few years, all the young trees. The export returns for the last 
five years show an average of 2c00 bundles of sticks sent out 
from Jamaica annually, and the returns for the first three-quarters 
of 1881 show an export of over 4500 bundles, valued at 15,000 
dollars. Each bundle contains from 500 to 800 sticks, each of 
which represents a young bearing pimento tree. 
THE results of a third year’s ‘observation of spirit-levels at 
Secheron, for elucidation of periodic movements of the ground, 
are given by M. Plantamour in the December issue of Archive 
des Sciences, and Col, von Orff also communicates results obtained 
at the Observatory of Bogenhausen (3 to 4 km. from Munich). 
M. Plantamour shows that the oscillations, both in the east-west 
and the north-south direction, present anomalies, or differences 
from year to year, which cannot be explained by mere variations 
of the temperature of the air. The earth’s surface he supposes 
to be in a state of constant gentle undulation, the direction and 
amplitude of which varies in each locality according to the 
nature of the ground and the forces in action; and the effect 
may strengthen, or neutralise that of the air temperature on the 
ground, or even produce a movement in an opposite direction. 
Col. von Orff’s observations afford ground for supposing that 
the spirit-level variations are, partly at least, caused by varia- 
tions of heat in the formation on which the Observatory rests. 
*“RHOPALOCERA MALAYANA: a Description of the Butter- 
flies of the Malay Peninsula,” is the title of a work which will 
shortly be published by Mr. W. L. Distant. It is proposed in this 
work to give a monographic revision and synonymic catalogue of 
the butterflies of the Malay Peninsula, including the islands of 
Penang and Singapore. The fauna of the western side of the 
Peninsula is at present best known, and will be here principally 
treated. This area will extend from Quedah to Johore, and 
thus comprises the Straits Settlements of Province Wellesley, 
Perak, and Malacca. Each species (and variety where consi- 
dered necessary) will be represented by a coloured figure, and 
the details of its habits, variation, and geographical distribution 
will be given as far as our present knowledge will allow. An 
introduction to the classification will also be added, with a 
tabular arrangement of the genera. The Malayan butterfly 
fauna is very rich in species, and very typical of the Oriental 
region. It includes numbers of species which are found in 
Continental India, and many others which are common to 
Sumatra, Java, and Borneo, It is therefore anticipated that the 
work may prove useful to others than Malayan entomologists 
alone. It is to the scientific enterprise of Mr, D. Logan of 
Penang that the inception of this work is due, and an important 
part of the material on which it is based will be derived from 
that gentleman’s collectors, who have been despatched to 
Quedah, Malacca, and Johore. Beside the collections made by 
the author, when in Penang and Province Wellesley, many 
others have been examined, and much information acquired, 
during the last ten years. ‘The work will be comprised in six or 
seven royal quarto parts, each containing four_ coloured plates, 
and about twenty-eight pages of letterpress. 
CONTINUING his researches on the Hydroids and Medusz of 
the White Sea, and giving a 7éswmé of his three years’ explora- 
tion’ in Solovetzky sBay, Prof. Wagner states that ten different 
species of Medusz inhabit the waters of this lake: Zizsia rofa, 
Bougainvillia superciliaris, Circe kamtschatica, Sarsia tubulosa, 
Plankayon hyalinus (n. sp. et g.), Zégionopsis Laurentit, Tiara 
pileata, Staurophora laciniata, Cyanea Arctica, and Aurelia aurita, 
Each of these forms show some special adaptation to the medium 
they live in. ‘The two first are the simplest, the primary ones, so 
“to say, and their most important feature is the great development 
of the generative organs. The elegant form of the bell of the 
Circe is adapted to a rapid and ingenious motion, and its long 
tentacles are perfectly developed for warning it against any 
NATURE 
" aes. 2) 
“S-2 S - 
(xan, 26, 1882 
danger. The voracious Sarsia is adapted for continually search- 
ing for and catching prey at different depths, by means of its 
very long tentacles. The Zzara is characterised by a perfect 
development of its great stomach and mouth-ciliz, and the large 
vessels are adapted for the circulation of a great amount of 
nutritive liquids. The gionopsis is distinguished by its large 
bell, which affords great room for the sexual sinuses of the 
stomach, whilst four tentacles inclosing the bell are protective 
of this great sexual laboratory. The Sfaurophora has the same 
characters, with some modifications for the enlargement of the 
nutritive and sexual organs. The flat and flexible bell of the 
Cyanea is an immense nutritive organ, to which large tentacles 
and a great catching-bag supply plenty of food. And the 
Aurelia is, so to say, a résumé of all these adaptations, Alto- 
gether they afford a fine illustration of the Etienne Geoffroy St. 
Hilaire’s law of “organic equilibrium, or compensation of 
organs,” All are equally well-armed for the struggle for exist- 
ence and for the life in common in the waters of the White Sea. 
If the lazy and badly-armed Zizzia and Bougainvillia are often 
subject to starvation, a few individuals on the other hand suffice 
for producing millions of progeny. Prof. Wagner also makes 
some interesting remarks with regard to Milne Edwards’s law as 
to the tendency of Nature towards diversity and economy of 
means. 
WE have repeatedly had occasion to refer to the excellent 
work now in course of publication—‘‘ Anatomisch-physiolo- 
gischer Atlas der Botanik,” by Dr. Arnold Dodel Port, of 
Ziirich University, and have pleasure in announcing that the 5th 
part of this remarkable work has just left the press‘ It is a 
specially interesting one, and contains the following subjects :— 
(1) Marchantia polymorpha, a cosmopolitan liverwort-moss, with 
its characteristic fruit receptacles and sporanges, of which the 
whole development is illustrated ; (2) Zaxus baccata, yew, with 
the simplest possible female flower, showing the anatomy of the 
ripe seed and the first germination stages of the latter; (3) 
Oedogonium diplandrum Furanyi, one of the oospore-forming 
filamentous Algz, showing the green asexual zouspores, the yel- 
lowish androspores, the yellow spermatozoids, and the dwarfed 
males. ‘The whole process of fertilisation and the development of 
oospores is also represented, this being one of the most interesting 
Ocedogoniez ; (4) Chara fragilis, showing the rotation of the cell 
contents in the tubular cells and the female organs; (5) Cydonia 
vulgaris, Quince, showing the development of the flower and its 
fertilisation by the honey-bee ; (6) Cenfaurea cyanus, Blue Corn- 
flower, with the development of the protandrous flowers, showing 
the sensitiveness and functions of the contractile stamens facili- 
tating the fertilisation by insects carrying pollen from other 
flowers. The author hopes to publish Part 6 early in April 
next, and Part 7 in the autumn, thus completing the work. 
THE Danish Society for the Protection of Animals (under the 
patronage of His Majesty the King of Denmark) offers two 
prizes, of 2000 and 1000 francs respectively, for the best and 
second best scientific essay on that part of the Vivisection ques- 
tion, which concerns the possibility of replacing ving by recently 
killed animals for the sake of physiological investigations. The 
essay should sufficiently indicate previously unknown cases, in 
which such a substitution of dead material may be applicable. 
In these essays the possibility and desirability of replacing 
painful experiments on animals by some of/er methods of research, 
may also be a subject of inquiry. The essays may be written in 
the Danish, Swedish, English, French, or German languages, 
and forwarded before September 1, 1882, to His Excellency 
Mr. A, de Haxthausen, President of the Danish Society for the 
Protection of Animals, at the office of the Society, Copenhagen. 
“Our Society is only too well aware that the claims of humanity 
are not to be satisfied by these means, as extensively as it could 
wish. It will however feel itself richly rewarded, if its efforts 
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