A/ay 17, 1S77] 



NATURE 



41 



Devonion, and Cretaceous age. They also made many 

 valuable observations on the superficial deposits, as well 

 as on the physical geography of the region. An interest- 

 ing point in their report is the frequency of old beaver- 

 dams in places where there is now little or no water — an 

 evidence of the former greater humidity of the climate. 



In British Columbia Mr. James Richardson continued 

 his explorations. He traversed metamorphic crystalline 

 rocks (auriferous) extending over seven degrees of lati- 

 tude and six of longitude. The r omplicated structure of 

 the Nanaimo coalfield was further mvestigated, but the 

 work is not yet complete. 



Mr. J. Lionel Smith reports on the salt manufacture 

 and trade of Ontario, and m.ikes some interesting and 

 useful comparisons between the various processes for the 

 treatment of the brine in Canada and elsewhere. 



Mr. J. Harrington closes the volume with notes on 

 Canadian rocks and minerals. 



R. L. Jack 



The Schools of Forcsiiy in Europe. A Plea for the 

 Crccxtioti of a School of Forestry in Comieition with the 

 Arboretum at Edinbii?-^h. By John Crombie Brown, 

 LL.D., &c. (Edinburgh : Oliver and Boyd.) 



Tins pamphlet is written in the form of a letter or address 

 to the Lord Provost of Edinburgh and the promoters of 

 the Arboretum at Inverleitb, and is in short a strong 

 argument in fa\our of the formation of a school of 

 Forestry to be connected with the Arboretum. Dr. 

 Brown shows that in France, Spain, Italy, Austria, 

 Poland, Russia, Finland, Sweden, and in fact in almost 

 every country except Great Britain, its Colonial depen- 

 dencies and the United States of America, such schools 

 e.xist under Government authority, and it is in these very 

 countries that such schools would be of immense utility. 

 The proposed curriculum of three years' study sketched 

 out by Dr. Brown as likely to prove advantageous is, in 

 the main, good, but we think that the French and German 

 languages should be taken before the end of the third year. 

 The notices of the arrangements and systems of studies in 

 the various Continental forest schools are not without in- 

 terest. Dr. Brown concludes his "plea" with a com- 

 parison of the English and Continental forests ; the extent 

 of the latter, togeiher with the threatened lack of fuel by 

 the extinction of forests as against our supplies of this 

 necessary article from coal mines, being, no doubt, among 

 the principal causes of the decrease of forest training in 

 this country. The lack of special literature on the sub- 

 ject in the English language also compares badly with 

 that of the Continent. 



Unser Somienkorpcr nach seiner physikalischen, sprach- 

 lichen ii.id mytholooischen Seitc hin bctrachtel. By 

 Dr. Schmidt. (Triibner, 1S77.) 



Dr. ScHM[DT has more learning than method. In fact, 

 he belongs to that school of paradoxers who are less 

 common in Germany than in this country. He proposes 

 to show that the sun is a cold inhabited body, heat being 

 developed by the friction of its rays against the earth and 

 other celestial bodies. Upon this physical theory he 

 superimposes his mythological one. Words which have 

 a slight res'mblance in sound and meaning are gathered 

 together fran all parts of the world and assumed to be 

 connected ii spite of their belonging to different families 

 of speech. Out of this hodgepodge are extracted such 

 conclusions is that the sun-god was believed to illumine 

 the dead ir Hades or that the snake represented the 

 return of Afollo to the light of day. But the philology of 

 the writer nay be easily appreciated when we lind him 

 speaking o' "the Armeno- Caucasian family, to which 

 belong ncf only Semites and Aiyans, but also some 

 Turaniar tribes," and intimating that the roots of the 

 Chinese anguage are allied to those of the " Arineno- 

 Caucasiai.' As might have been expected. Dr. Schmidt 



is not always right in the words he quotes from the 

 numerous languages, ancient and modern, which he has 

 laid under contribution. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his correspotidents. 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 presiure on his space is so great that it 

 is impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance even of com- 

 munications containing interesting and novel facts. ] 

