556 



NA TURE 



[October 3, 1901 



report of the newly constituted Limnological Commission, whose 

 aim is to institute an exhaustive biological and physical investi- 

 gation of the American lakes, on the plan already carried out 

 wit,h such success in Switzerland. 



The third instalment of Messrs. W. and G. S. West's "Alga- 

 Flora of Yorkshire," reprinted from the Transactions of the 

 Yorkshire Naturalists' Union, completes their list of the Conju- 

 gate (Desmidiex) of the county, and enumerates the Siphonece, 

 Protococcoidece, and Cyanophycece (Myxophycere), with the 

 commencement of the diatoms (BacillariaceEe). 



We have received from Mr. J. H. Maiden, Government 

 Botanist and Director of Botanic Garden, Sydney, copies of 

 about thirty papers contributed by him during the years 1896- 

 1901 to the Agricultural Gazette of New South Wales, and 

 reprinted by the Department of Agriculture for the Colony, all 

 relating to some point of interest or importance to farmers, 

 gardeners, or fruit growers in the Colony. 



If sufficient support can be obtained, it is proposed to estab- 

 lish a new monthly journal, under the title British Botanical 

 journal, to afiford a ready means of communication and dis- 

 cussion among British botanists. The contents will consist of 

 articles and reviews, short paragraphs on important and striking 

 current botanical matters, correspondence, short notices of 

 books, original papers and notes, &c. Communications should 

 be addressed to Mr. A. G. Tansley, University College^ 

 London, W.C., who will be the first editor. 



Bulletin No. 28 of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, 

 Division of Vegetable Physiology and Pathology, consists of an 

 elaborate account, occupying more than 150 pages, of the cul- 

 tural characters of the yellow fligellate bacteria Psetidomonas 

 Hyacinthi, P. campestris, P. Pliaseoli, and P. Stewarti, 

 parasitic respectively on the hyacinth, on cruciferous plants, on 

 leguminous plants, and on grasses, especially on maize. The 

 favourable and imfavourable conditions for the growth of the 

 parasites are treated of in great detail. 



The first part of a " Handbuch der vergleichenden und 

 experimentellen Entwickelungslehre der Wirbeltiere,'' edited by 

 Dr. Oscar Hertwig, has been received from the house of Gustav 

 Fischer, Jena. The work promises to contain an exhaustive 

 treatment of comparative and experimental embryology, and 

 will be completed in about tvventy parts at four-and-a-half marks 

 each. 



MM. Gauthier-Vili.ars have commenced the publication 

 of a complete " Cours d'Electricite," by Prof. H. Pellat. The 

 work will be issued in three parts, the first of which, dealing 

 with electrostatics. Ohm's law and thermoelectricity, has been 

 received. The second volume will be concerned with electro- 

 dynamics, magnetism and induction, and the third with 

 electrolysis, electro-capillarity and related_questions. The part 

 already received contains the course of work in electricity at 

 the Sorbonne in 1S9S-1899; the second part will contain that 

 carried on in 1899-1900, and the third will correspond to the 

 course to be followed next year. 



A NEW edition of " The Evolution of Sex," by Profs. Patrick 

 Geddes and J. Arthur Thomson, reviewed in Nature in 1890 

 (vol. xli. p. 51), has been published by Mr. Walter Scott. " In 

 this revised edition," say the authors, " though many alterations 

 and additions have been made, the original character of the 

 work has been retained, and that notwithstanding the difficulty 

 that the authors have in the past ten years been diverging 

 biologically — the one towards a Neo-Lamarckian position, the 

 other towards a Neo-Darwinian one. Yet they remain agreed 

 NO. 1666, VOL. 64] 



on the main endeavour of the book, which is to set forth the 

 fundamental unity underlying the Protean phenomena of sex 

 and reproduction." 



