Oct. 2, 1884] 



NA TURE 



535 



of Nature owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. W. Robinson for 

 his life-long labours in disturbing our minds as to the 

 correctness of modern views on gardening, and for in a 

 great measure destroying the miserable conventionality 

 that had made our gardens bad imitations of very in- 

 artistic carpets, or of nightmare-giving wall-papers. But 

 in destroying what was bad it was also most desirable to 

 build up something good to replace what was gone, and 

 in the present most welcome volume we find indications, 

 clear and distinct, of the abounding wealth of flowers at 

 our disposal which are fitted for the embellishment of our 

 open-air gardens. In the compilation of this work on 

 the " English Flower Garden," Mr. Robinson has had the 

 co-operation of some of the most practical and thoughtful 

 writers of the day, and also the valuable aid of Mr. W. 

 Goldring, whose experience as superintendent for some 

 time of the Hardy Plant Department of the Royal 

 Gardens at Kew has well qualified him for the task. The 

 first part of the work — On Gardens, their Arrangement, 

 &c. — is for the greater part from the pen of the author. 

 We should have liked that a small portion of this part had 

 been devoted to the subject of town and suburban gardens 

 of small size. Many a modest cottage garden has, we read, 

 its lessons to give, but then our ideas of a modest cottage 

 garden are not helped by an illustration of the charming 

 grounds attached to Sheen Lodge. The second part 

 contains in alphabetical order a list of the more important 

 genera and species of plants which will grow in the open 

 air in Great Britain or Ireland, with figures, some very- 

 good, some indifferent, of most of the more attractive 

 species. In some few cases we notice figures given which 

 are not referred to in the text ; when these are not of 

 "desirable" species for the flower garden, as in the case 

 of Gentiana lutea and Scilla maritiina, it would have been 

 better to have put others in their place. To all our 

 readers who have or contemplate having a garden we 

 cordially recommend this very excellent book. 



OUR BOOK SHELF 

 '1 he King Country : or Explorations in New Zealand. 



By J. Kerry-Nicholls. (London : Sampson Low and 



Co., 1884.) 

 In this interesting volume Mr. Nicholls describes a good 

 stroke of exploring work. The King Country, with which 

 his volume is largely concerned, is that district of the 

 North Island of New Zealand which is still under the 

 sway — not entirely nominal — of the King Tawhiao, who 

 has only recently left our shores. It occupies a very large 

 area between the west coast and the Lake Taupo region, 

 having on its north-eastern border that wonderland with 

 which the late Baron Hochstetter has made us familiar. 

 The additional details of the sub-volcanic action of this 

 region, its boiling springs and glistering terraces, are 

 welcome. From Rotomahana Mr. Nicholls travelled 

 southwards in a zigzag to Lake Taupo, and geologists 

 will be specially interested in the observations re- 

 garding the great volcanic plateau on the south of 

 Lake Taupo, and Mr. Nicholls's account of his ascent 

 of Mounts Tongariro and Ruapehu, the former still 

 in a state of volcanic activity. In fact there is 

 abounding evidence that at no very remote period vol- 

 canic action must have been widespread and copious 

 over a very large area of the North Island. Though not 

 to be compared with the Southern Alps, which Mr. Green 

 and his companions scaled last year, still Mr. Nicholls's 

 feat was formidable and trying enough. In the King 



Country the natives have retained many of their original 

 characteristics and customs almost unchanged, and there- 

 fore such narratives as that of Mr. Nicholls is of con- 

 siderable value to the ethnologist. The region is richly 

 wooded, the scenery in many places magnificent, and the 

 geological features well worth minute investigation. In 

 an appendix we find a list of the New Zealand tribes 

 with their localities, and careful lists of the flora and 

 fauna met with during Mr. Nicholls's journey. Alto- 

 gether the narrative is interesting, and contains a good 

 deal of fresh information. There is an excellent map 

 and many attractive illustrations. 



Forests and Forestry of Northern Russia and Lands 

 beyond. Compiled by John Croumbie Brown, LL.D. 

 (Edinburgh : Oliver and Boyd, 1884.) 

 The forestry of Russia has so recently been the subject 

 of an article in our columns, that we need do little more 

 than refer to this, the latest of the long series of volumes 

 by Dr. Brown on his favourite Forsiwissenschaft or forest 

 science. It appears to have been compiled apropos of 

 tie International Exhibition of forest products in Edin- 

 burgh, and is intended "to introduce into English forestal 

 literature detailed information on some of the points on 

 which information is supplied to students at the schools of 

 forestry on the Continent." The information contained 

 in the volume has been obtained personally during 

 journeys in Russia, or from the best official sources. 

 There is also, it should be said, much to interest the most 

 general and careless of readers, for Dr. Brown quotes ex- 

 tensively from the best recent writers on the districts of 

 Russia to which his book specially refers. 



LETTERS TO THE ED L TOR 



[ The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, 

 or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications . 



[The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters 

 as short as possible. The pressure on his space is so great 

 that it is impossible otherwise to insure the appearance even 

 of communications containing interesting and novel facts. "\ 



M. Thollon's Views of "Great B" in the Solar 

 Spectrum 



The excellence and power of M. Thollon's prisms have 

 proverbial in the spectroscopic world. For the sake, 

 therefore, of having his own account of what he has himself 

 seen (Nature, vol. xxx. p. 520), with physical apparatus of 

 gigantic size, so well planned, so admirably constructed, and 

 manipulated with such matchless skill, — doubtless every reader 

 will make very little objection to any small accompanying 

 inaccuracy in one outside reference. 



To me, therefore, as well as probably to every one else, it is 

 a very trifling matter that he should lay to my charge that I have 

 said ' : Great' B" does not increase in intensity as the sun ap- 

 proaches the horizon ; although in my " Madeira Spectroscopic " 

 book I have actually introduced Plate 5 to show, as compared 

 with riate 4, that it does so increase very notal ily. 



Hut tin.- real point of interest, of special importance just now, 

 and perplexity too, is not that there is some effect of the telluric 

 character in the "B" lines — but how much? and in what 

 manner does it grow with zenith distance ? 



Now that residual question does not seem yet to have occu- 

 pied M. Thollon, or he would have described the different rates 

 at which the dry gas lines of "B" grow with zenith distance 

 compared with the lines of watery vapour ; and, as a first and 

 easy result, he would undoubtedly have obtained, as I have villi 

 far inferior means, an indication that the water-vapour of the 

 earth's atmosphere is confined to the lower strata only, while 

 the dry gas composing " B " belongs more nearly to the whole 

 atmosphere, high and low. To that too, at least ; for some 

 observations of " B" when near the zenith, or looked at through 

 the shortest aerial path possible at the place, showed meso 

 immense an intensity still in its lines, as to lead to the suspicion 



