August 2 1,1 



NA TURE 



597 



class is urged most strongly in an appendix to this Circular, as 

 being far more dangerous in the United States, where custom 

 exerts no check. Since the danger is equal to the whole Union, 

 while the burden of meeting it falls so heavily on certain States, 

 it is again strongly urged that a part of the expense should be 

 met by national taxation. 



The writer of the second Circular of Information published 

 this year by the United States Bureau of Education trusts that 

 the Shorthand Society of London will throw light upon the 

 history of their art, as the material is quite inaccessible to the 

 American student. Yet his industrious researches there enable 

 him, after speaking of the shorthand invented by Cicero's freed- 

 man, and of its revival by Dr. Timothe Bright in Queen 

 Elizabeth's time, to append the names and dates of more than 

 400 authors of English systems ; a catalogue, 100 pages long, of 

 writers and their works on the subject, and 112 alphabets of 

 various dates, from 1602 to 1882. He is able also to quote 

 thirteen monthly publications in the United States and Canada 

 on this subject. It is to be hoped that, in this art as in nature, 

 the result will be the survival of the fittest (Mr. J. Pitman's 

 system already counts its 8loth thousand of copies issued), and 

 one is inclined to wonder whether some full and skilful system 

 of denoting sounds might not be worked out, which would 

 render unnecessary the more partial working of phonetic 

 spelling. 



The culture of the tea-tree in Transcaucasia, which has been 

 recently advocated by Dr. Woeikoff", has already been success- 

 fully carried out on a small scale for several years — as we learn 

 from a recent communication of M. Zeidlitz to a Russian news- 

 paper. It was an Englishman, Mr. Marr, who has inhabited 

 Transcaucasia since 1822, who brought to a flourishing state 

 the Crown garden at Ozurghety, and embellished it with a 

 number of lemon, orange, and tea trees, these last numbering 

 more than two hundred. After the Crimean war only twenty- 

 five tea-trees were growing in this garden, and according to 

 Mr. Marr's advice they were transplanted to a private estate at 

 Gora, close to Tchakhataour. Since the estate has changed its 

 proprietor, only two tea-trees have remained, but still they con- 

 tinue every year to flower and to give fruit, and M. Zeidlitz is 

 sure that if the culture be seriously tried it might be successful 

 in the valleys of the Koura and Rion. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Ring-tailed Coati (Nasua rufa i ) from 

 South America, presented by Miss K. M. Battam ; two Pata- 

 gonian Cavies (Dolicho'.is patachonica) from Patagonia, a Hairy- 

 rumped Agouti (Dasyprocta prynmolopha) from Guiana, a Ring- 

 tailed Coati (Nasua rufa) from South America, two Rufous 

 Tinamous (Rhynchotus tufesceus) from Brazil, two Tuberculated 

 Iguanas (Iguana tiibcicuhita) from the West Indies, two Huanacos 

 (Lama huanacos i 9) from Bolivia, presented by Mr. Frank 

 Parish, C.M.Z. S. ; a Gray Parrot (Psi.'tacus erithacus) from West 

 Africa, presented by Mr. E. T. Holloway ; a Vulpine Phalanger 

 (Phalangista vulpina) from Australia, presented by Mr. H. 

 Livermore ; two Smooth Snakes (Coronella larvis), European, 

 presented by Mr. W. H. B. Pain ; a Two-streaked Python 

 (Python bivittatus); a Reticulated Python (Python reticulata), a 

 Two-banded Monitor ( Varanus salvator), a Fringed Tree Gecko 

 (Ptychozoon homalocephala), a Javan Porcupine (Hystrix javanicd) 

 from Java, presented by Dr. F. H. Bauer, C.M.Z.S. ; two 

 Mountain Ka-Kas (Nestor notabilii) from New Zealand, a Three- 

 coloured Lory (Lorius tricolor) from New Guinea, a Severe 

 Macaw (Ara severa) from Brazil, deposited ; ten Common 

 Chameleons (Chameleon vulgaris) from North Africa, two 

 Brazilian Cariamas (Cariama cristata) from Brazil, purchased ■ 

 a Somali Wild Ass (Eijuus somalicus 6) from Somali Land, 

 received in exchange. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 

 Schmidt's Variable-Star in Virgo. — Prof. Schjellerup, 

 writing from the Observatory, Copenhagen, on August 9, thus 

 expresses himself with reference to a note which appeared in 

 this column on his identification of the above object : — "On the 

 article that is to be found in Nature, July 31 last, about this 

 star, allow me to make some essential remarks. The author 

 entirely misconceives the sense of my note in Sufi. It does not 

 at all concern No. 19 Ptol., but only sets out that Lalande 250S6 

 takes that place where must have been the star which Sufi saw ; 

