;7° 



NA TURE 



\_Angust 14, i J 



the statement of facts, he will do well to examine his 

 authority for his statements that I have called the solitary 

 Salpa a nurse j that I have described a Cunina in which 

 the " hydroid produces medusa; by gemmation ;" and that 

 1 believe " that the solitary Salpa is hermaphrodite." 

 Baltimore, July 14 W. K. Brooks 



COLONIAL AND FOREIGN REPORTS 

 T'HE annual reports of colonial botanical gardens, 

 ■*■ Government plantations, museums, &c, form at 

 the present day no inconsiderable item of the literature 

 of scientific progress in different parts of the world which 

 constantly crowd an editor's table. These records be- 

 come, year after year, of increasing importance as well 

 as of increasing bulk, and it is right that their contents 

 should be better known, so that they may become useful, 

 and this can only be done by a wide distribution of the 

 reports themselves, and attention drawn to them by other 

 publications. 



Taking a few of these reports, which have recently 

 come to hand, in the order of their issue, we first find one 

 from Wellington, New Zealand, under the following title, 

 " Eighteenth Annual Report on the Colonial Museum 

 and Laboratory," together with the " Fourteenth Annual 

 Report on the Colonial Botanic Garden, 1882-S3." This 

 Report treats of various branches of science, and, as 

 might be expected, geology has its full share. In the 

 observatory the principal work is said to have been the 

 observation of the transit of Venus, Dr. Hector's account 

 of his observation, which, he says, was written out within 

 an hour after the transit, being given as an appendix. 

 Under the head of Botanic Garden, after describing some 

 successful experiments in planting wattles (species of 

 Acacia), Dr. Hector refers to experiments in the cultiva- 

 tion of Sorghum, which, however, are said not to have 

 been continued in the garden, but in the northern part of 

 the colony, the results were very favourable, proving that 

 quite as large a percentage of crystallisable sugar can be 

 obtained in New Zealand as in America. " Recent im- 

 provements," it is said, "have been made in the machinery, 

 and by the use of a vacuum evaporating pan all the causes 

 of the former miscarriage in the production of the sugar 

 appear to have been removed, so that there is every pro- 

 spect of the growth of the Sorghum becoming an impor- 

 tant industry in the north of New Zealand." A most 

 interesting and important feature of the year is said to be 

 the sudden expansion of the cultivation of hops in the 

 colony. In Nelson it is shown that the cultivation has 

 been most successful, and in the neighbourhood of Wel- 

 lington the hop also grows well. The plants are subject 

 more or less to attacks from the red spider and what is 

 known as the plant louse, but they have not yet committed 

 any great damage. 



Mr. Morris's " Annual Report of the Public Gardens 

 and Plantations for the year ended September 30, 1883," 

 shows that the usual operations of the department have 

 been fully maintained, while the " chief scientific work of 

 the year has been connected with the collection and de- 

 termination of numerous native plants of the island which 

 have been added to the Department Herbarium, and the 

 large addition of others to the growing collections." Re- 

 ferring to the attacks by insects on the sugar cane, Mr. 

 Morris points out that the spasmodic or intermittent 

 character of the attack is in accordance with their general 

 habit in all parts of the world ; "but," he says, " it is 

 well for us to note their appearance and disappearance 

 with great care, in order that we may thereby be prepared 

 for their attacks, and reduce the amount of damage they 

 do to our crops to a minimum." 



The indiscriminate destruction of small birds in the 

 island has attracted some attention, and measures have 

 been suggested whereby it may be checked or perhaps 

 stopped. 



The mungoose, which has been imported from India to 

 destroy rats on sugar estates, is stated to be increasing 

 very rapidly, not only on sugar estates, but on the highest 

 mountains along the shore, and even amidst swamps and 

 lagoons. The sugar planters have greatly benefited by its 

 introduction, rat-eaten canes being now scarcely known. 

 The negro settlers and persons not connected with sugar 

 estates complain of its ravages amongst their poultry, fruit, 

 and vegetables. Mr. Morris says, however, that poultry 

 is still fairly plentiful in country districts, and from his 

 experience of the mungoose in confinement, the creature 

 is not likely to eat either sugar cane, banana, or field 

 vegetables, except under the influence of extreme hunger, 

 which would not occur so long as there are rats, mice, 

 lizards, and other small animals to feed on. " The 

 mungoose is, however," Mr. Morris says, " disturbing 

 greatly the distribution of animal life in the island ; and 

 the harmless yellow and other snakes, lizards, ground- 

 hatching birds, the interesting cony, and many members 

 of our indigenous fauna, are likely to become extinct at no 

 distant period." 



Under the head of cultivation and distribution of 

 economic plants Mr. Morris reports progress in many 

 new products. It is not encouraging, however, to find 

 that the cultivation of ginger in Jamaica appears to be 

 dying out, due " to the smaller yield of plants cultivated 

 so persistently on the same land, to the uncertain nature 

 of the crop, no less than the difficulty experienced in many 

 districts in curing it properly." Jamaica ginger has 

 hitherto held a prominent position in the market as to 

 quality, and it is a pity that its reputation should become 

 a thing of the past. 



The next report before us is that of Dr. Schomburgk, 

 and treats of the " Progress and condition of the Botanic 

 Garden and Government plantations " at Adelaide, South 

 Australia. A similar work seems to be going on here as 

 at most other colonial gardens at the present time, 

 namely, the distribution of native, and the acclimatisation 

 of foreign plants, chiefly of economic value. The Gardens 

 seem to be very popular, as well as the Museum of 

 Economic Botany, which is a comparatively new institu- 

 tion to Adelaide. Two appendices are added to Dr. 

 Schomburgk's report, one consisting of a " Catalogue of 

 Plants added during 1883 to those under cultivation in 

 the Botanic Garden," arranged according to their natural 

 orders, and the other a " List of Palmae, Bromeliace;e, 

 Filices, and Lycopodiaceae, cultivated in the Botanic 

 Garden." The report is illustrated by eight views in the 

 Gardens. 



A Report of the Committee of Management for 1S83 of 

 the Technological Industrial and Sanitary Museum of 

 New South Wales shows that a great deal of progress 

 has been made in extending the utility of the Museum 

 during the year. The Museum, which seems to have 

 been opened so recently as December last, bids fair 

 to become of very great service to the colony. One 

 paragraph in the Report says, " Special endeavours 

 are being made to collect the raw products and samples 

 illustrative of the industries and manufactures of the 

 Australian colonies, and the Committee have already 

 secured a considerable number of native vegetable and 

 mineral products and a comprehensive series of speci- 

 mens of wool." 



The '' Annual Report of the Royal Botanic Garden, Cal- 

 cutta, for the year 1883-84," and that of the Government 

 Cinchona Plantations in Bengal for the same period, are, 

 as usual, very creditable to Dr. King as superintendent. 

 Dr. King's reports are always concise and interesting 

 records of admirable work both at the Botanic Garden 

 and at the cinchona plantations, and those before us show 

 that in the former a good deal of consideration has been 

 paid during the year to the extension of plants of real com- 

 mercial value, such, for instance, as paper materials, includ- 

 ing the sabai grass {Pollinia eriopoda, Hance). and the 



