90 
NA TORE 
[NovEMBER 26, 1903 
the only true lizard from strata of pre-Jurassic age. The 
specimen is to be described in the first number of a new 
journal, Records of the Albany Museum. 
Tur National Museum of Dublin was enriched last year 
by the gift of a very extensive herbarium of Irish plants, 
collected by the late Mr. Levinge, of Co. Westmeath. In 
the Scientific Proceedings of the Royal Dublin Society Dr. 
Johnstone and Miss Knowles have published a list of plants, 
for which the localities furnish new records, whether for 
the county or for other parts of Ireland. 
In the Journal of Botany (November) Dr. Rendle gives 
a description of the grass Glyceria festucaeformis, new to 
Britain, which was discovered by Mr. Praeger on the north- 
east coast of Ireland. This is an unexpected locality for a 
grass which is regarded as a Mediterranean type. In the 
same journal there appear two lists of mosses and hepatics, 
the one for Worcestershire recorded by Mr. Bagnall, the 
other contributed by Canon Lett of collections made in 
South Donegal. 
In a Bulletin issued by the U.S. Department of Agri- 
culture which deals with the diminished flow of the Rock 
River, Mr. F. G. Schwarz discusses the question how far 
the water supply of a river is affected by drainage and 
deforestation. He contends that the actual diminution in 
amount is unimportant as compared with the resulting 
fluctuations in the flow of water, especially where the melt- 
ing snow provides an appreciable source of the supply. As 
a remedy it is suggested that, in addition to increasing the 
area of forest, it would probably pay, where the land is 
valuable, to construct artificial reservoirs for regulating the 
supply of water. 
Tne complex series of movements which are carried out 
by the flowers of Sparmannia africana, a well-known green- 
house shrub, from the opening of the buds to the setting of 
the fruit has been carefully studied by Mrs. D. H. Scott, and 
is described in the Annals of Botany. In the latter part of 
the paper the writer gives an account of experiments which 
were carried out in order to show these movements by means 
of a kinematograph, and in which success was ultimately 
attained by the use of an instrument called after the maker 
the Kammatograph. In the Kammatograph, by means of 
eccentric rotation, exposures are made of successive portions 
of a film coated on a glass disc, so that a series of spirally 
arranged negatives is obtained. 
Tue latest Rationalist Press Association reprints, pub- 
lished by Messrs. Watts and Co., are John Stuart Mill’s 
‘On Liberty ’’ and ‘‘ Haeckel’s Critics Answered,’’ by Mr. 
Joseph McCabe. Both are published at sixpence. 
Messrs. MAcMILLAN AND Co., Ltp., have published in 
their sixpenny series ‘‘ Essays Ethical and Political,’’ by 
the late Prof. Huxley. The Romanes lecture delivered in 
1893 on ‘‘ Evolution and Ethics ”’ is included, together with 
the Prolegomena written in the following year. 
A NEw edition of Mr. G. Hale Puckle’s ‘‘ Elementary 
Treatise on Conic Sections and Algebraic Geometry ’’ has 
been published by Messrs. Macmillan and Co., Ltd., at 
7s. 6d. Alterations in the treatment of the general equation 
of the second degree have been made, and more simple 
methods of reduction and of finding the foci, eccentricities 
and axes are given. 
WE have received the fifth half-volume of the ‘‘ Natural 
History of Animals,’’ by Prof. J. R. Ainsworth Davis, now 
being published by the Gresham Publishing Company. 
NO. 1778, VOL. 69 | 
Previous volumes of the work have already been reviewed 
ia these columns; the present part deals fully with animal 
movement in eleven chapters, running to 280 pages, and is 
illustrated by nearly 250 figures and three coloured plates. 
Tue second volume of Prof. H. Pellat’s ‘* Cours 
d'Electricité ’’ has been published by M. Gauthier-Villars, 
of Paris, at 18 francs. The publication of the first volume, 
which deals with electrostatics, Ohm’s law, and thermo- 
electricity, was announced in these columns in 1901. The 
present volume is concerned with electrodynamics, mag- 
netism, the phenomena of induction, electromotors, electric 
oscillations, electromagnetic measurements, and similar sub- 
jects. A third volume, yet to be published, will complete 
the course, and will discuss electrolysis, electrocapillarity, 
and associated subjects. 
Tue additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during 
the past week include a Campbell’s Monkey (Cercopithecus 
campbelli) from West Africa, presented by Mr. J. F. Purser; 
a Macaque Monkey (Macacus cynomolgus, var.) from India, 
two African Brush-tailed Porcupines (Atherura africana) 
from West Africa, a Rose-Hill Parrakeet (Platycercus 
eximius) from Australia, deposited. 
OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 
SoLaR PHENOMENA AND MaGNetic Storms.—In a com- 
munication presented to the Paris Academy of Sciences, M. 
Quenisset directs attention to the fact that, whilst the 
passage of a large group of sun-spots across the sun’s 
central meridian on October 31 coincided with a terrestrial 
magnetic storm of exceptional activity, the passage of a 
much larger group on October 11 was marked by a very 
faint perturbation of the magnets. In explanation of this 
apparent anomaly he points out that the smaller group of 
spots was surrounded by an immense tract of facula, so 
bright that it was found possible to photograph them by 
the ordinary method, even when they were on the sun’s 
central meridian, whilst scarcely any faculze attended the 
larger and earlier group. From this fact M. Quenisset 
arrives at the conclusion, which is now becoming generally 
accepted, that it is the prominences and faculz on the solar 
surface rather than the spots which are so closely related 
to terrestrial phenomena, and suggests that the mono- 
chromatic photographs of the solar surface obtained by the 
Hale-Deslandres method, such as are now being taken at 
Yerkes, South Kensington, and Meudon, will provide valu- 
able data for the discussion of the inter-relation of solar and 
terrestrial phenomena (Comptes rendus, November 9). 
OBSERVATIONS OF JUPITER.—In the November number of 
the Bulletin de la Société astronomique de France, M. Ch. 
Lukacs, of Budapest, publishes the results of his obsery- 
ations of Jovian phenomena during 1902; the following are 
the principal conclusions derived from the observations :— 
(1) The Red Spot has totally disappeared except at its 
eastern extremity; (2) the southern equatorial band shows 
remarkable activity in its northern parts; (3) the equatorial 
band, formerly the scene of the greatest activity of Jupiter’s — 
atmospheric forces, has now become absolutely uniform; 
(4) the northern equatorial band is growing gradually 
fainter from the south towards the north; (5) the south 
temperate band presents a curious depression just above the 
eastern extremity of the Great Red Spot, and, on August 
6, two very sharply defined deviations in the course of this 
band were observed, the one at 125°, the other at 175° of 
Jovian longitude; these deviations were similar to those 
observed by the late Prof. Keeler on August 28, 1900; (6) 
the colour of the equatorial bands was a brownish ochre; 
the zones, generally, appeared to be of a whitish yellow, 
with the exception of the tropical zones, which were white, 
and the polar zones, which had a grey tinge mixed with 
yellow. 
In his communication M. Lukacs gives the details of his 
individual observations and twelve excellent drawings of 
the planet as it appeared on various occasions during 1902. 
