Dec. 



.884] 



NATURE 



The so-called South Plant of Egyptian Art 



The identification of the original source of any conventional- 

 ised artistic form is always, I think, worth notice. It will 

 probably interest many readers of Nature to draw their atten- 

 tion to a short but instructive piece of work of this kind which 

 Prof. Julius Lange has communicated to the Royal Academy of 

 Copenhagen (Bull., 1SS4, pp. 109-114). I am indebted to Mr. 

 Liden, one of our garden staff at Kew, for a translation of the 

 paper from the original Danish. I have freely condensed the 

 details. 



There is a well-known Egyptian symboljwhich represents both 

 Northern and Southern Egypt. The northern symbol is ad- 

 mitted to represent the stem and head of the Papyrus. But the 

 southern symbol has not hitherto been identified with any cer- 

 tainty. It has a lily-like form, and lias been generally referred 

 to the Lotus (Nymphcea), an identification which Prof. Lange 

 thinks quite inadmissible, as the conventionalised treatment of 

 this plant in Egyptian art is quite different. 



The twin-symbol combining in a kind of knot the north and 

 south plants is commonly found inscribed on the throi 

 statues of Egyptian kings. In the later examples the south 

 plant has the form of a flower with three divisions of the perianth 

 depicted (implying that it was either five- or six-parted), and a 

 definite flower-stalk. In one case Prof. Lange met with an ex- 

 ample where the flower was separated from its stalk by some 

 transverse carved lines. 



Prof. Lange has, however, recently examined a diorite statue 

 of King Chefren, which gives the symbol in a more primitive 

 form. He finds that the supposed flower passes imperceptibly 

 into the stalk, and that the apparent perianth segments are 

 really distinct parts which are tied together by indications of 

 ligatures. Without then arriving at any definite conclusion, he 

 is content to point out the resemblance of the south symbol 

 in this form to the palm-capitals of the Ptolemaic period. In 

 these the leaves of the date are disposed round the body of the 

 capital, and the junction of this with the column is indicated by 

 transverse bands, the conventional representations of the liga- 

 tures which would hold the leaves together and in their places. 

 A- In date, according to Alphonse de Candolle (" L'Origine des 

 Plant : 1 from prehistoric times in 



the dry and hot zone from Senegal to the basin of the Indus, 

 between lat. 15° and 30', a more characteristic plant as the 

 symbol of Southern Egypt can hardly have been pitched upon. 

 W. T. Thiselton Dyer 



Earthworms 



I see, in your issue of October 9 (vol. xxx. p. 570), an inter- 

 esting communication entitled "A Gigantic Earthworm," in 

 which the writer refers to worms of large size being fairly com- 

 mon in parts of Cape Colony. I may mention that here in 

 Ceylon it is not an infrequent sight to see two or three of these 

 big worms in the same day, after showers, though I would 

 r.nce them to be exactly common. I have sf 1 imi 

 fully four feet in length, and about the thickness of one's little- 

 finger. They are of a pale slaty-bluish colour, and appear, on 

 close examination, to have faint prismatic colours over parts of 

 the body. These worms are seemingly not confined to particu- 

 lar soils or altitudes, as I have met with them at elevations of 

 from 2000 to 4000 feet above the sea. Owing to their seeming 

 inertness of body, the lob-worms — as I have frequently heard 

 them called — soon fall an easy prey to swarms of small red and 

 black ants, that attack the victim as it lies on the ground. 