 and I may yet maintain the correctness of the note. I only ask 

 the author to look at Bremicker's map, Hora XIII. ; he will 

 find there that Lalande 25086 has just equal distances from Spica 

 and from // Virginis (Ptol. 17), and, what is more, that this 

 distance is nearly one and a half times the distance between 

 Spica and // Virginis, very conformably to Sufi's remark in the 

 text: ' Entre elle (19) et al-simak (a Virginis) vers le sud-est, 

 il y a environ une coudee et demie, et entre elle et la I7 e il y a la 

 meme distance. Avec al-simak et la I7 e elle forme un triangle 

 isoscele, cette etoile etant au sommet.' It is also to be remarked 

 that Sufi has before declared the distance between No. 17 and Spica 

 as ' environ une coudee,' that is, nearly 2° 20'. What is here said 

 about 19 (Sufi) does not at all agree with the position of No. 19 

 by Ptolemy, which is also pointed out by Sufi himself as follows : 

 ' La latitude de cette etoile, indiquee dans le livre de Ptolemee, 

 se trouve erronee, parce que, au ciel, elle se fait voir autrement 

 quelle ne tombe sur le globe. '" We are glad to print Prof. 

 Schjellerup's explanation of the purport of his note ; it is quite 

 possible that others may have interpreted it as we did. 



The New Comet. — Several orbits for this comet have been 

 published in the Astronomische Nachrichten, founded for the 

 most part upon the position obtained on the night of discovery, 

 July 16, and on M. Trepied's observations on July 23 and 29, 

 where there appears to have been at first some doubt as to the 

 comparison-star. The middle observation is not well represented 

 by any of these parabolic orbits, and Prof. Weiss conjectures that 

 there is considerable ellipticity, at the same time remarking that 

 a certain general resemblance exists between the elements of the 

 present comet and those of the lost short-period comet of De 

 Vico, observed in 1844, but not found since that year. In the 

 uncertainty which seems to have attached to the observations at 

 Algiers, it would not be safe to speak confidently as to the nature 

 of the orbit, though it may be decided in a very short time. 



Prof. Tacchini has kindly communicated the following obser- 

 vation made at the Observatory of the Collegio Romano : — 



Rome M.T. Right Ascension Declination 



h. m. s. h. m. 5. . , 



August 9, at 8 31 56 ... 16 51 20-14 ■• ~3 6 $6 25-5 

 The comet was very faint, and the observations, by Prof. 



Millosevich, are a little uncertain. 



The best parabola, according to Prof. Weiss, has the following 



elements : — 



Perihelion passage, August 17-5109 G.M.T. 



Longitude of perihelion 301 57 24 ) ,, ^ 



ascending node ... 357 45 5' [ .ss.ro 



Inclination 7 2 31 ) * 



Logarithm of perihelion distance 0-147982 

 Motion — direct. 

 The most reliable elements of De Vico's comet of 1844 are 

 those given by Brtinnow in the Ann Arbor Astronomical Notices. 

 Brorsen's Comet. — From a note of Prof. Krueger's in the 

 Astronomische Nachrichten, it seems that Dr. Schulze has not 

 been able to undertake the calculation of the perturbations of 

 this comet since its last appearance in 1879, and accordingly the 

 rough ephemeris lately given in Nature is transferred to that 

 journal. 



THE FORESTS OF NORTHERN EUROPE 

 A VERY recent report has appeared on this subject in the 

 -^ shape of a small Blue-Book which deals with the various 

 aspects of the forestry question in certain of the more northerly 

 States of Europe, such as Germany, Russia, Norway, Sweden, 

 Coburg, and Gotha. The Report, which contains matter of 

 great interest in many ways, is the outcome of the proposals of 

 Dr. Lyon, M.P., to rehabilitate the ancient forest system in 

 Ireland ; and although the greater part of it deals with the 



