January iS, 1906] 



NATURE 



277 



these being the earliest date for reference of priority, the 

 extent to which priority of genus name should be observed, 

 and how priority of specific name is to be decided. The 

 year 1753, in which Linnaeus first established his system 

 of binomial nomenclature, was accepted as the critical 

 date; the difficulty with regard to genera was settled bj 

 the confirmation of a list of names that are too well 

 established to be superseded, while the decision in the 

 matter of specific names was a compromise between the 

 German practice of adopting the earliest name and the 

 Kew rule that favours the first correct binomial. 



The growing of Egyptian and other varieties of cotton 

 is, says a writer in the Pioneer Mail, being carried on 

 steadily in Upper Sind. It is indicative of the difficulty of 

 forecasting the future of a transplanted variety that 

 " >annovitch," the finest of the Egyptian varieties, but 

 regarded as the most delicate of those experimented with, 

 has suffered the smallest amount of deterioration in staple 

 from the quality of the Egyptian grown product, and that 

 Mitafhfi, which is considered the most robust, has shown 

 the greatest amount of deterioration. The general results 

 must, however, be considered as satisfactory in yield as 

 compared even with the Egyptian crop, and by the figures 

 the best Egyptian variety should prove 250 per cent, more 

 profitable to the cultivator than the indigenous Sindhi 

 variety. 



According to a writer in the Journal of the Society of 

 Arts, the rubber industry continues to expand rapidly. The 

 imports of rubber last year were exceptionally large, and 

 throughout 1905 the price was better than in the preceding 

 year. It may be expected that before very long the supply 

 will be ample for all demands. Not only are there immense 

 tracts of rubber which remain untouched in Liberia and 

 elsewhere, but the cultivation of the rubber tree is being 

 rapidly extended. Java, for example, is planting ex- 

 tensively, and within the next six or eight years the exports 

 from that island are likely to be very large. In Ceylon, 

 too, and the Malay Peninsula, considerable tracts' of country 

 are being planted with rubber. The way in which the 

 tree adapts itself to the various climatic conditions obtain- 

 ing in different countries is almost unique in tropical 

 cultivation. 



Of the life of a born naturalist no better example could 

 be given than the account of the late Prof. Federico 

 Delpino contributed by his pupil Borzl to the Atti dei 

 Lincei, xiv. (2), 9. Born at Chiavari (Liguria) on 

 December 27, 1833, Delpino's delicate state of health re- 

 sulted in his spending much of his early life in a garden, 

 where he soon became absorbed in observing ants, wasps, 

 and flowers. In 1S50 he commenced, by his own choice, a 

 course of mathematics at the University of Genoa, but his 

 love of botany prevailed, and he determined to make that 

 subject his life work. After a sea voyage to the east, which 

 gave him an opportunity of making a collection of the flora 

 of the Dardanelles, he was employed in office work under the 

 Minister of Finance at Turin, and later (18651 at Florence, 

 where he soon resigned his post to take a subordinate 

 assistant's position in the botanical museum. Four years 

 later he was appointed professor at the school of forestry 

 at Vallombrosa, and in 1875 ne became associate professor 

 of botany at Genoa. Later he held appointments at 

 Bologna and Naples. He died on May 14 of last year. 

 Delpino, who was entirely self-taught, became one of the 

 pioneers in the study of vegetable biology. He was an 

 ardent opponent of Darwinism, although a study of 

 Darwin's work on orchids led to his first paper on fertilisa- 

 tion of the Asclepiadacese, published in 1S65. Other 

 NO. 1890, VOL. 73] 



important contributions dealt with the relations between 

 plants and insects, particularly ants, and several of his 

 results were confirmed by the observations of Belt in 

 Nicaragua. In botanical geography he published writings 

 on the distribution of the Ranunculaceas, and on the rela- 

 tions between Arctic and Antarctic flora. Several of hii 

 writings have been mentioned in the " Notes " columns ol 

 Nature up to quite recently. Another account of his life 

 is given in the Rendiconto of the Naples Academy for May 

 and June, 1905, and differs in one or two points of 

 biographical detail from the preceding one. 



We have received a copy of the twelfth annual repeat 

 of meteorology in Mysore, for the year 1904, compiled by 

 Mr. J. Cook, director of the service. It includes the results 

 obtained at the observatories of Bangalore, Mysore, 

 Hassan, and Chitaldrug, with diagrams showing the range 

 of the principal elements ; also mean values for the twelve 

 years 1893-1904. The data for this important Indian area 

 are very carefully worked up, and the volume contains a 

 large amount of valuable statistics. 



The tides of the North Sea have within recent years 

 been the subject of investigation by Mr. J. P. van der Stok, 

 and the results have been published in three papers by 

 the Netherlands Meteorological Institute, " Etudes des 

 Phenomenes de Mar^e sur les Cotes Neerlandaises " 

 (Utrecht : Kemink & Zoon, 1905). The first of these 

 papers consists of an analysis of the variation in the level 

 of the sea. The second deals with the results of observ- 

 ations, made on board the Netherlands lightships, of 

 the tidal currents ; and the third contains a table of 

 tins, currents, the corresponding velocity and direc- 

 tion of the wind at five different stations, and the date 

 of the new and full moon for every month up to 1952. 

 Mr. Stok more particularly directed his investigation 

 to the horizontal movement of the water and the rotatory 

 currents in the North Sea. There are two subjects in 

 connection with the tides of the North Sea that more 

 particularly require consideration — the effect of the tidal 

 wave of great length moving along the coast inclined to 

 the direction of its propagation ; and why the wave that 

 comes from the north-east of Shetland is propagated prin- 

 cipally along the coast of Scotland. This, he suggests, is 

 due to the rotation of the earth. Mr. Stok considers that 

 the tides of the North Sea are well worth the attention 

 of physico-mathematicians interested in hydrodynamics, as 

 they afford a model for the study of the mechanics of the 

 tides. 



In a paper on fluorescence (Journal ,/, Physique, 

 December, 1905), M. G. Camichel deduces from experiments 

 and theoretical reasoning connected with them that the 

 coefficient of fluorescence of a fluorescent substance remains 

 constant during the period of fluorescence, at any rate' 

 under the conditions of the experiments. 



In the Journal de Physique for December, 1905, MM. 

 Bouasse and Berthier discuss the elongation of wire, by 

 flexion, in particular in connection with the property that 

 a wire which is incapable of being elongated more than 

 o-i per cent by simple traction can be lengthened by as 

 much as 10 per cent, or 20 per cent, by bending. Observ- 

 ations of the changes of microscopic structure, as well is 

 of the torsional rigidity of the wire at various stages of 

 the processes, seem to indicate that this discrepancy is 

 attributable to want of homogeneity in the wire, the 1 

 of which disappear when the deformation is made to take 

 place point by point along the wire. 



In the Bulletin des Stances of the French Physical 

 Society, M. E. Haudie gives a brief illustrated account of 