Passing from large to small, I may mention a curious earth- 

 worm that I found to be very common in North Borneo. The 

 chief peculiarity about this worm is the size of its " cast," this 

 being about four inches high by one inch and a half across the 

 top, which is made cup-shaped or with a marked depression, 

 for the purpose, I believe, of catching water. The stem — if I 

 may apply the word — of the "cast " is about an inch in diame- 

 ter, strongly built of rows of earthy matter laid circumferentially, 

 widening towards the top into a lip that forms the side of the 

 cup. Sometimes a leaf may have fallen on the " cast " in the 

 course of erection, and this is at once built over, so that part of 

 the " cast " may be seen above and part below. The worm 

 itself is very small, and hard to secure. . I have found the only 

 method of catching them was to suddenly break off a fresh 

 "cast," when one could get a glance of the worm as it rapidly 

 withdrew into the ground. It is of a fleshy red colour, and 

 about the thickness of the stem of a crow-quill pen, but I do 



not know how long, as I never succeeded in extracting a whole- 

 worm from its burrow. The " casts " are very numerous, and 

 weigh, I should think, quite an ounce each, and are to be met 

 with both in the forest — as well as in gardens — and cultivated 

 land. I also found them close to the banks of rivers that were 

 sufficiently near the sea to be considerably impregnated with 

 salt, so that I conclude from this that saltwater is not d 

 live, at least (o this species. Frederick Li wi - 



Bogawantalawa, Ceylon, November 5 



Injuries caused by Lightning in Africa 



It is a remarkable fact that in all the publications relating to 

 Africa we so seldom come across accounts of injuries caused by 

 lightning. Some travellers — those of the German Loango 

 ion 1 -f 1873-76 for example — even distinctly report that, 

 notwithstanding the extreme frequency of lightning in Africa, 

 cases of damage inflicted by it are almost unheard of. During 

 my own stay on the Congo, though I was eagerly on the look- 

 out for instances of this kind, I did not succeed in authenticating 

 a single case of injury due to the electric fluid. There was 

 indeed a vague rumour among the natives of a man in some 

 village having been struck dead and a " tshimbek " burnt down 

 by lightning, but I could find no eye-witnesses of the fact ; and 

 all the time I was in Africa I never saw a tree or other object 

 which showed any signs of having been struck by lightning. 

 The only case of which I obtained any authentic report was that 

 the coal-magazine of the French factory at Banana was burnt 

 down in consequence of a lightning-stroke in March 1SS2. I 

 have been recently informed, however, that just a year after the 

 destruction of the French coal-magazine, the large gin-store of 

 the Dutch factory at Banana was similarly destroyed, a flash of 

 lightning having kindled a great fire there which lasted four 

 days. As a result of these two accidents following so close on 

 one another in the same locality, lightning-conductors are now 

 being set up at Banana, and the International Association of the 

 Congo has had conductors fixed on all the magazines at Vivi. 



I find in Dr. Pogge's journals, which I am now preparing for 

 publication, an instance, witnessed by that traveller himself, ol 

 a man being killed by lightning. As far as my own researches 

 go, I find scarcely any literature concerning the use of lightning- 

 rods or the frequency of accidents from lightning in the tropics ; 

 and if any of your readers would communicate to the columns 

 of Nature any information relating to this subject which they 

 may have gained by a residence in those regions, they would 

 render a great service to meteorologi 



Hamburg, November 29 Von Danckelman 



The Northernmost Extremity of Europe 

 Y< rt correspondent, Mr. Mattieu Williams, says, on p. 54 

 that Tonsberg ''is admitted by all as a high authority" em Nor 

 way. May I be permitted to ask who these "nil" are? I 

 knew this gentleman very well, and he never claimed the lea t 

 hical authority for a faulty and crude "Guide for 

 Tourists," which is all that his work is. I beg to refer your 

 correspondent to the preface, where the author himself says 

 that, lor reasons explained, it has many faults. To set Tonsberg 

 up as a geographical authority would indeed be an insult to Nor- 

 wegian geographers. Your correspondent further says that he 

 saw with his own c\ es, ten years ago. that Knivs'. jeerodden jutted 

 further north than the North Cape. Had I happened to meet 

 him before he started on his excursion, I, then but a school- 

 boy, could have informed him of this startling fact. What I 

 saiil » as, that we had assumed it, but it had only been 

 proved by measurements this summer. That was all. As 

 regards the height of the promontories on the coast of Arctic 

 Norway, I am sorry to have to repeat my contradiction that 

 there is no single one which is higher than the North Cape. 

 Your correspondent again quotes Tonsberg. If quoting this 

 "high authority " at all, the statement should be correct. Your 

 readers are informed that this guide-book says that Svasrholt- 

 klubben "is twenty-four Norwegian (why Norsk ? if Norwegian 

 it should be Norske) feet higher than the North Cape." Tons- 

 berg says, nothing of the kind. What he says is simply that it 

 is it/ ; wed) 1000 feet, and from this vague guess 



your correspondent evolves a fresh discovery and figures. Had 

 he taken the trouble to consult the poorest of our geographies, 

 he would have learned that the North Cape is indisputably the 

 highest headland in Finmarken. His concluding statement that 

 there are a dozen others is merely an imaginative one. 



