April 19, 1906] 



NATURE 



59' 



tributes notes on Pennsylvanian and other reptiles and 

 amphibians, while Prof. M. A. Wilcox commences an 

 account of the anatomy of the limpet. Acmaea testudinalis , 

 a subject to which he has for several years devoted atten- 

 tion. The author states that he has endeavoured to make 

 the communication " serve as an introduction to the study 

 of the fascinating but neglected group of Gastropoda." 

 In the sixth article Dr. A. Hollick and Prof. E. C. 

 Jeffrey discuss the affinities of certain Cretaceous plant 

 remains commonly assigned to the genera Dammara and 

 Brachyphyllum. The so-called Dammara is assigned to a 

 new genus of araucarian under the name of Proto- 

 dammara, while the shoots and branches referred to 

 Brachyphyllum are likewise of an araucarian nature. 



The February number of Le Bambou contains an article 

 on the identification of species of Phyllostachys, also 

 cultural hints on some of the Arundinarieae, and notes on 

 the resistance of bamboos to frost in the south of France. 



The list of new garden plants for the year 1905, issued 

 as appendix iii., 1906, to the Kew Bulletin, contains, as 

 usual, a large number of orchids, especially species of 

 Cattleya, Cypripedium, Dendrobium, and Odontoglossum. 

 The African continent continues to furnish a considerable 

 proportion of plants, including species of Aloe, Lissochilus, 

 and Polystachya. Messrs. J. Veitch and Sons have intro- 

 duced a number of Chinese plants, of which the Primulas 

 have attracted attention, particularly Primula Cock- 

 burniana that bears large orange-scarlet flowers. 



A second paper on the Panama Canal, by the Hon. 

 Theodore P. Shonts, chairman of the Isthmian Canal 

 Commission, is published in the February number of the 

 National Geographic Magazine. The experiments with 

 foreign labour, arrangements for transportation facilities, 

 and similar matters are fully described. 



The report on the state of the ice in the Arctic seas 

 during 1905 has been issued by the Danish Meteorological 

 Institute. The general conclusion drawn is that great 

 masses of ice were disengaged from the firm ice in the 

 north polar regions at an earlier date than usual, and the 

 ice drifted southward faster and in greater quantities than 

 in a normal year. 



The February number of the Bulletin of the American 

 Geographical Society is almost entirelv devoted to a report 

 of the second annual meeting of the Association of American 

 Geographers, which was held in New York on December 

 26 and 27 last, under the presidency of Prof. W. M. Davis. 

 About thirty-three papers were communicated, and abstracts 

 of most of these are to be found in the report. 



In an article entitled "Winning the West," in the 

 February National Geographic Magazine, Mr. C. J. 

 Blanchard gives an interesting account of the extraordinary 

 progress made by the United States Reclamation Service 

 during the last few years. Of the fifty millions of acres 

 •which it is estimated can be reclaimed from the desert by 

 irrigation, ten millions have already been made produc- 

 tive, at a cost of some ninety millions of dollars. This 

 area is occupied by a population of about two millions, and 

 every year it returns a harvest valued at more than one 

 hundred and fifty millions of dollars. 



We have received a reprint of a paper, published in the 



Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, by Mr. 



Daniel T. Macdougal, on the delta of the Rio Colorado. 



With the help of a map by Mr. Godfrey Sykes, which 



NO. I9O3, VOL. 73] 



accompanies the paper, the author describes the complex 

 hydrography of the region between the international 

 boundary and the present head of the Gulf of California. 

 Some useful notes on the climate and flora are added. The 

 paper gains in interest from the fact that the Salton sink 

 and Imperial Valley immediately 10 the north of the 

 boundary are likely to be greatly modified in the near 

 future by the work of the U.S. Reclamation Service. 



The report of the Meteorological Council for 1904-5 (the 

 last year of the administration of the Meteorological Office 

 by that body), which was recently presented to Parlia- 

 ment, contains an interesting account of the operations of 

 the office since its establishment as a department of the 

 Board of Trade under Admiral (then Captain) FitzRoy in 

 1854. The amount of up-hill work carried out by Admiral 

 Fitzjxoy, with Mr. T. H. Babington as scientific assistant, 

 and the very few clerks at his disposal was remark- 

 able. His first care was to issue trustworthy instru- 

 ments to vessels of the navy and mercantile marine, and 

 to collect observations relating to meteorology over the 

 oceans ; but pending the receipt and collation of these 

 observations he quickly converted Maury's numerical wind 

 charts into seasonal charts of graphical wind-stars, and 

 issued them in great numbers to seamen. These were soon 

 supplemented by monthly charts, from observations obtained 

 from British ships, combined with those from Maury's 

 charts. Subsequently he collected and collated synchronous 

 observations for both land and sea, from the study of 

 which he was enabled to commence his system of storm 

 signals and weather forecasts by which his name in this 

 countrv is best known. After his death, in 1865, the 

 management of the office was placed under a committee of 

 the Royal Society, with an increased grant ; this body 

 established the self-recording observatories, and under the 

 able administration of Mr. R. n. Scott, as director, the 

 operations of the office were greatly extended. In 1877, on 

 the recommendation of a committee of inquiry, the 

 Meteorological Committee, the services of the members of 

 which were honorary, was replaced by a paid council, with 

 a further increase in the grant. After the lamented death 

 of Prof. Henry Smith in 1883, General (now Sir Richard) 

 Strachey became chairman ; his great administrative power 

 and ability in the direction of the constantly increasing 

 work and usefulness of the office (with Mr. Scott, and more 

 recently Mr. Shaw, as secretary), are too well known to 

 require further comment here. The work of all depart- 

 ments, relating to marine meteorology, weather forecasts, 

 and the discussion of the observatory and other records, 

 attained a high degree of excellence, and compares favour- 

 ably with that performed by any foreign meteorological 

 organisation. 



A new method of exactly standardising thermometers 

 between 0° C. and — 4°o C. has been devised by Prof. 

 T. W. Richards and Mr. F. G. Jackson ; it is described 

 in the Proceedings of the American Academy (vol. xli., 

 No. 21), and consists in observing the temperatures re- 

 cordea for the freezing point of dilute hydrochloric acid 

 solutions of known concentration. A table is given of the 

 values for the freezing point of solutions of different 

 strengths. The method should be of special service in 

 standardising thermometers used for accurate physical- 

 chemical researches, particularly in measurements of the 

 freezing point of dilute solutions. 



In I lie Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts 

 and Sciences (vol. xli., No. 20) Prof. Theodore \V. Richards 

 and Mr. R. C. Wells deal with the possibility of utilising the 



