36 



NA TURE 



[November 9, 1905 



however, that the number of fry which visit the shores 

 bears no proportion to the vast quantities of spawn that 

 are shed ; and it is concluded that this loss is accounted 

 for by the fact that the whole development can only take 

 place in cases' where the young fish, when they cease to 

 be pelagic, are in such localities that they can be carried 

 by the current to the warm shallow water of the shores, 

 such fry as sink in the cold depths of the Baltic itself 

 inevitably perishing. 



In the report on the botanic station, Grenada, it is 

 mentioned that Mr. R. D. Anstead has been appointed 

 agricultural superintendent, and Mr. G. F. Branch agri- 

 cultural inspector. 



New species of flowering plants recorded by Mr. J. N. 

 Rose in vol. xxix. of the Proceedings of the United States 

 National Museum include Dahlia Chisholmi, Parnassia 

 mexicana — the first species of the genus from Mexico — 

 a Henchera and Polianthus, all from Mexico, and an 

 umbellifer, from the coast of Georgia, with fruits like a 

 Carum and leaves modified into hollow-jointed phyllodes, 

 which is made the type of a new genus, Harperia. 



A comprehensive account of the distribution and ecology 

 of the flora of west Prussia, by Mr. J. B. Scholz, appears 

 in vol. xi., part iii., of the Schriften der naturforschendet 

 Gescllschaft in Danzig. The original flora is described as 

 Baltic, and this has been enriched by the invasion of a 

 south-east European or pontic element, consisting of plants 

 requiring warmth and dryness, that have advanced from 

 the steppe regions. Characteristic pontic species are 

 [rtemisia scoparia and Scutellaria hastifolia in the river 

 valleys, and in the region of the Vistula are found Stipa 

 pennata, Stipa capillata, idonis vernalis, Campanula 

 sibirica, and others. The writer has paid special atten- 

 tion to the plant associations of the moors, heaths, and 

 forests, as they help to elucidate former migrations of 

 plants. 



Die analysis of the species of Hevea is complicated 

 partly owing to the close relationship existing between 

 them and partly on account of the difficulty of obtaining 

 flowers and fruit. Dr. J. Huber, of the museum at Para, 

 who has made a study of Brazilian rubber plants, has 

 published a synopsis in vol. iv. of the Boletim do Museu 

 Goeldi, Para. The section Euhevea has not been 

 augmented, but in the section Bisiphonia the variety 

 cuneata has been raised to specific rank, and two new 

 species have been formulated. Of the twenty-one species 

 enumerated, none seems likely to rival the well known 

 Hevea brasiliensis ; Hevea Benthamiana and. Hevea 

 discolor are considered to be the best rubber-bearing trees 

 growing on the Rio Negro. 



I hi Century Magazine for November contains an account 

 of the very important Egyptian finds of Mr. Theodore M. 

 Davis, of Newport, early in the current year. Among the 

 tombs of the kings at Thebes were found those of Ioua 

 and Tioua, father and mother of Queen Tii, wife of 

 Amenhotep III. and mother of the heretic King Akhenaten. 

 In addition lo the ordinary appurtenances of tombs, such 

 as vases, the find includes stools, chairs, beds, and other 

 furniture magnificently overlaid with gold. One of the 

 objects found was a chariot, the pole of which was broken, 

 as were many other things; Maspero explains this as a 

 method of killing the object and making it available for 

 the u se Ol ih- dead, and his view would hardly be ques- 

 tioned in' anthropologists, or, we may suppose, by I 

 "N'-ists. The writer of the article, however, Mr. Greene. 

 NO. l88o, VOL. ■/$] 



appears to doubt this explanation, holding that the custom 

 may have been practised in Peru, but that the Egyptians 

 were on too high a level of culture for it to be thinkable 

 that such savage ideas survived among them. This view 

 will hardly commend itself to experts; in fact, savage 

 survivals are conspicuous in Egypt. The article is excel- 

 lently illustrated with one plate in colours and many 

 photographs, both of the tomb and the objects found 

 there, and of tin- difficult task of conveying them to a 

 place of safety in Cairo through a land in which honesty 

 is not one of the prevailing features. 



Mr. A. A. Read gives in Engineering the results of a 

 comparison of the principal methods for the determination 

 of manganese in iron and steel. The volumetric results 

 are slightly lower than those obtained by the gravimetric 

 method, but they agree sufficiently closely for practical 

 purposes. With ferromanganese the bismuthate method 

 gives rather too low a result as compared with the 

 ammonium acetate method, probably owing to a small 

 quantitj of the permanganate having been decomposed 

 and filtered off with the excess of the sodium bismuthate. 



The Home Office has just published the annual return 

 of the quantity and value of various minerals raised in 

 the United Kingdom in 1004. The total value of the 

 mineral output was 97,477,639!. as compared with 

 101,808,404!. in 1903. The decrease is due to a fall in 

 1 In- average price of coal. The production of coal, 

 232,428,272 tons, was the highest hitherto recorded. The 

 ' output of gold from Merionethshire rose from 5405 ounces 

 in 1003 to 1 < i , 1 1 5 5 ounces in 1004, the value of the gold 

 being 73,925!. 



We have received from the- author, Dr. H. Potoni6, 

 professor al the Berlin School of Mines, a copy of the third 

 edition of bis interesting work on the origin of coal 

 (Berlin: Borntraeger Brothers, 1005. price 4s. I. It is an 

 admirably illustrated pamphlet of 53 pages prepared to 

 elucidate the diorama of a Coal-measure landscape ex- 

 hibited by the Erkelenz Boring Company at the Liege 

 International Exhibition. Ii is written in French and 

 German in parallel columns, the French translation having 

 been made bj Prof, Gaspar Schmitz, of Louvain. Prof. 

 Potonte's views as to the origin of coal are well known 

 from his previous publications. He now brings forward 

 further evidence to show that, just as at the present time 

 ih.' deposits <>f humus were almost exclusively formed 

 in situ, in previous geological times it was also the rule 

 that such beds were formed at the place where the plants 

 grew hum which they were derived. 



Dr. van Rijckevorsel has sent us a copy of an elaborate 

 and valuable discussion entitled " Constantly Occurring 

 Secondary Maxima and Minima in the Yearly Range of 

 Meteorological Phenomena." Dr. van Rijckevorsel, who 

 is an honorary assistant attached to the Meteorological 

 Institute of the Netherlands, and has for many years been 

 known as a conscientious and painstaking investigator 

 in the domain of meteorology and terrestrial magnetism, 

 has divided the present work into two parts. The first 

 portion exhibits ordinary mean daily values and smoothed 

 means for many stations, mostly in the northern hemi- 

 sphere, for .1 hue;'' number of years, and for various 

 elements, with curves of the normal annual range of 

 temperature. The principal results of the investigation 

 show (1! that the resultant curve of daily normal tempera- 

 ture in the northern hemisphere is a continuous zigzag 

 of maxima and minima ; the rise from the winter minimum 

 to the summer maximum is not uniform, but occurs in 



