196 



NA TURE 



[June 28, 1883 



The text is not free from remarks betokening a want 

 of knowledge as to the progress of research on certain 

 points. When, for example, treating of the enemies 

 which affect the wheat crop, the author (presumably Mr. 

 Fuller) writes as follows : — " But by far the most extra- 

 ordinary disease to which wheat is liable is schwan, in 

 which the young wheat-grains are found to be filled with 

 minute worms . . . The most extraordinary fact con- 

 nected with this disease is, however, that the worms can 

 retain their vitality for a long time," &c. A footnote is 

 then added as follows : — " Since the above was written, 

 the worms have been identified as belonging to the order 

 Nematoidea, and are apparently of the genus Tylenchus " I 

 This is really too gross and wilful ignorance. The well- 

 known and often-described "pepper brand" or "ear- 

 cockle " attributable to the Vibrio tritici, now known as 

 the Tylenchus tritici, is paraded as a "most extraordinary" 

 disease, the precise nature of which has been ascer- 

 tained " since the above was written." If such is the fact, 

 the figures 1882 should be withdrawn from the title-page, 

 and 1828 be substituted in their place. Neither do the 

 authors appear to be at home in treating of the varieties 

 of the cultivated plants. The varieties of rice, we are 

 told, are more numerous and more strongly marked than 

 those of any other crop. Forty-seven distinct varieties 

 are announced, in support of this statement, as existing 

 in Bareilly, although the writer proceeds somewhat 

 naively to add, " Probably in the Provinces their number 

 considerably exceeds 100." Now, as 300 varieties of 

 wheat have been propagated by one naturalist, the forty- 

 seven varieties of rice do not strike us as bearing out the 

 statement as to the extraordinary variability of the 

 plant. 



Another point we cannot forbear to notice is the evident 

 carelessness on the part of the authors as to whether 

 their work should be understood by Englishmen in Eng- 

 land. What is a " lakh," a " maund," or a " seer " ? In 

 vain we look for an English equivalent, and yet it is 

 " maunds " per acre which are constantly spoken of, and 

 which we long to translate into bushels or some intelli- 

 gible unit of measure or weight. Viewing the volume as 

 a whole, we cannot but pronounce it interesting and read- 

 able. The introduction is especially rich in information 

 regarding the climate, irrigation, and cultivation of the 

 North- West Provinces, a vast district comprising, in the 

 quaint method of enumerating employed by the authors, 

 6,79,06,496 acres. 



An alluvial soil and a climate by which the year is 

 divided into two complete seasons certainly are condi- 

 tions highly favourable to vegetation and to agriculture. 

 In the colder season, wheat, barley, and oats are brought 

 to perfection, while in the kharif, or hot season, rice, 

 cotton, sugar-cane, and maize thrive. Not only do these 

 highly-favoured provinces enjoy a temperate and a tropical 

 climate, but each half of the year is again divided into 

 two definite sub-seasons fitted for producing crops pe- 

 culiar to it. We cannot but wonder whether the strange 

 climatal vagaries to which the western world has latterly 

 been exposed have disturbed the pleasant division of the 

 year into kharif and rati in the North- West Provinces of 

 India ; but on this point our authors are silent. 



John Wrightson 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



[ The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, 

 or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts, 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications. 



[ The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters 

 as short as possible. The pressure on his space is so great 

 that it is impossible otherwise to insure the appearance even 

 of communications containing interesting and navel facts.] 



Aurorae of October 2 and November 17, 1882 



The article of Mr. Rand Capron in the Philosophical Maga- 

 zine on the aurora of November 17, 1882, has proved to me that 

 my observation of that phenomenon has not been without value, 

 but it appears that Mr. Capron has been obliged to consult a 

 not quite accurate abstract or translation of my description which 

 I tad inserted in the Utrecht Journal ; it was from lack of time 

 that I did not immediately send translations of it to foreign 

 periodicals. 



Perhaps you will still be so kind as to admit into Nature a 

 translation of both my articles on the aurorae of October 2 and 

 of November 17 ; they were written immediately after observing 

 the phenomenon. J. A. C. Oudemans 



Utrecht, June 9 



Translation of .the Article in the " Utrecht Journal" of October 3, 

 1882 



Yesterday evening, between seven and eight o'clock, there ap- 

 peared here a brilliant aurora. Before seven there was visible a 

 v\ htte arc running from west to east. This arc ■jrew clearer and 

 clearer, and rose slowly, till at 7I1. 5m. (mean time) there eman- 

 ated brilliant beams from its whole circumference. 



At 7I1. 10m. there rose also a bright column from the east- 

 north-east, which phenomenon was repeated now and then also 

 from the west. 



In the southern part of the sky a magnificent sight was the 

 large white spots, looking like brightly illuminated white clouds, 

 but proving by their variable brilliancy to be no clouds, but to 

 be connected with the auroral light. At 7h. 15m. such a large 

 white spot was just before Aquila, i.e. north of the equator, but 

 the spots showed a movement to the south, so that at 7b. 30m. 

 the zone formed by them was some degrees south of the equator. 



At 7h. 42m. there arose a large beam through the quadrangle 

 of Ursa Major to $ Ursa Minoris ; this beam moved to the west, 

 and was dissolved a few minutes afterwards. 



At 7I1. 50m. there appeared again a cloudy patch in Aquila. 



At 7h. 54m. a brilliant shooting star descended almost vertically 

 from the space between Lyra and the Dragon through Hercules ; 

 this observation wa-, however, not made with accuracy. 



At 8h. the last cloudy patches in the south vanished ; in the 

 north also I saw no more upward radiating beams. 



Long afterwards the auroral light remained visible in the 

 north. After Sh. 30m. I did not longer look for the pheno- 

 menon ; it seemed to me to have come to an end. 



Utrecht, October 3, 1882 J. A. C. O. 



Translation of the Article in the " Utrecht Journal" of November 

 18, 1S82 



Yesterday we had again a brilliant aurora, differing entirely in 

 its details from that of October 2. 



In the east as well as in the west there appeared at 6h. mean 

 time a red gleam like that of a distant fire. Both these extended 

 red patches were united through the north by an arc much re- 

 sembling that which appeared in the aurora of October 2. The 

 splendid vertical beams remarked on that occasion were now 

 fewer in number and not so intense ; they were of the same red- 

 dish hue as the above-mentioned patches visible in the east and 

 in the west. 



At 6h. 23m. there appeared suddenly in the east a bright 

 featherlike l appearance, which in the beginning showed 

 some resemblance to a comet ; the end of it was exactly 

 above Aldebaran. In no more than two minutes this feather 

 had lengthened over an arc that passed above Saturn, through 

 the quadrangle of Pegasus, and south of the Aquila stars, and 

 as the front or western end proceeded, the eastern end followed. 

 With the aid of a star-map we see that the arc, cjvered succes- 

 sively by this featherlike appearance, was elevated 20° above the 



1 By this word I did not mean that the borders or edges were not fairly 

 defined. 



