May 24, 1877] 



NA TURE 



73 



Intelligence has been received from Quebec stating that 

 ships which have recently arrived at that port have encountered 

 unusually large fields of ice and remarkably high icebergs in the 

 Atlantic. The Una, from Leith, passed through eighty-five 

 miles of heavy ice. 



At the meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh on Monday 

 night, reports were read from four lighthouse keepers on the west 

 coast of Scotland, detailing their experiences of earthquake shocks 

 on March 11 and April 23. The keeper of the Pladda light- 

 house says tlie tower by his dwelling-house shook very much ; the 

 Lismore keeper reported that everything in his lighthouse shook 

 at an alarming rate and awoke all the inmates. Mr. Stevenson, 

 C.E., said these observations were valuable because of their 

 trustworthiness. 



The engineers of the French Northern Railway have been 

 making experiments with the vacuum brake, which has been 

 found to work satisfactorily owing to its simplicity of construc- 

 tion. MM. Saitiaux and Lartique have devised some ingenious 

 arrangements for bringing it into action automatically if any 

 mistake has been made respecting the crossings. Should dis- 

 tressed passengers want to call for help they can also put the 

 continuous break into operation instead of ringing a bell as is 

 customary. 



The Superintendent's [Report on the Botanic Garden and 

 Public Plantations for 1S75-76 has recently been officially pub- 

 lished in Jamaica. It deals almost entirely with plants of 

 economic value, foremost of which is the coffee, the ordinary 

 kind (Coffui aralica), apparently giving! way to its formidable 

 rival Coffea liberka, which was introduced to Jamaica in 1S74, 

 and is now thriving, especially in some districts. In one situa- 

 tion, at a height of about i,oco feet above the sea, a plant that 

 had only been planted out a little over a year has already fruited. 

 This seems to indicate that in the course of a few years the new 

 coffee may be widely cultivated in Jamaica from plants raised 

 Irom seeds ripened in the island. Amongst other important 

 plants treated of in' the report which have received special atten- 

 tion, may be mentioned cocoa, sugar canes, pine apples, cin- 

 chonas, jalap, cScc. ; of this last we learn that nearly two acres 

 are under cultivation, producing during the year under review a 

 crop of 1,700, and it was estimated at the time the report was 

 written that an additional 3,000 would be obtainable in the 

 course of a few months, all of which would find its way to 

 England. 



Dr. Lauder Lindsay of Perth has for years been forming a 

 collection of Uchens, which, although frequently broken up and 

 distributed, still forms the nucleus of a good type collection. 

 The collection consists of — l. Herbarium, the main object of 

 which is to illustrate the Variations of the Commoner Species : 

 and so to encourage (i) tlie establishment of Typical, Compre- 

 hensive, or Aggregate Species ; (2) the abolition of Named 

 Trivial Variations ; and the (3) consequent Reduction of Names, 

 and Simplification of Synonymy and Classification. 3. Museum 

 of Illustrations of the Economic Properties and Applications of 

 Lichens. 3. Library of Lichenological Works, Foreign and 

 British. 4. Drawings (original) of Microscopical Structure, 

 several thousands unpublished. 5. Correspondence with Lichen- 

 ologists. 6. Unpubhshed Manuscripts — of (i) Outlines of 

 Lichenology : " (2) " Lichenographia Britannica : " and of other 

 works or papers illustrative of Lichens in various aspects. The 

 collection has been offered— with all the cabinets and fittings 

 in which it is contained — as a donation to the Royal Botanic 

 Gardens of Edinburgh, on the simple conditions— (l) That a 

 small room is provided for its accommodation in connection 

 either with the Herbarium, or Museum of Economic Botany ; 

 and (2) That it is kept in proper order either by the Curators of 

 said Herbarium or Museum, or by any of the numerous students 

 of the Edinburgh School of Botany. But it is understood that 



no such donations can be accepted by the said school, by reason 

 of the very inadequate accommodation provided by Government 

 for the more essential requirements equally of students and 

 teachers. As has been repeatedly pointed out— officially and 

 otherwise — there is at present urgent need — (l) of a new commo- 

 dious class or lecture room ; (2) of a new commodious mu- 

 seum ; (3) of botanical laboratories ; and {4) of extra special 

 rooms for such herbarian or other purposes as the reception 

 and maintenance of such donations as that now referred to. 



