APRIL 4, 1907 | 
NATURE 5 
is less likely that it exercises a similar influence on 
the visits of Odontopus. It may be suggested that 
pollination was once mainly effected by insects in 
search of nectar, and that the relations which now 
exist between the plant and Odontopus have been 
more recently established. This is the more probable, 
since this insect is so widely distributed in regions 
where Welwitschia does not occur. Possibly the 
coloration of the bracts at the time of pollination is 
also connected with the process. Certain it is that | 
before the micropyles appear above the bracts the 
latter are green, and the red colour appears about 
the time of pollination. Further, there is no trace 
of a red colour in the many old specimens of seeding 
cones that I have examined, but I have not been able 
to make sure that the colour disappears while the 
cone is still attached to the plant; though I believe 
this to be the case. If this is so, the occurrence of 
yellow seeding cones in Hereroland specimens (as de- 
seribed by Pechuel-Losche) is at once explained.' 
The native in this picture (Fig. 3) is a Herero. The 
shrubs in the middle distance are Sarcocaulon sp. 
Fic. 
3.—Welwitschia : Female Plant. 
Through the kindness of Mr. K. Dinter, whose 
name is well known in connection with the botany | 
of Damaraland, I was able to examine a bed of 
seedlings in the nursery of the forest department at 
Okahandya. The seeds were sown in July last in a | 
deep, well-drained, sandy soil, and germinated in 
about two weeks. A specimen which I was allowed 
to take up on February 7 had an exceedingly slender 
tap-root with a few short branches; the main root 
(the tip was left in the ground) measured 20.5 cm. 
below the feeder, the oldest branch being 11 cm. 
below the same level. The fairly stout hypocotyl was 
2 em. long, the foliage leaves- 4.5 cm.; the coty- 
ledons were dry and shrivelled, and the lateral cones | 
represented by small, vertically placed green lamellae. 
The comparatively rapid elongation of the root, | 
altogether out of proportion, on the one hand, to its | 
own growth in thickness, and on the other to the | 
increase in size of the aérial parts, points to the | 
existence of a supreme necessity that the absorbing | 
root should reach an underground source of water 
and as soon as possible render the plant independent 
1 Cf Fichler, in Engler and Prantl, ‘‘ Pflarzenfamilien,” ii., 1, p- 124 
(footnote). 
NO. 1953, VOL. 75 
of the very scanty and infrequent supply at the sur- 
face. In nature the conditions which would induce 
germination, and at the same time enable the root 
to penetrate the surface layers to a sufficient depth, 
must very rarely occur, and it is not surprising that 
young seedlings have been searched for in vain. 
This apparent failure of natural reproduction by seed 
in recent years, when considered in relation to the 
large number of plants found within a comparatively 
small area and their obviously slow growth, suggests 
that the life-conditions now prevailing in this 
Welwitschia area are more severe than formerly. 
There is other evidence also pointing to the same 
conclusion. Vegetative reproduction being entirely 
wanting, it is difficult to escape the conviction that, 
with the continuance of existing climatic conditions, 
the species, here, at least, is approaching extinction. 
I am very deeply indebted to His Excellency Herr 
von Lindequist, Imperial Governor of German South- 
West Africa, and to Herr Regierungsrath Dr. 
Hintraeger, Acting Governor, through whose kind- 
ness every assistance which the Government could 
possibly give me in the study of 
Welwitschia, and in a _ subsequent 
journey further inland, was most 
generously afforded. 
H. H. W. Pearson. 
THE ART OF EMBALMING IN 
ANCIENT EGYPT.* 
ROK bee 1OM mas VMiliEer tas 
applied to the study of mummifi- 
cation the accurate and thorough 
methods of observation which have won 
for him a foremost place among the 
younger generation of anatomists, the 
result being an authoritative memoir, 
which will serve both the expert and 
the uninitiated as an excellent introduc- 
tion to the art and significance of 
embalming as practised in ancient 
Egypt. As professor of anatomy in the 
medical school at Cairo he has free 
access to the material necessary for a 
first-hand study of the subject. So 
well has he pieced his evidence together 
that one obtains on reading it a very 
complete picture of the actual process 
employed by the embalmers during the 
twenty-first dynasty. The memoir is 
based on a study of forty-four mummies of priests 
and priestesses of Ammon, belonging to that dynasty. 
Although the chief object of the author was to 
unravel the details of the embalmer’s art, he care- 
fully collected all evidence which might throw light 
on the significance of a custom which was practised 
for a period of at least two thousand years in Egypt— 
from the seventeenth dynasty until about 600 a.D. 
During the twenty-first dynasty, embalming culmin- 
ated in an elaborate technique which aimed at pre- 
serving the integrity of the skin and restoring the 
living form to the body. In explanation_of the ela- 
boration of technique during this period, Elliot Smith 
brings forward a suggestion of Dr. Reisner (in charge 
| of the Hearst Egyptological Expedition of the Uni- 
versity of California), namely, that the procedure had 
as its object a life-like preservation of the body so 
that it might serve as an abode for the Ka 
“double,’’ in place of the statue which was usually 
placed in the tomb along with the dead body to 
1 ** A Contribution to the Study of Mummification in Egypt.” By Pro’ 
G. Elliot Smith. Pp. 53+plates. Mémo'res présertés & l'Institut Egyptien 
or 
| et publiés sous les auspices de S, A. Abbas LI., Khédive d'Egypte, Tomevy., 
Fasic. i. (Cairo, 1906.) 
