May 4, 1899] 
NATURE 7 
denudation, that in many instances there seems to be no way of 
determining how much work was done by the sea, and how 
much had been previously done by rivers, rain, and similar 
agencies. 
“THe Alkali Soils of the Yellowstone Valley” forms the 
subject of an essay by Messrs. M. Whitney and T. H. Means 
(U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bué/etin No. 14, 1898). In 
the Western States of America, any excessive accumulation of 
soluble mineral salts in the soil is popularly spoken of as 
“alkali.” These salts include sodium carbonate, sulphate and 
chloride, magnesium sulphate and chloride, and occasionally 
some of the borates. They may be traced to the sandstones, 
shales, and slaty rocks from which the soils have been derived. 
Before irrigation was introduced, the salts were present in rather 
large amounts, but they were well distributed throughout the 
soil, and not in such large quantities as to be injurious to crops. 
The injury is due entirely to over-irrigation, and may, in the 
authors’ opinion, be easily remedied. 
WE learn from the Botanzcal Gazette that the University of 
Texas has established a distinct department of botany, which 
will begin its separate existence with the next college year. 
The new department will be placed under the charge of Dr. 
W. L. Bray. 
Mr. F. J. HANpury and Rev. E. S. Marshall announce 
for early publication their long-promised ‘‘ Flora of Kent,” 
which has been twenty years in preparation. From its variety 
of soil, its geographical position, and its extended sea and river 
coast, this will be one of the most interesting and richest county 
floras of England. There will be two maps, one showing the 
divisions of the county, and the other coloured geologically ; 
and in the introduction, devoted to the topography of the county, 
there will be sections assigned to geology and meteorology. 
THE study of natural history has been greatly stimulated in 
this country by the meetings, the excursions, and the public- 
ations of local societies. We have beforeusthe /résh Naturalist 
for April, with a paper on the botany of the Great Central Plain 
of Ireland, by Mr. R. LI. Praeger, and the conclusion of one on 
the Brachiopoda and Mollusca of the carboniferous rocks of 
Ireland, by Dr. A. H. Foord ; also the Halifax Naturalist for 
April, containing a paper on the crocus .leaf, by Mr. C. E. 
Mass, and one on the Halifax fish fauna, by Mr. E. D. Well- 
burn, as well as an instalment of Mr. W. B. Crump’s flora of 
Halifax. 
AMONG the more interesting articles in the Journal of the 
Royal Horticultural Society for April is an account of a visit 
to Naina Tal, Kumaon, the summer residence of the Lieut.- 
Governor of the North-West Provinces of India ; and one on the 
Botanical Garden at Padua, founded in 1545, and said to be 
the oldest in the world. It contains some trees of remarkable 
antiquity, one of Vitex agnus-castus, 349, one of Chamaerops 
humilis, 314, and one of Platanus orientalis, 219 years old ; 
besides a number that have more than completed the century. 
Several of these are figured. There is a specimen of Sa/zshurda 
adtantifolia, 148 years old, in which grafts from the female have 
been inserted on the original male plant, so that it produces 
both male and female flowers. 
Mr. BERNARD QUARITLCH has published a catalogue con- 
taining descriptions of 1781 works of geography, voyages, travels, 
history of America, Africa, Australasia and Asia, and of books 
on the languages of America, Africa, and Oceanica, offered for 
sale by him. 
THE fourteenth part of Mr. Oswin A. J. Lee’s ‘‘ Among 
British Birds in their Nesting Haunts” (Edinburgh : David 
Douglas) contains ten magnificent plates illustrating the nests 
of the turtle-dove, barn owl, reed warbler, tree sparrow, stone 
curlew, partridge, tufted duck, jay, and kingfisher. 
NO. 1540, VOL. 60] 
Four different kinds of species are considered by Mr. O. F. 
Cook in the American Naturalést ; they are enumerated as 
follows: (1) The phylogenetic species, a division or section of 
a line of biological succession; (2) the insular or segregated 
species, the living end of a line of the preceding category ; (3) 
the incipient species, preferably known as a sub-species; (4) 
the artificial species. the result of man’s interference in nature. 
Mr. Cook considers that the designation ‘‘species” should be 
reserved for its original use with the second of these categories, 
and the use of the popular designation ‘‘ variety” should be 
restricted to the fourth. He criticises classification according 
to ‘‘amount of difference,” and points out that with this as the 
only criterion, ‘fossils, geographic races, and artificially pro- 
duced varieties are being catalogued miscellaneously and indis- 
criminately as species.” : 
IN a note communicated to the A¢¢2 det Lencet, viii. 5, Dr. 
A. Pochettino describes the results of certain observations made 
with acoustic resonators with a view of determining in what 
manner the modulus of decay is affected: (1) by varying the 
shape of the aperture, keeping its area constant; (2) by 
furnishing the aperture with flanges of various sizes; (3) by 
varying the distance between the resonatorand the excitor. Dr. 
Pochettino finds that by increasing the diameter of the flange the 
modulus of decay diminishes ; or, in the first place, the reson- 
ator becomes more capable of reinforcing vibrations of its own 
period, and at the same time becomes less sensitive to vibrations 
slightly differing in period, in the second place, the vibrations, 
when once excited, last longer. The modulus of decay also 
decreases when the distance between the excitor and resonator 
is increased. In experimenting with elliptic and circular 
apertures, the moduli of decay were found to be very nearly 
equal. 
THE second volume of the second edition of Prof. Hl. Weber's 
masterly ‘‘ Lehrbuch der Algebra”? has just been’ published by 
Messrs. F. Vieweg and Son, Brunswick. The two original 
volumes have already been reviewed in detail in NATURE (vol. 
lv. pp. 25 and 481, 1897), so it is unnecessary to do more than 
announce the completion of the second edition of this standard 
treatise. —The third edition of ‘‘ Premiers principes d’Electricité 
industrielle,” by M. Paul Janet, has been published by Messrs. 
Gauthier-Villars, Paris. The original work contained the 
substance of lectures delivered in Grenoble in 1892, under the 
auspices of the municipality of that city. So many advances 
have taken place in applied electricity since the lectures were 
given that a number of alterations and additions have been 
necessary in order to bring the volume up to date.—Mr. 
William Schooling has revised and extended ‘‘ Inwood’s Tables 
of Interest and Mortality, for the Purchasing of Estates and 
Valuation of Properties,” and Messrs. Crosby Lockwood and 
Son have just published the new edition (the twenty-fifth) 
containing extensive additions made by him. The whole work 
appears to have been very carefully revised, and it now forms an 
instructive as well as serviceable collection of tables. A table of 
logarithms of natural numbers has been introduced, and also M. 
Fédor Thoman’s logarithmic tables of compound interest and 
annuities. From the point of view of practical mathematics, the 
new edition of ‘‘ Inwood”’ is distinctly in advance of the former 
issues. 
THE additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during the 
past week include a Feline Dourocouli (Myctipithecus voctferans) 
from South Brazil, presented by Mrs. Firman; a Common 
Raccoon (Procyon Jotor) from North America, a Pine Marten 
(Mustela martes), British, presented by Master Eric Mellin ; an 
Indian Pigmy Goose (Wettopus coromandelianus, & ) from India, 
presented by H.G. the Duke of Bedford; three Ostriches 
(Struthio camelus, 3?) from Lagos, presented by Mr. G. F. 
Abadie; a Macqueen’s Bustard (Houwbara macgueent) from 
