2 84 



NA rURE 



[July 2 1. 1904 



dromus Flora; Norfolkica;," which came out in 1833, the 

 contribution to this subject presented by Mr. J. H. Maiden 

 to the Linnean Society of New South Wales last year is 

 eminently useful. The paper begins with a critical enumer- 

 ation of the flowering plants and cryptogams, in which 

 the author deals with a number of synonyms and doubtful 

 references, besides adding several new records for the island. 

 A somewhat novel feature for a flora is a separate list of 

 plants of economic and horticultural value. The author 

 reserves for a second part his observations as to origin and 

 distribution. 



Some interesting ecological observations of certain swamp 

 areas in Michigan and Arkansas counties, U.S.A., are re- 

 corded by Dr. S. M. Coulter in the fifteenth annual report 

 of the Missouri Botanical Garden. On the island of North 

 Maniton, in Lake Michigan, a small lake, having no out- 

 let, is being filled up by the encroaching vegetation. The 

 pioneer plants are the peat-mosses, followed by cranberry 

 and leather leaf, Cassandra calyciilata ; tamarack, Larix 

 Americana, and black spruce crowd on the shrubs, and as 

 the ground gets drier deciduous trees obtain a foothold. 

 In the swamp region of the St. Francis River two character- 

 istic trees are found, the tupelo gum, Nyssa uniflora, dis- 

 tinguished by having a continually increasing dome-shaped 

 base, and the bald cypress, Taxodium distichuin. which 

 develops a conical butt and peculiar " knees." 



Dr. N. Zarudny has returned from his last journey to 

 Persia, and has brought back rich ornithological collec- 

 tions. 



We learn from the Bulletin of the Russian Society of 

 Naturalists of St. Petersburg that the biological station 

 which has been established near Alexandrovsk, on the 



Fig. I.— The bioIogic.ll station on 

 North Russia. View from th. 

 ing machinery anti a covered s 



of the Kola peninsula, 

 w water. The pump- 

 shown on the left. 



Norman coast of the Kola peninsula, is now in working 

 ' order. It is provided with all the necessary apparatus for 

 pumping sea-water to a basin and an aquarium, as well as 

 with a special sailing boat and all apparatus required for 

 fishing and dragging. During last summer the exploration 

 of the bay and its nearest surroundings proved that both 

 yield rich material for research. The sea-bottom opposite 

 the Dog's Cape of Catherine Island is covered with Litho- 

 thamnium, upon which there are many annelids {Nereis 

 pelagica, Glycera capitata, &c.), numerous worms, the 

 Cucumaria frondosa and C. calcigera, Psoliis phantapus, 

 many Ophiuridse, Planarise, Nemertinse, a variety of 

 crustaceans and molluscs, two Actiniae, one of which is the 

 Actinoloba dianthtts, the deep-water medusa, Pectyllis arctica, 

 and many other forms of life. Altogether it appears that 

 within a distance of less than one and a half miles from 

 NO. 181 2, VOL. 70] 



the station there is already a deep-water fauna which lives 

 at the comparatively small depth of from 20 to 70 fathoms. 



It has been generally considered that the naphtha wells 

 of the Kuban province of north-western Caucasus take their 

 origin in the Sarmatic and Mediterranean layers of the 

 Tertiary deposits of that region. The mining engineer, 

 W. I. Wind, brings forward (in the Bulletin of the St. 

 Petersburg Society of Naturalists, 1904, No. 4) some data 

 tending to prove that naphtha in Kuban originates also 

 in deeper lying Tertiary strata which consist of a dark, 

 almost black clay, containing enormous quantities of re- 

 mains of fishes (chiefly Meletta), as well as thin layers of 

 carbonised plants. 



A NEW instalment of " Flora Caucasica critica," by N. 

 Kuznetsoff, N. Busch, and A. Fomin (fascicules 3 to 6), 

 appears in the Memoirs (Trudy) of the St. Petersburg 

 Society of Naturalists, vol. xxxii., part iii. A special fasci- 

 cule of the same volume is devoted to the memory of A. 

 Beketoff, and contains the following works : — " The Influ- 

 ence of the Concentration of Solutions on Respiration 

 and Exchange in Plants," by V. Palladin and Mme. A. 

 Komleva ; " The Influence of Wounds on the Formation of 

 Unassimilable Albumens and Nucleo-proteids in Plants," by 

 I. Kovshoff ; " The Vegetation of the Povyenets District of 

 Olonets," by E. Ispolatoff ; " On the Vegetation Covering 

 the Sands in Taurida," by the same author; "The 

 Influence of Exterior Conditions on the Division of Nuclei 

 in the Roots of Vicia faba," by V. Sablin ; and " On the 

 Influence of Saccharose on the Respiration of Seeds," by 

 S. Woicehowski. 



A NEW edition of Dr. H. R. Mill's " Elementary Class- 

 book of General Geography " has been published by Messrs. 

 Macmillan and Co., Ltd. The book, which first appeared 

 in i88g, was largely re-written in 1900, and has again been 

 thoroughly revised. Recent political changes and colonial 

 developments have been noted, and all statistics have been 

 brought up to date by reference to the returns of the 

 censuses of igoo and 1901, and to recent official publications. 



\ SELECTION of the brilliant lectures and essays of the late 

 Prof. W. K. Clifford, together with a biographical sketcli 

 (if the author, has been published by Messrs. Macmillan 

 and Co., Ltd., in their sixpenny series. In their rheap 

 form these essays and addresses should be widely read, and 

 there is every reason to hope that Clifford's influento will 

 be increased greatly by the publication of his teachings at 

 this small cost. 



We have received from Messrs. John J. Griffin and .Sons, 

 Ltd., a copy of a new issue of their illustrated catalogue 

 dealing with apparatus for the study of magnetism ar.d 

 electricity. Among other novelties, particulars of which 

 are given in the catalogue, we notice moving coil volt- 

 meters and ammeters which can be obtained at a reason- 

 able price, and apparatus for showing Prof. Elihu 

 Thomson's experiments on the electromagnetic repulsion 

 between an alternating electro-magnet and a conducting 

 ring. The convenient arrangement of the catalogue and 

 the large number of illustrations it contains should render 

 the publication of real service. 



A NINTH edition of the late Prof. Babington's " .Manual 

 of British Botany " has been published by Messrs. Gurney 

 and Jackson. The book has been enlarged from the 

 author's manuscripts and other sources. The work of edit- 

 ing the new edition has been done by Messrs. Henry and 

 James Groves. Species, varieties, additional characters 

 and remarks which have been inserted by the editors are 

 printed in smaller type, and where introduced in the text 