 Passage of Plants Across the Atlantic — Haplomitrium 

 Hookeri, Lyell 

 Trof. Unger arrived at the conclusion that in Tertiary times 

 there was a passage of plants from America to Europe. A 

 plant found by myself last year in the Island of Dominica, West 

 Indies, led me to think it probable that there had been an 

 extension of at least one plant in the opposite direction. The 

 plant to which I refer is one of the Ilepatic.e, Haplomitrium 

 hooktri of Lyell. It differs so much from other Ilepaticre that 

 I was able approximately to identify it on the spot where I 

 found it in considerable abundance. Should it prove to ba 

 specifically distinct, my remarks m,ay still, to some extent, hold 

 good. It was growing in a dark, moist, shady spot on the north 

 side of a mountain at an elevation of about 4000 feet. //. 

 hookeri is generally distributed over the North of Europe, but I 

 cannot find that it has ever before been found out of Europe. 

 Dr. Oliver kindly informs me that there are only European 

 specimens in the herbarium at Kew. I have failed in obtaining 

 information of its occurrence either in North or South America, 

 or in the intermediate islands. Nees ab Esenbeck, in his 

 ".Synopsis Ilepaticorum," whilst recording a large number of 

 IIe|)atica: from the West Indies, mentions //. hookeri only from 

 Europe. Now it is by no means an inconspicuous plant, and it 

 seem^ altogether unlikely to have been overlooked by such care- 

 ful observers as .Swartz and otliers who have studied the Hepaticce 

 of the West Indies. Hence I draw the following inferences, to 

 which maybe attached a greater or a less amount of probability. 



1. That the biological centre for II. hookeri is Northern Europe. 



2. That it has thence crossed the Atlantic in a rather narrow 

 zone. 3. Tliat it did not reach the Continent of America. 

 This, of course, is subject to correction. It may have been 

 found there. From the great extent of territory and variety of 

 climate on the mainland, I think if it had ever reached America 

 it would still be found there. 4. That it may have reached the 

 West Indies and have died out from Cuba, Jamaica, and other 

 islands, through the prevalence of dry seasons, before the lower 

 Cryptogamic plants were studied by competent botanists. 5. 

 That it has remained in Dominica because of the altogether 

 peculiar moisture of the climate in that island. 6. That it has 

 not hitherto been found in Dominica because, from some reason 

 unknown to myself, botanists .seem to have neglected this true 

 pearl of the Antilles, matchless in the beauty of its natural 

 scenery, and in the wealth of its Cryptogamic flora. 



//. hookeri is noticed as peculiar in not recovering its fresh- 

 ness when moistened after having been dried. This I found to 

 be the case. On being carefully moistened about eight months 

 after it was collected and dried, it remained flaccid, whilst the 

 rest of the mosses and Ilepatic^e from Dominica, when similarly 

 treated, looked as fresh as when they were gathsred. But // 

 hookeri exhibited another peculiarity even more remarkable, for 

 it alone of all the Muscuien; that I brought home, grew and 

 produced fruit alter so long a period of desiccation. The fruit- 

 ing parts of a specimen which I sent to ihe herbarium at Kew 

 were entirely developed in a moist case on the table at which I 

 am now writing. It seems as if the plant, incapable of the 

 imbibition or intussusception of moisture sufficient to restore the 

 freshness of its foliage, nevertheless retained, in a very unusual 

 degree, its capacity for such development as might secure the 

 continuance of its species. Such a speciality no doubt favours 

 the suggestion that // hookeri may have crossed from the East, 

 but I confess myself inclined to be suspicious when coincidences 

 run too much on "all fours." I found many mosses in Madeira 

 and' several lichens in Jamaica, which I have been quite unable 

 to distinguish from British species. These may be common 

 cases of widely distributed forms. H. hookeri does not appear 

 to be of this class. HENRY H. Higgins 



Rainhill, May 2 



