484 
NATURE 
[DECEMBER 25, 1913 
in accordance with the lines originally laid down. 
The families, genera, and species of the Indian region 
are all fully dealt with, and more than sixteen 
hundred species are illustrated by life-sized coloured 
figures. The Indian region, as recognised by Dr. 
Moore for the purposes of this work, is bounded by 
the Himalayas on the north, the Suleiman and Hala 
mountains on the north-west, and Burma on the east. 
It includes Ceylon and the Andaman and Nicobar 
islands. Within these limits is found a_ butterfly 
fauna of great and varied interest, less noteworthy 
indeed than that of Indo- and Austro-Malaya, and 
far less rich than that of South America, but well 
deserving of the exhaustive treatment which it receives 
in the present work. 
Mr. IMMANUEL FRIEDLANDER, of Villa Hertha, 
Vomero, Naples, has published, with Dietrich 
Reimer, Berlin, a small quarto work of 110 pages, 
with nineteen plates and eleven maps, entitled 
“ Beitrage zur Kenntnis der Kapverdischen Inseln.” 
This gives the results of a journey made by him in 
the summer of 1912. After briefly summarising the 
literature and the maps of the Cape Verde Islands, 
giving some details of their history, of the climate, 
inhabitants, health relations, fauna, and vegetation, 
the author gives an account of his geological observa- 
tions on the various islands. A valuable synopsis of 
the rocks collected on the islands by Stiibel, Bergt, 
and Friedlander is contributed by Prof. W. Bergt, of 
Leipzig. The work should be particularly useful to 
anyone proposing to visit these islands, which, 
obviously, are worthy of further study. Mr. Fried- 
lander has long been attempting to establish in Naples 
a Vulcanological Institute under international 
auspices, but since his plans have not met with all the 
support he hoped, he has determined to begin at once 
with a small private institute established by himself, 
but open to students of all nationalities. It is hoped 
to lend out instruments from the institute, and to 
publish as its organ a Vulcanologische Zeitschrift. 
Tue July number of the Journal of the College of 
Agriculture, Tokyo, contains an interesting paper by 
Osawa on the sterility in Daphne odora, Thunb. 
This species is a native of China, commonly cultivated 
in Japan, where it is completely sterile. The pollen 
and embryo sac development in two related wild 
Japanese species, D. pseudo-mesereum and D. kiusiana, 
were studied for comparison. The latter are fertile, 
even under cultivation, in Japan. In the microspore 
mother-cells of D. odora extra nuclei are frequently 
formed, and various other irregularities occur. Even 
mature pollen grains which reach the stigma fail to 
germinate. | Megaspores are also formed, but the 
embryo sacs usually degenerate before completing 
their development. This species is thus sterile in both 
sexes. In the two fertile species the sporophyte num- 
ber of chromosomes is eighteen, while in D. odora 
it is about twenty-eight. Osawa refers to the con- 
clusion of Darwin that sterility may result from 
change of climate or from the effects of cultivation, as 
well as from crossing, and he also cites a number 
of sterile plants which are known or believed to have 
originated through mutation, as in the well-known case 
NO. 2304, VOL. 92] 
of Ginothera lata, The author concludes that the sterility 
of D. odora has been caused either by cultivation 
or by mutation. The change in chromosome number 
in this species, together with the absence of sterility 
in the other two species in cultivation, favours the 
latter hypothesis, which could be verified by deter- 
mining whether D. odora is sterile in its original 
habitat. 
Tue monthly parts of The Geophysical Journal 
issued by the Meteorological Office for 1912 contain 
daily meteorological, magnetic, electrical, solar and 
seismic data for Kew and Eskdalemuir, meteorological 
and magnetic data for Valencia, and values of the 
wind components for certain hours for four stations. 
They also include the results of the investigations of 
the upper air, and other useful data. The units are 
based on the C.G-S. system; the reasons for adopting 
the centibar or millibar instead of the inch for baro- 
metric measurements are given in the preface to'the 1913 
edition of ‘‘The Observer’s Handbook”’ published by 
the office. 
will be welcome to most meteorolgists, we may take 
this opportunity of referring to a useful article by 
Mr. Bonacina in the September number of Symons’s 
Meteorological Magazine, relating to the valuable work 
by Prof. Bjerknes on dynamic meteorology and hydro- 
graphy (Publication No. 88 of the Carnegie Institution 
of Washington). Among Mr. Bonacina’s interesting 
remarks it is pointed out that barometric readings in 
inches ‘‘no longer avail when meteorological data are 
employed quantitatively, i.e. to serve for the pre- 
calculation of ensuing atmospheric changes, in accord- 
ance with the avowed aim of the new method.” 
Tue director of the Meteorological Service, Survey 
Department, Egypt (Mr. J. I. Craig), has recently 
published his report on the rains of the Nile Basin 
and the Nile flood of 1911, in the usual form, with 
tables and plates. For the whole year there was a 
general deficiency of rain, except in Kordofan, and 
on the White Nile. In a chapter dealing with the 
normal rainfall it is stated that the time of its dis- 
tribution is more complex than has been supposed ; 
the regional curves show that they include three 
separate distributions, instead of two, as usually sup- 
posed, and an attempt is made to give a simple 
explanation of the facts. As a whole, the flood of 
igi started early, but afterwards was late and poor; 
it improved in September, and ‘‘matters were not so 
bad as at one time they promised to be.” The report 
includes some interesting notes on the regimen of 
Lake Victoria; the mean annual variation of its levels 
at various. seasons is said to be only 28 centimetres 
(11 in.), but the surface rises and ‘falls by much 
greater amounts, consequent on variations in the 
intensity of rain and evaporation from one year to 
another. 
AN interesting notice of the late Prof. Milne appears 
in the last number (vol. xvii., part 3-4) of the Bollettino 
of the Italian Seismological Society. Dr. Martinelli 
refers to his ability as an organiser, to his two text- 
books on ‘‘ Earthquakes” and ‘‘ Seismology,” to the 
seismographs with which his name is connected, and 
to the fact that he was a pioneer in almost every 
As all attempts at popularising these units. 
