randall-Maciver's test to .Asiatic races, but I have not 

 the le.ist doubt that I shall find there also pure negroid 

 and intermediate negroid elements. But that the English- 

 man should have as large a negroid element in his con- 

 stitution as the prehistoric Egyptian, and only half as 

 little pure negroid element as admitted negroes, is to my 

 mind an epoch-making discovery, which will nt once 

 attract attention to Oxford as n centre for a novel school 

 of craniometry and anthropology. K.vri. Pearsox. 



University College. London. 



Inversions of Temperature and Humidity in Anti- 

 cyclones. 



In \.\TtRE of February 16 Mr. W. II. Dines cited an 

 example of .n large temperature inversion, observed with 

 kites during the prevalence of very high barometric 

 pressure in England, and remarked on the possible connec- 

 tion between the two phenomena. 



