3 i6 



NA TURE 



\_Fcb. 5 : 



In fact I can hardly give a stronger confirmation of tlie rarity, 

 and both the general character and universality of the pheno- 

 menon on that occasion, for all parts of Great Britain than by 

 concluding with the following extract from a letter by Prof. A. S. 

 Herschel of Newcastle-on-Tyne, dated December 25 : — 



"I saw," he writes "(and photographed from a window, but 

 lost by over-exposing the plate, unfortunately), the hidescent 

 clouds of Thursday's sunset you describe in Nature, and 

 nothing more beautiful lhan the diamond-beetle elytra, or 

 Papilio-pario wing-scales, which glittered in the western sky 

 could, as you wrote, be possibly imagined! They were seen 

 also in the south of England (Kent) between 2 and 3 o'clock on 

 the same afternoon. 



"Mr. N. here says, in resumption of what they were 

 probably, that he often sees such coloured fringes and colour- 

 bows, in circles too, on clouds near and round the sun, by 

 looking at the sun's reflection and that of the clouds just round 

 him, in the plate-glass window of his drawing-room. 



" So no doubt it was a good instance only of a common sight, 

 but an instance yet, I should say, not to be seen much oftener 

 than once or twice in a century ! " 



To that opinion I do not presume to add one word. 



C. Piazzi Smyth 



15, Royal Terrace, Edinburgh, January 28 



Manx Cats 



With reference to Mr. Francis Galton's remarks in Nature 

 on Manx cats, I should like to ask whether any of your readers 

 can assist me. Some little time ago I imported a few Manx 

 cats with a view of trying experiments with them in crossing. 

 But, as Mr. Galton says, it is difficult to get cats to breed in 

 confinement, and of course it is of no use for the purpose of my 

 experiment to allow the animals to roam at large among ordinary 

 ■cats. Acting upon Mr. Galton's suggestion, therefore, I write 

 to ask whether any of your readers happen to know of any island 

 within a reasonable distance from town where a breed of Manx 

 cats could be established. It is not necessary that the island 

 should be a marine one. Any piece of ground insulated by 

 fresh water would do equally well, provided it were of moderate 

 size and not already tenanted by cats. If any of your readers 

 should know of such a place I should be greatly obliged to them 

 for a reference to its locality. 



I may take this opportunity of further inquiring whether any 

 of your readers would care to lend me, or tell me where to pro- 

 cure, a really good talking parrot for the purposes of systematic 

 observation. George J. Romanes 



Cross-treedir g Potatoes 



IT is well that your correspondent, Mr. James Melvin, has 

 called attention to the dubious and erroneous ideas which now 

 largely prevail on this subject. There is no reason to suppose 

 that hybrids arising from Solatium MagLa will 1 e disease-proof, 

 for .5. Maglia, like S. tuberosum, is one of the known hosts of 

 the potato fungus, Peronospora infestans. 



The errors a pear to have arisen from the unfortunate conclu- 

 sions, — "Economic Suggestions,'' given by Mr. J. G. Baker in 

 his otherwise admirable paper laid before the Linnean Society, 

 April 1S84, p. 505. 



Mr. Baker thinks that, because 5\ Maglia comes from humid 

 positions in America, it will succeed in Britain better than S. 

 tuberosum, a plant of the dry hills. The correctness of this idea 

 I should very much question, the great strongholds of fungi 

 being humid places. The fact of the habitat is an important 

 one, but the deduction made from it is questionable. 



Mr. Baker says the potato plant in its present tuber-bearing 

 state is in a " disorganised and unhealthy condition. " This view 

 also is very much open to question : there is no evidence of 

 disorganisation and unhealthiness in cultivated potatoes. Culti- 

 vated potato plants are no more disorganised and unhealthy than 

 are any of our other cultivated kitchen garden plants, fruits, 

 flowers, or domestic animals, including man himself. The notion 

 that disorganised and unhealthy plants are " fitting subjects for 

 the attacks of fungi anil aphides" is a mistake, for fungi (i.e. 

 parasitic fungi, — the fungi Mr. Baker has in view) do not grow 

 upon "disorganised and unhealthy plants;" they require 

 healthy plants on which to grow. Of course vegetable parasites 

 require for their sustenance the vigorous elaborated juices "f 

 healthy plants, not the vitiated, juices of "disorganised and 

 unhealthy" ones. 



