De . 25, [884 



NA TURE 



18- 



conical heaps of stones, while others are laid quite flat and are 

 surrounded by a circle of larger stones; a third kind exhibit a 

 primitive art of stone-cutting, tha stones bearing a distant 

 tea, to the human body. Frequently around the graves 

 1 if horses which had been brought as sacrificial offer- 

 ing, were found, as were also certain Runic inscriptions. 



M. ADRIANOW, in his journey through the Altais, notices the 

 of immigrant communities which have 

 rotten and which have been re-discovered by chance. It 

 hi ted from St. Petersburg that a similar discovery lias 

 been made elsewhere in Siberia. In the course of a prolonged 

 inspection of his province, the Governor of Irkutsk (Governor- 

 General of Eastern Siberia?) came across a town call 

 with 5 o inhabitants, 150 houses, and four ancient churche . with 

 remarkable relics of Cossack times. It is stid under the republican 

 rule of a velche, or public assembly, convoked by a bell, as in 

 old Novgorod the Great, although the new municipal institutions 

 were supposed to have been applied to that part of the Empire 

 ago. Not one of the inhabitants can read or write. 



An important geographical work on Austro-Hungary is now 

 being produced in parts by Mr. Alfred Holder, the publisher, of 

 Vienna. The author, Prof. Umlauft, gives in alphabetical order 

 the names of the various States and peoples of the Austro-Hun- 

 mpire, as well as those of the more important districts, 

 . rivers, and towns, with their meanings. He does 

 not, however, confine himself imply to present nam. 



forms employed formerly and the various changes 



name has undergone from the earliesl times down to 



;i ! day. The work is thus historical and philol igical. 



The total number of names treated will be between six and seven 



The first part, which ha appeared, contains 1041 



from Aa to Donau. Geographical names, it 1 



their history, they are the -rselves pieces ol history. 



inction between the German and Slav names of places 



is characteristic. The gre.it majority of the German village 



are connected with those of persons, probably the 



1 original owners, more rarely with that of the patron 



saint. Thus Simmering comes from Simoning, Hiitteld irf from 



. Hadersdorf from Hadrichsdorf, Kalksburg from 



Chadalhohisperg [i.e. mountain of one Chadalhoh), D ' 



linitTsdorf. The change wrought in course of time in 

 so ie names has been very great, and renders their explanation 

 difficult. The Slav names, on the other hand, arc mostly taken 

 from the position of the place or sotne peculiarity in the neigh- 

 bourhood. The) i 1 lil. v of form, and it is 

 only in their Germanising that they have materially altered. 

 Thus the Czech Brloh becomes in German Bierloch, Ratibor 

 I Radoina Rothweim. The Czech Lhota, which 

 ply a settlement which is free from taxation, assumes 

 in German such various forms as Oehlhiitten, Elhotten, Ellgoth, 

 Wellhotten, Well Mehlhuttel, Malten, and 

 oil 1 Ever eal German names have- undergone the same 

 change, and names which in their original form are 

 qui cli 11 in their meaning have by a slight change become in- 

 ■ . I . Donners nark is really 1 ronnei - igmarl I . 

 [t may be n inhered that snme articles 

 in the Tin, wed by a long con 

 erjee, I much intere ting and valuable work of this kind for 

 1 though of course in a 

 ic form. 



Mr. Im THORN'S Roraima expedition left Kalacoon on 

 October 16 with three boats and crew s of seventeen Pomeroon 

 a' d two Mazarooni Indians, and on the following day they 

 ascended the first falls of the Essequibo. Simultaneously with 

 their departure from Kalacoon. an expedition for Rorai aa, under 

 the. charge of a commercial botanist named Siedel, left Bartica 

 ima ltd Mazaroon'. The two parties will probably 

 a the mountain. 



M. Aym 'on official, has recently relumed fro a 



n Indo-China. He left Saigon at the 

 end ol Septi m ■ xplore Southern Laos, and made 



a collection of the ancient Camb dian inscriptions. Having 

 explored the intervening country, he reached Bangkok at the 

 end of June last, and here he remained for some time to com- 

 on the Siamese kingdom. '1 he result of his 

 travel- will shortly be published in the "Excursions et Recon- 

 D he will aft rwards proceed on another journey 



of exploration in Annam. 