A NEW burner for obtaining high temperatures in laboratories 

 has recently been described by M. Godefroy. It consists of four 

 metallic cylinders one within another ; the first and the third 

 are pierced with lateral holes at their base. The intervals 

 between the cyUnders communicate, one set with two vertical 

 pipes uniting in a horizontal pipe below, the other set with 

 another similar system. A piece of metallic net at the lower 

 part regulates the entrance of air. 



At Tabor, in Bohemia, 423 metres above the sea, in a house 

 out from the town, M. Farsky made observations of the amount 

 of carbonic acid in the air from October 10, 1874, to the end of 

 August, 1875. The average obtained was 3'43 volumes in 

 10,000 volumes of air ; a number smaller than that of Saussure 

 and Boussingault (4' 1 5)1 and higher than those got by Schulze 

 in Rostock and Fittbogen in Dahme. The most numerous 

 variations are in November, December, February, March, and 

 April, the least in October. M. Farsky says that the more 

 variable the weather, and the sharper the transition from one 

 weather to another, the greater are the variations in proportion 

 of carbonic acid in the air. The strong north-west and south- 

 west winds reduce the amount of caibonic acid, while the cold 

 north and north- east winds, which are always thought the heralds 

 of clear weather, cause an increase in the carbonic acid . Further, 

 the caibonic acid is increased descending mist, and continuous 

 dust-rain. No other connection with atmospheric precipitates 

 was perceptible. These results agree, in the main, with those 

 formerly obtained by Angus Smith and Roscoe. Smith found 

 that the air in the suburbs of Manchester contained on the 

 average 3'69 volumes in 10,000 volumes of air. The amount 

 appeared to diminish slightly during long-continued westerly 

 winds ; on the other hand it increased when easterly winds pre- 

 vailed. From a large number of analyses of air collected from 

 the hill-districts of Scotland, Smith obtained, as an average, 3^36 

 volumes in 10,000 volumes ; the extremes recorded are 3x0 and 

 3 '60. These comparatively low numbers are probably due to 

 tlie proximity of the sea, the air over which has been shown by 

 Thorpe, from a large number of analyses made over the Atlantic 

 Ocean and Irish Sea, to contain about 3 00 volumes of carbonic 

 acid in ic,ooo volumes of air. This amount was constant, or 

 nearly so, in different latitudes, and, contrary to the, statements 

 of Lewy, exhibited no perceptible diurnal or seasonal variations. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include two tigers {Fdis iigris) from Jahore, presented 

 by Rear- Admiral Rowley Lambert, C.B. ; two Javan Chevro- 

 tains (Tragtibis javanicus) from Java, presented by Messrs. Hill 

 and Isaac, Lieuts. R.N. ; a Malayan Bear (Uniis malayanus) 

 from Sumatra, presented by Dr. F. WicksteeJ ; a Phatagiu 

 Manis (Manis tricuspis) from West Africa, a Humboldt's Saki 

 (PUhecia humboUUi) from the Amazons, a Red and Yellow Mac- 

 caw \,Ara chloroptera) from South America, a Sooty Mangabey 

 {Ccrcocebus fiili^mosus) from West Africa, deposited ; a Concave 

 Casqued Hornbill {Buccros bkornis), three Yellow-biUed Blue 

 Magpies {Urocisiaflavirosbii) from India, a Pin-tailed Whydah 

 Bird [Vidua principalis) from West Africa, received in ex- 

 change ; two Impejan Pheasants (Lophop/wrtis impeyanus] fiom 

 the Himalayas, a Mantchurian Crossoptilon (Crossoplilon tiuiul- 

 churicum) from North China, purchased. 