Leaving theory for fact, I may point out that in the published 

 results of experiments made by Dr. Hogg last autumn, both 

 S. Maglia and 5. Jamesii were badly diseased with parasitic 

 fungi, and in Mr. Thomas Laxton's published experiments nearly 

 the whole of the plants of S. Maglia and .V. Commersoni (the 

 two species specially recommended by Mr. Baker), as well as 

 S. Jamesii, "disappeared from disease." 



A year or two ago Mr. John King, British Vice-Consul, 

 Carrizal, Bajo, Chili, sent to this country twenty stones of 

 potatoes from positions in Chili where, during an experience of 

 more than twenty years, the disease of potatoes had never been 

 seen. It was perfectly unknown to the growers there. 



These twenty stones of potatoes were planted in different 

 parts of Great Britain and were a failure. They fell before 

 Peronospora infestans quite as readily as did our own common 

 potatoes. 



No doubt good will arise from the experiments now being 

 carried out, but not in the way generally assumed. The only 

 theme for regret is the publication at the outset of (as I think) 

 curiously mistaken deductions. These deductions, coming from 

 such an excellent botanist as Mr. Baker, have led potato growers 

 very much astray. Worthington G. Smith 



Earthquake 

 The annexed copy extracts from letter dated Kingston, 

 Jamaica, Januaiy 8, from Capt. Spray, of our s.s. Maroon, will 

 no doubt interest you. Are we right in thinking that the shock 

 he felt was probably connected with the Spanish earthquakes? 

 J. G. S. Anderson 

 5, Fenchurch Avenue, London, E.G., January 27 



Extract of Letter from Capt. Spray 



Kingston, 'January 8 

 On the morning of December 22, 1S84, in lat. 36° 48', long. 

 19° 25' W., we felt a shock as if the ship was grinding over a 

 reef, although there was no difference in speed of engines ; 

 stopped and made every examination, but found no cause. My 

 opinion it was a shock of earthquake, as some years before, 

 nearly in the same place, I felt one more severe than the last. 



An Instance of " Protective Resemblance" 

 In Mr. Johnston's interesting account of the ascent of Mount 

 Kilimanjaro, in Equatorial Africa, which appears from time to 

 time in the Daily Telegraph, occurs a passage which seems 

 deserving of being rescued from the comparative oblivion of the 

 pages of a daily newspaper. It will be found in the number of 

 the 16th inst., and is as follows : — " Other noticeable features in 

 the scene were the tall red ant hills and, sti ange imitation, the 

 tall red antelopes, a species of hartebeest, resembling faintly in 

 shape the form of a giraffe with sloping hind-quarters, h'gh 

 shouldeis, and long neck. Being a deep red-brown in colour, 

 and standing one by one stock-still at the approach of the cara- 

 van, they deceived even the sharp eyes of my men, and again 

 and again a hartebeest would start up at twenty yards distance 

 and gallop off, while I was patiently stalking an ant-hill, and 

 crawling on my stomach through thorns and aloes, only to find 

 the supposed antelope an irregular mass of red clay." 



New University Club, January 20 J. C, G. 



Hibernation 

 Will you allow me to invite attention of anthropologists and 

 zoologists to the very remarkable (and to me surprising) state- 

 ment contained in the article "Hibernation" (\V. F. Kirby), last 

 edition of the "Encyclopaedia Biitannica." Reference is there 

 made to a work by Mr. Baird, entitled " Human Hybernation " 

 (1850), giving examples on "unimpeachable authority " of the 

 powers of religious ascetics in India of throwing themselves into 

 a state closely resembling hibernation for an indefinite period ; 

 and quoting a case of a FaUr who was actually buried alive at 

 Lahore in 1837 in presence of Runjeet Sing and Sir Charles 

 Wade, and was dug up ai.d restored to consciousness several 

 months afterwards '. Now, it is ascertained that hares can exist 

 for weeks together buried in the snow, and if this power of 

 hibernation can be developed at will, might il not also I e -o on 

 necessity, arid explain thefoimer existence of the Siberian mam- 

 moth', through the winter months: these animals might, as 

 winter approached, have withdrawn to sheltered hollows, where 