BOOTS' 

 T N treating of the roots of plants this evening, I may request you 

 to dismiss from your minds any expectations or apprehensions 

 of marvellous descriptions of tropical or rare roots on the one 

 hand, or of a list of the peculiarities of various kinds of roots or 

 so-called roots on the other, though it is not improbable that some 

 of the fact-: will be, in part at least, new to some of you, as they 

 certainly are to many people. I do not propose even to put any 

 new discoveries before you. It has seemed much more to the 

 purpose to show, as well as time will permit, that a vast amount 

 of interesting and important information can be derived from a 

 proper and systematic study of the roots of a common 'plant — 

 information, moreover, which is important alike to the scientific 

 botanit and to the practical agriculturist, two people who find 

 they have more and more in common each day they come to 

 know one another better. As the diagrams must in part have 

 told you already, I propose that we meet on ground familiar, to 

 a certain extent, to every one ; and the sequel will show, I hope, 

 thai we have in no way acted unwisely in taking each other into 

 Confidence on the subject of an ordinary root, such as is well 

 known to all of us. So much is this the case, that our study 

 may be confined for the most part to the root of the common 

 broad bean and a few other plants of our gardens. 



[The lecturer then shortly described the germination of the 

 common bean, maize, and a few other plants, and illusti 

 diagrams the mode in which the first or primary root of the 

 bean seedling emerges below, as the young seedling shoot (or 

 " plumule ") prepares to force its way upwards to the light and 

 air. Next followed a short consideration of what this loot may 

 be said to be.] Anticipating matters to a certain extent, it may 

 be shortly described as an organ for fixing the rest of the plant 

 to the substratum, or soil, from which it absorbs certain food- 

 malerials. By confining our attention to this typical and well- 

 known form of root, we may avoid any complexities resulting 

 from th'-' consideration of the more extraordinary cases occurring 

 among the lower plants, or among curious aerial epiphytes, 

 parasitic or otherwise, and other abnormal forms — forms which 

 would demand several lectures ! ; 



The roots we have to consider, then, are organs for anchoring 

 the rest of the plant firmly into the soil, and for absorbing cer- 

 tain matter dissolved in water from that soil. Obviously, we 

 may d 1 well to see, fi st, how the root gets into the soil ; and 

 secondly, how it accomplishes its objects when there. 



When the young root first peeps forth from between the coats 

 of the seed, it is seen to have its tip directed downwards towards 

 the centre of the earth. Now this is not an accident ; for if 

 the seed be turned over, so that the apex of the root is made to 



turn upward-., its tip s 1 bend over, and again becomes 



directed downwards. [Mr. Ward then proi eeded to explain, as 

 shortly as could be done without detailed experimental evidence, 

 that this persistent turning earthwards of the young root is due 

 to a peculiar property, almo t of the nature of a : sensitiveness 

 or perception to the influence of gravitation, and is not due 

 to the weight of the organ.] 



Next, evidence has been obtained to show that the tip of the 

 rout has a slightly rocking or swinging movement, which is more 

 or less of the nature of the movements so well known in the 

 case of the «tem> ol" twining plants ; the tip of tire rjOt, in fact, 

 not only moves earthwards, but tends to describe a very steep 

 spiral as it does so. These successive very -light noddings to 

 of the tip as it proceeds in a line directed towards the 

 centre of the earth are extremely -light, it must be borne in 

 mind, but they may aid tl root to wriggle its way 



between the particles of earth in a loose soil, or to run down any 

 crevice or hole it meets with. 



Thirdly, in addition to its determined tendency to descend, 

 though in a very slightly spiral course, the tip of such a root as 

 we are describing has been found to be peculiarly sensitive to the 

 contact of solid bodies. This extremely curious phenomenon 

 could only be fully described by references to experiments and 

 matters which we have scant time for. It must suffice, there- 

 fore, to state that there is evidence to show that the ext erne lip 

 of the root, on coming in contact with a hard resistant body, is 

 caused to turn aside from that body, and if it comes simulta- 

 neously into contact with two bodies, one of which is harder 

 than the other, it is caused to bend away from the harder of the 



1 Abstract of a lecture delivered before the Manche ter l!irt uitura 

 Society, in the oil I ow , Hall. Manchester, on November 6, by H. .Marshall 

 Ward, M A , Fell ■ ,<t ^hri t's College, Cambridge, and Assistant Lecturer 

 in Botany at th- Owens College 



