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NA TURE 



[September 26, 1901 



the most violent West Indian hurricanes on record have occurred 

 in this month. It has been found convenient to divide the 

 October tropical storms into two classes — those which are ex- 

 perienced during the existence of high barometric pressure over 

 the Eastern States of America, and those when these anti- 

 cyclones are away to the north or north-west. In the former 

 case the hurricanes originate far out on the ocean, and their 

 centres seldom pass to the westward of the 75th meridian, 

 sometimes, indeed, their point of curvature is even so far 

 to the eastward as 41° W. , the mean path curving in 

 67° W. In the latter case most of the storms are de- 

 veloped about the Gulf of Mexico or the western end of the 

 Caribbean Sea, and in their passage northward and north-east- 

 ward cling to the American coast, some a little way inland, 

 others not far out at sea. Unlike the hurricanes of July, August 

 and September, the distinguishing feature of the October ones is 

 that they make comparatively little westing in the early stages 

 of their career, their prevailing tendency being to draw away 

 to the northward almost immediately after their formation, a 

 fact which must be associated with the seasonal change .jp the 

 disposition of pressure over America. The windS: of the 

 Adriatic, including the Bora and the Sirocco, are separately 

 dealt with. 



In the Zoologist for September the , Editor, Mr. W. L. 

 Distant, inaugurates a discussion on " Animal Sense Percep- 

 tions," in the course of which he hints that colour-perception 

 among the lower animals may be very different to our own, and 

 consequently that we should be cautious in regarding many 

 types of animal coloration as protective. Mr. E. Selous, in 

 continuing his observations on the habits of the great crested 

 grebe, hazards some very remarkable speculations. 



It was noted some months ago in this journal that an archaic 

 type of arachnid from Texas belonging to the genus Kcenenia 

 had been identified with the Sicilian K. mirabilis. Fuller com- 

 parison has enabled Miss A. Rucker to state in the American 

 Naturalist Snx August that, as might have been expected, it 

 tarns out to be distinct. The genus has also been discovered in 

 Siam and Paraguay, so that, like most archaic types, it is prob- 

 ably cosmopolitan. The material now available admits of the 

 definition of the ordinal group to which this strange form belongs. 

 From the Smithsonian Institution we have received a copy of 

 a paper by Messrs. Jordan and Snyder on the apodal or eel-like 

 fishes of Japan, forming Biillclin'iio. 1239 of the U.S. Museum. 

 The authors recognise two ordinal groups of these fishes, the 

 one including the " rice-field eels" (Monopterus), and the other j 

 the true eels, congers and mura?nas. Many excellent illustrations 

 are given, and a considerable number of new species described. 

 For one genus the name Echidna is employed, and if this usage 

 be correct the egg-laying mammal so designated requires a new 

 title. In the British Museum Catalogue of Marsupials and Mono- 

 tremes, Mr. O. Thomas definitely stated, however, that, as regards 

 the eel. Echidna is a uonten nudum. The question should be 

 decided one way or the other. 



The Biologisches Ccntralblatt of September 15 contains an 

 account of Dr. K. Hescheler's investigations into the affinities 

 of Pleurotomaria, that handsome genus of gastropod molluscs 

 of which so few survivors now remain. Although the author 

 confirms previous conclusions as to the generally primitive 

 character of this genus, he finds that this does not hold good 

 for all parts of its anatomy, which displays certain evidences of 

 specialisation. In another communication Dr. Walkhoff con- 

 trasts the human lower jaw with that of the inferior Primates, in 

 the course of which he points out that the celebrated " Naulette 

 jaw " approximates to the modern type in a much greater degree 

 than is the case with the one from Schipka, which is the oldest 

 at present known. 



NO. 1665, VOL. 64] 



Two memoirs on development constitute the contents of the 

 September issue of the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical ' 

 Science. In the ' one Mr. J. (i. Kerr continues his account of 

 the developmental history of the South American lung-fish 

 (Lepidosiren parado.xa), the first portion of which was published 

 in the Pliil. Trans. The author finds that both in this genus 

 and the allied African Protopterus the early development is 

 remarkably like that of the tailed amphibians, while it also re- 

 sembles that of the lampreys, and rather less closely that of the 

 so-called ganoid fishes. In the second article — illustrated with 

 five double plates — Mr. R. Evans discusses in great detail the 

 development of the Malayan representatives of peripatus, the 

 description of which has been already noticed in these columns. 



Mr. Arthur Smith, the curator of the Natural History 

 Museum at Grimsby, is making a collection of notes and records 

 of alien plants which occur in Britain, and asks the tooperation 

 of local botanists. 



Mr. H. L. Lyo.n' reprints from the Minnesota Botanical 

 Studies a paper entitled " Observations on the Embryology of- 

 A'V/«/«/w," showing that both in its anatomy and in its embryology 

 Nelumbo conforms to the type of the Monocotyledons. He 

 derives from this the conclusion that the order Nymph.-eaceze 

 should be removed from the Dicotyledons and should be placed 

 among Monocotyledons in the series Helobi.-e. 



It is stated in the January-March 1901 issue of the Kew 

 Bulletin of Miscellaneous Informatioyi, which has just reached 

 us, that in consequence of the extreme pressure of the demands 

 of important Government work the publication of the Bulletin ■ 

 had for a time to be suspended. Its issue has, however, now 

 been resumed. The present number is almost entirely devoted 

 to " a list of the contributors to the Herbarium of the Royal • 

 Botanic Gardens, Kew, brought down to December 31, 1S99." 

 The volume of the Bulletin for 1S99 has also reached us. Its 

 contents have been referred to in our " Notes " from time to 

 time as the serial has appeared. 



We have received the Report of the Directors of the Botanical 

 Survey of India for the year 1900-igoi, also the Annual Report 

 of the Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta, for the year 1900-1901, . 

 and that of the Government Cinchona Plantation and Factory 

 in Bengal for the year 1S99-1900. In his report of the Royal 

 Botanic Garden, Calcutta, the superintendent, Major Prain, 

 speaks of the serious damage done by the excessive rainfall in 

 the autumn of 1900, amounting to 404 inches from the 19th to 

 the 25th of September, 13J inches having fallen on September 

 20 Although there was no wind, many trees were uprooted, 

 and a large number of others died after the rain had ceased and 

 they were exposed to sunshine. The Cinchona plantations were 

 also greatly damaged by a disastrous rainstorm which passed 

 over the Darjeeling district on the night of September 24-25, 

 1899. The most recent publication of the Botanical Survey of 

 India (vol. i. No. 13) is the report of a botanical tour in the 

 South Lushai Hills by Lieut. A. T. Gage. 



The Royal Horticultural Society has made a new departure 

 in the August number of its Journal, in the form of " Notes 

 on Recent Research." The design is to give in each issue an 

 abstract or short digest of the papers of botanical, and especially 

 of horticultural, interest in the leading British, Colonial, 

 American, and Continental botanical journals. Of these 

 abstracts several very good samples are given in the present 

 number, the most important being a summary of Engler's 

 valuable paper on plant distribution in the Alps. The abstracts 

 from current horticultural periodicals occupy nearly fifty pages. 

 Independently of these abstracts, the current number of the 

 Journal is a very interesting one. Now that the phenomena 

 of hybridisation are attracting so much attention, all students of 



