April 13, 1905] 



NATURE 



567 



havi' been made by gifts to the museum, namely, a collec- 

 tion of British butterflie* and one of birds' eggs, the 

 latter including many rare specimens. The conservatory, 

 containing the greater part of the vivarium, has been re- 

 built, and a new case is in course of construction for the 

 geological collection. On the other hand, the secretary 

 deplores the lack of Interest in microscopy, and also the 

 few competitors for prizes. 



In the report of the Norlhumborland Sea Fisheries on 

 the scientific investigations conducted in ir)04, it is stated 

 that there has been a decided decrease in the number of 

 flat fish, especially plaice, in Cambois Bay, although in 

 this respect the other stations do not depart materially 

 from the satisfaetory results of the last few years. A 

 number of flat fish, chiefly dabs, were marked and re- 

 turned to the sea. Those re-captured ;ipp.-irently indicate 

 that plaice do not usually leave the inshore waters until 

 they are approaching maturity (four or five years old), but 

 that dabs show a separation of the sexes, the females 

 remaining near the shore while the males migrate to 

 deeper water twenty or thirty miles to the south. I^egis- 

 lation for the protection of lobsters does not work well, as 

 the fishermen are in the habit of stripping and selling 

 the " berried " females instead of returning them to the 

 sea. 



In the first part of vol. xxxiii. of Oegenbaur's Mnrphn- 

 logisches Jahrhuch is continued Dr. A. Fleischmann's 

 article on the skull of the Amniota, Dr. O. Hofmann con- 

 tributing a section on the structure of the roof of the 

 mouth-cavity in lizards. The second article, by Dr. If. 

 Adnlphe, is devoted to a discussion of the variation in the 

 human sternum and vertebral column, more especially as 

 regards the number of vertebrae which may bear ribs and 

 which may enter into the composition of the sacrum. 

 After referring to analogous variations in apes and 

 monkeys, the autnor considers that there is no evidence that 

 any of the earlier mammals had eight cervical vertebrae. 

 In the third article Mr. W. M. Smallwood records some 

 observations on the chromosome vesicles developed in the 

 earlier stages of nudibranch molluscs. 



I'riE two origin.-il articles in riiolot;ischi's Centralblalt 

 of March i^ are devoted to the subject of ants, Mr. E. 

 Wasmann continuing his account of the origin of slavery 

 among these insects, while Prof. D. H. Forel figures and 

 describes the nests and " fungus-gardens " of certain South 

 American ants. The photographs and notes on which the 

 latter account is based were communicated to the author 

 by Dr. E. Ooeldi, director of the museum at ParA. In 

 the case of AHa scxdens, it appears that the female has 

 a fungus-garden to herself, in which the eggs are laid ; 

 and while this and other large species of the same genus, 

 together with certain kinds of Acromyrmex, make their 

 fungus-gardens in holes in the ground, the smaller Atta 

 moelleri constructs them in hollow trees, under leaves, and 

 in such-like situations. 



A FURTHER instalment of the account by Mr. B. 

 Fedtschenko of his journey in Central Asia is given in 

 vol. iv., parts vi. and vii., of the bulletin du jardin 

 Imperial Botanique, St. Petersburg. These letters relate 

 to his wanderings across the Pamir plateau, and he de- 

 scribes the vertical sequence of plant formations observed 

 in the unexplored valley of the Mouskol River. 



The present time, when changes are pending in India 

 in connection with the formation of a department of 

 NO. 1850, VOL. 71] 



commerce and industry, is opportune for considering the 

 possibility of changes in allied departments. A pertinent 

 article advocating the establishment of a bureau of forestry 

 as a complement to the Indian Forest Department appears 

 in the Indian Forester (January). The duties of the staff 

 would include the preparation of working plans, the in- 

 stitution and supervision of experimental investigations, 

 and the responsibility of regulating the cultivation and 

 supply of forest products. 



A Circular (vol. ii.. No. 24) of the Royal Botanic 

 Gardens, Ceylon, by Mr. R. H. Lock, deals with the 

 varieties of cacao trees existing in the gardens and the 

 experiment station, Peradeniya, and incidentally supplies 

 some interesting information on the colour of the seeds. 

 As a primary division, Criollo varieties having seeds with 

 a thin shell are distinguished from the Forastcro varieties 

 with a hard shell. Fruits of the old red type of Criollo 

 were found to contain about 14 per cent, of purple and 

 80 per cent, of white seeds. Foraslero varieties pass from 

 forms of good quality, having well rounded beans of a 

 light colour, to those of a poor quality, in which the beans 

 are flat, purple, and bitter. The proportion of white to 

 purple seeds in a number of pods of one of the best 

 I-'orastero varieties was 35 per cent, to O3 per cent. 



Nos. I and 2 of the Zeitschrifl of the Berlin Gesell- 

 schaft fur Erdkunde contain a valuable paper by Dr. S. 

 Passarge on the Kalahari region and its significance as 

 a factor in the ethnography of South Africa. The paper 

 discusses the physical and biological conditions of the 

 region, and the distribution of the races of mankind. It 

 is illustrated by a number of excellent maps. 



The most recent addition to the Abhandlungen of the 

 Vienna Geographical Society is a paper by Dr. Artur 

 Gavazzi, forming the first or " morphological " part of a 

 monograph on the lakes of the Karst region. The work 

 includes measurements of permanent lakes, fresh-water, 

 brackish, and salt, "periodic lakes," and periodically in- 

 undated " poljen." Observations of the micro-plankton 

 and diatoms have been made by Drs. L. Car, A. Forti, 

 and V. Lurgaiolli. Dr. Gavazzi 's paper forms an im- 

 portant contribution to our knowledge of an extremely 

 interesting region. 



We have received the report of the Danish Meteorological 

 Institute on the state of the ice in the Arctic seas during 

 1904. The statistics go to show that the winter of 1903-4 

 was comparatively mild in that part of the Arctic regions 

 which lies north of the Atlantic Ocean, that during 1904 

 the East Greenland current supplied the temperate seas 

 with a smaller quantity of polar ice than in a normal year, 

 and that the Labrador current carried more than the 

 average number of icebergs past Newfoundland. It is 

 expected that during 1905 there will be more ice along the 

 coast of East Greenland and in Davis Strait than in 1904, 

 and less off Labrador and Newfoundland. 



The Meteorological Institute of the Netherlands has 

 issued a paper, by M. J. P. van der Stok, continuing and 

 extending -M. PhafT's discussion of tidal observations made 

 on board the light-ships on the Netherland coasts. The 

 periodic movements in horizontal and vertical planes, and 

 the progressive movements of the waters, are dealt with 

 separately, and the general result is to support the view 

 set forth by Lord Kelvin in 1878, that the tides of the 

 North Sea would not be materially affected if the Straits 

 of Dover were closed. Further observations, especially off 