A NEW scientific periodical, the Allgemcine Naturforscher- 

 Zeitung, edited by Dr. C. Wenck, commenced its career on 

 October 2, and will appear twice weekly. The aim of the 

 Editor is to publish scientific papers very shortly after they have 

 been presented at meetings or congresses, and to make the 

 journal reflect the chief characteristics of current scientific 

 work. The first number contains two papers — one on ana- 

 biosis and the other on electrons — read at the recent Congress 

 of Naturalists and Physicians at Hamburg, and a number of 

 abstracts and reviews. In general character, the new periodical 

 does not difi'er much from the old-established Naturwissenschaft- 

 liche Wochenschrift, which has just commenced a new series 

 under the editorship of Prof. Potonie and Dr. F. Kijrber, and is 

 now published by Mr. Gustav Fischer. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Ring-tailed Lemur (Lemur catta) from 

 Madagascar, presented by Mr. Chas. Rawsthorne ; two Jays 

 (Garrulus glandarius), British, presented by Mr. W. Radcliffe 

 Saunders ; three Common Snakes ( Tropidonotus natrix), 

 British ; a Viperine Snake ( Tropidonotus viperinus), European, 

 presented by the Rev. H. A. Soames ; a King Crab (Limulus 

 polyphemus) from the North Atlantic Ocean, presented by Mr. 

 Walker ; two Arabian Baboons (Cynocephalus hamadryas, i ?) 

 from Arabia, a Nilgiri Thar {Hemitragus hylocrius, i ) from 

 Southern India, four Getulian Ground Squirrels (Xerus getulus) 

 from Morocco, four Great Wallaroos [Macropus robustus) from 

 South Australia, an .African Civet Cat { Viverra civetta) from 

 South Africa, two Malayan Wrinkled Hornbills [Rhytidoceros 

 undulatus) from Malacca, six Gigantic Salamanders {Megalo- 

 batrachus ina.xiinus) from Japan, four American Box Tortoises 

 (Cistudo Carolina) from North America, six Ceylonese Terrapins 

 [Nicoria trijuga), nine Starred Tortoises {Testudo elegans) from 

 India, a Lesueur's Water Lizard ( Physignathus lesueuri) from 

 Queensland, a Bearded Lizard {Amphibolurus barbatus) from 

 Australia, deposited ; a Rufous-necked Wallaby (Macropus 

 ruficolhs), born in the Gardens. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



Diameter of Venlts. — In the Astronomical Journal (vol. 

 xxii. pp. 13-15), Mr. D. A. Drew gives the results of a series 

 of measures of the diameter of Venus, made with the 24-inch 

 refractor of the Lowell Observatory at Flagstaff, Arizona, in 

 1S9S. For the majority of the determinations a power of 165 

 was employed, together with an ocular diaphragm half a milli- 

 metre in diameter and an amber-coloured glass screen. 



The tabulation and discussion of the reduced diameters indi- 

 cates that there appears to be a peculiar variation in the planet's 

 diameter, decidedly periodic, which may be due partly to the 

 variable irradiation with the different phases and brilliancy of 

 the body at different times. 



Spectrum and Aitearance of Nova Persei. — Herr E. 

 von Gothard announces in Astronomische Nachrichten (Bd. 

 156, No. 3738) that he has photographed the spectrum of the 

 Nova with a loj-inch reflector and objective prism, the result 

 showing many of the characteristics of the peculiar structure 

 seen in the spectra of planetary nebula:. Bright lines are present 

 at K\ 5007, 4S61 (H^), 4341 (Hy), 4101 (Hi), 3970 (He), 3867, 

 and a new line about \ 342. The brightest line in the whole 

 spectrum is that at \ 3867, which is very prominent in planetary 

 nebula;. 



He also alludes to the possibility of the aureole shown sur- 

 rounding the star on photographs obtained with refracting 

 telescopes being produced by the non-achromatic correction of 

 these glasses for the extreme ultra-violet rays, which are so 

 strongly developed in the Nova spectrum as to produce the 

 chief part of the photographic action. This view of the 

 question is also mentioned by Prof. Max Wolf in No. 3736 ; in 



