5 68 



NA TURE 



[April 12, 1906 



nut oil and the causes of its rancidity ; the latter seems to 

 De due to the growth of moulds in imperfectly dried copra. 

 Mr. C. S. Banks describes and illustrates the principal 

 insects attacking the coco-nut palm, and Mr. A. M. 

 Clover writes on Philippine wood oils. Mr. W. D. Smith 

 describes certain Orbitoides from the Binangonan lime- 

 stone, and Dr. R. Strong experiments on vaccination 

 against plague. Mr. M. Herzog details an investigation 

 on beri-beri, from cases of which he has succeeded in 

 isolating the kakke coccus of Okata kokubo. 



In the Bulletin du Jardin imperial botanique of St. 

 Petersburg (vol. vi., part i.) Mr. A. Elenkin puts forward 

 the view that in lichens the algal and fungal constituents 

 do not exist for mutual benefit, but, being differently acted 

 on by external factors, one flourishes at the expense of the 

 other. Mr. B. Issatchenko, writing on the conditions under 

 which chlorophyll is formed, dissents from the results 

 obtained by Mr. W. Palladin that a concentration of 35 per 

 cent, to 50 per cent, of sugar prevents its formation. Mr. 

 P. Isuzew announces that he has found trees of the bird- 

 cherry with rose-coloured flowers in the province of Perm, 

 and also that early and late flowering varieties were 

 observed growing side by side. 



In the West Indian Bulletin, vol. vi., No. 4, a number 

 of papers on sugar and sugar cultivation are collected from 

 which a fair idea of the state of the industry in the West 

 Indies can be obtained. While it cannot be said that the 

 industry has been as yet re-established on a sound basis, 

 the opinions expressed by such capable judges as Sir Daniel 

 Morris, Dr. F. Watts, and Dr. H. H. Cousins all point to 

 a successful future if only planters will take advantage of 

 the improved varieties, and if separately or in combination 

 they will arrange for the establishment of factories equipped 

 with modern machinery. New seedlings giving a higher 

 proportion of saccharose are being evolved ; the well known 

 seedling B. 208, now under cultivation in Barbados, Jamaica, 

 Queensland, and elsewhere, has been surpassed by another 

 Barbados seedling, B. 1529, and some of the Jamaican 

 seedlings of 1904 promise to give excellent results. The 

 fluctuations of the sugar industry in Antigua and St. Kitts 

 during the last twenty-five years can be readily followed 

 from the diagrams given by Dr. F. Watts. 



Ax important contribution to the subject of foliar 

 periodicity in tropical countries is provided by Mr. H. 

 Wright in the Annals of the Royal Botanic Gardens, 

 Peradeniya, vol. ii., part iii., 1905, recording a large 

 number of interesting observations. Contrasting the in- 

 fluence of internal and external factors, two arguments in 

 favour of the former are found in the small number of 

 species that pass through a leafless period each year, and 

 the striking fact that there is not a month in the year 

 when all the deciduous species are in full leaf. On the 

 other hand, since more than half the deciduous species 

 pass through their leafless phase during the dry period from 

 January to March, it is obvious that climate has con- 

 siderable influence on periodicity. Of the physical factors 

 that produce climate, Mr. Wright attributes the greatest 

 importance to humidity. In this connection, the curves of 

 monthly variations of temperature, rainfall, and humidity- 

 placed alongside the curve indicating the number of 

 deciduous specii s in each month are especially instructive. 



A very elaborate discussion of the climate of Beyrout, 

 Syria, has been undertaken by Dr. S. Kostlivy, and pub- 

 lished by the Royal Bohemian Society of Sciences. Since 

 the year 1S76 the observations have been regularly printed 

 in the year-books of the Austrian Meteorological Service; 

 the discussion in question refers to the twenty-five years 



NO. 1502, VOL. 73] 



1876-1900. We can only briefly mention some of the 

 principal results of Dr. Kostlivy 's valuable work. The 

 yearly variation of the monthly means of atmospheric 

 pressure is considerable ; the highest monthly mean was 

 in January, 1898, 30-18 inches; the lowest in July, 1893, 

 2970 inches, the mean variation being about half an inch. 

 The highest monthly mean temperature occurs in August, 

 8i°-5, the lowest in January, 55°4. The absolute extremes 

 were ioi°-3, in October, 1898, and 3o°-o, in December, 

 1897. The mean annual rainfall is 3565 inches ; of this 

 amount 598 per cent, falls in winter, 18-5 per cent, in 

 spring, 07 per cent, in summer, and 210 per cent, in 

 autumn. During the whole series of twenty-five years, no- 

 rain fell in August in twenty-two cases, and none in July in 

 twenty cases. The greatest fall in twenty-four hours was 

 5J inches, in October. Snow is unknown at Beyrout, but 

 hail occurs, on an average, on six or seven days in each 

 year. Fog occurs very rarely ; it was only observed on 

 nineteen days during the whole period. The most pre- 

 valent wind is from the south-west, being about 31 per 

 cent, of the whole of the wind notations ; stormy days 

 occur, on an average, only about seven times a year. 



The Meteorological Office has issued its " Annual' 

 Summary " for 1905, based upon observations made at 

 153 stations in the United Kingdom ; it contains an interest- 

 ing account of the conspicuous meteorological occurrences- 

 during the year. There was a remarkable absence, after 

 the first three months, of gales which affected any large- 

 extent of country; during the three months ending with July 

 no general gale was experienced on our coasts. The most 

 violent storm of the year occurred on March 15; it came 

 on with remarkable suddenness, and at Falmouth one of 

 the gusts reached a velocity of 103 miles. Strong gales 

 were also experienced in the last three months of the 

 year. Rainfall was deficient over the kingdom generally, 

 the loss being from 10 inches to 13 inches at some places; 

 but at several stations in Scotland and Ireland the rainfall 

 was above the average, and at Dungeness an excess of 

 8 inches was recorded. There was no snowstorm worthy of 

 special mention, although snow was of frequent occurrence 

 in the first months of the year. Thunderstorms were re- 

 corded in every month in some part of the country, but 

 the distribution was very irregular. The most remarkable 

 droughts occurred in the winter season; a period of dry 

 weather which set in about the middle of December, 1904, 

 was maintained with but unimportant interruptions until 

 the middle of February, 1905. May was also a very dry 

 month over an extensive region. The maximum tempera- 

 ture recorded was 87°, at Maidenhead, on July 26 ; there 

 were many readings of 8o° and upwards. The lowest 

 temperatures in England occurred about January 19 : al 

 Llangammarch Wells a reading of 1 1° was registered. In 

 Scotland and Ireland the greatest cold was about 

 November 19; Braemar registered 5 . Fog was prevalent 

 in the mornings from about the middle of October ; 

 November had also several foggy days, but the worst 

 visitation of the year occurred from December 10-14. An 



1 1 dingly high tide swept down the east coast of England 



on the night of January 6-7, flooding extensive tracts and 

 causing great destruction of property ; it was accompanied 

 with a hard north-westerly gale. 



An informal address by Dr. A. G. Bell to the Com- 

 mittee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures of the U.S. 

 House of Representatives on February 10, giving an ex- 

 planation of the reasons why the United States should 

 abandon its heterogeneous systems of weights and 

 measures, is printed in the National Geographic Magazine 



