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A 
ahr NATURE 
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showing their order of superposition and relative thickness. 
Although the division into systems, series, and formations are 
very detailed, the size of the chart is such, and the use of colours 
is so judicious, that there is little danger of it causing perplexity 
and confusion to the young student; the plan seems to us ad- 
mirably clear and useful, and the table is in the highest degree 
creditable to its constructor, Mr. H. W. Bristow, F.R.S.,F.G.S., 
director of the Geological Survey of England and Wales. It is 
intended for the use of schools, but we are sure it will be 
welcomed by many geological students who have long left 
school. 
M. Fevix PLATEAU describes in Zes Afondes, an ingenious 
process, of his own invention, for drawing on paper white lines 
ona black ground—a method so frequently used for scientific 
illustrations—by means of which both author and artist will be 
able to judge of the effect of such an illustration before putting 
‘it into the hands of the engraver. A piece of thickish paper, as 
smooth as possible, a little larger than the intended illustration, 
is heated, say by laying it, with proper precautions against being 
injured, on the top of a stove, and a piece of bees-wax is rubbed 
over it until the paper is completely covered with a thin 
coating. A piece of glass, the size of the paper, is blackened 
by being held over a candle, and when thoroughly cooled it is 
laid on the waxed paper and rubbed firmly with the fingers, the 
result being that a blackened surface is produced on the paper, 
on which any design can be traced with a needle for the finer 
lines, or the back of a steel-pen for the thicker ones. 
A GREAT international horticultural exhibition is to be held 
at the Alexandra Palace on May 24 and five following days, on 
the occasion of the paiace being opened to the public. 
GENERAL Comstocx’s ‘‘ Annual Report of the Survey of 
the North and North-Western Lakes” of America for the year 
ending June 1872, contains the results of much well-planned 
and thoroughly well-performed work. A well-constructed map 
illustrates the many typographical and hydrographical data. 
One point we may mention is that General Comstock has come 
to the conclusion, as the results of several years’ observations, 
that the moon and sun undoubtedly cause tides in Lake Michi. 
gan, though the rise of level is very small indeed ; the combina- 
tion of the two at syzigies giving a tide somewhat less than 
o'12 of a foot. 
Dr. B. W. RicuHarpson, F.R.S-, has been elected by the 
President and Council of the Royal Society, Croonian Lecturer 
on the subject of muscular motion. 
Amonc the Candidates for the professorship of Anatomy to 
the Royal Academy are Dr. B. W. Richardson, F.R.S., and 
Mr. John Marshall, F.R.S. 
Tue Academy understands that Mr. Moggridge, author of 
‘‘ Harvesting Ants and Trap-door Spiders,” recently reviewed 
in NaTuRE, has deposited specimens of the animals and their 
nests in the British Museum, and that they are exhibited in one 
of the public galleries. 
THE additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during the 
last week include a black Cuckoo (Zndynamys sp ?) from _Mada- 
-gascar, and a Seychellean Sternothere (Sternothaera subniger) from 
the Seychelles, presented by Commissioner H. C. St. John ; four 
Spanish Terrapins (Clemmys leprosa), and six Greek land- 
tortoises (Zestudo greca) from Morocco, presented by Sir J. 
Drummond Hay, K.C.B. : a Vulpine Squirrel (Sciurus vulpinus 
var capistratus) from S. America, presented by Mr. G. Moore ; 
a Barbary Ape (J/acacus inuus) from N. Africa, deposited by 
Lord Calthorpe ; three Barbary Sheep (Ovis tragelaphus) born in 
the Gardens ; a De Filippi’s Meadow Starling (Starnella defilippi) 
‘from Rio de la Plata, and a Black Kite (A%/ous migrans), 
~ European, purchased ; and two variegated Touracons (Schivorhis 
africana) from W. Africa, received in exchange, 
PREHISTORIC CULTURE OF FLAX 
D®. OSWALD HEER, the eminent botanist, and one who 
has devoted so much attention to the structure and history of 
fossil plants, publishes an article upon flax and its culture among 
the ancients, especially the prehistoric races of Europe. His me- 
moir may be summarised as follows: First, flax has been cultivated 
in Egypt for five thousand years, and that it was and is one of 
the most generally diffused plants of that country. It occupied 
a similar position in ancient Babylonia, in Palestine, and on the 
Black Sea. It occurred in Greece during the prehistoric period, 
and at an early date was carried into Italy, while its cultivation 
in Spain was probably originated by the Phcenicians and Car- 
thaginians. Second, it is also met with in the oldest Swiss 
lacustrine villages, while, at the same time, no hemp nor fabrics 
manufactured from wool are there to be found. This is con- 
sidered a remarkable fact, since the sheep was one of the oldest 
domestic animals, and was known during the stone period. The 
impossibility of shearing the fleece by means of stone or bone 
implements is supposed to have been the reason why woollen 
fabrics were not used. It is thought probable that the skin, with 
its attached wool, was probably made use of for articles of 
clothing. Third, the lake dwellers probably received flax from 
Southern Europe, from which section fresh seeds must have been 
derived from time to time. The variety cultivated was the small, 
native, narrow-leaved kind from the coast of the Mediterranean, 
and not at all that now raised in Europe. It must, therefore, 
have been cultivated also in Southern Europe, although Dr. 
Heer could not ascertain among what people and at what age 
this took place. If this could be ascertained it would be an 
important point in the determination of the antiquity of the lake 
dwellers. Fourth, at the time of the empire both summer flax 
and winter flax were cultivated in Italy, as now, but in what 
form it was grown in ancient Egypt is not determined. It is 
thought probable that the narrow-leaved variety was first intro- 
duced, and after that the Roman, and then the common varieties 
followed. The common plant has doubtless arisen from the 
cultivation of the narrow-leaved, while the Roman winter flax 
and the Zizum ambiguum constitute the intermediate stages. 
The original home of the cultivated flax was therefore along the 
shores of the Mediterranean. The Egyptians had probably 
cultivated it, and from them its use was doubtless disseminated. 
It is possible that the wild variety and the winter flax were grown 
elsewhere at the same time, when the cultivated variety had long 
since driven them out of use in Egypt. 
SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 
In the Fournal of Botany for February Dr. Trimen describes 
one of the most interesting additions recently made to the British 
flora, Funcus pygm@us, a well-known European species, dis- 
covered by Mr. W. H. Beeby in the already very rich locality 
of Kynance Cove, Cornwall. The article is accompanied by a 
good drawing. Mr. J. G. Baker gives a description of the little 
known osa affennina. In geographical botany Dr. W. M. 
Hind contributes a list of plants of North Cornwall. Mr. W. 
Phillips’s notes on the blue reaction given by iodine in certain 
fungi may furnish a useful discrimination of difficult species. In 
the March number Mr. Worthington Smith gives a description, 
with coloured plate, of several new Hymenomycetous fungi from 
stoves ; and Mr. J. A. Lees a useful paper on the peculiarities of 
plant-distribution in the neighbourhood of Leeds. Dr. H. F. 
Hance has an article on the ‘‘Ch’ing Muh Hsiang” or “‘ Green 
Putchuk” of the Chinese, derived from a species of Aristolochia, 
the paper being illustrated by a copy of a native drawing. In 
both these numbers are also a variety of selected articles, short 
notes, and memoranda. We are glad to see this interesting 
journal taking so increasingly useful a place among our scientific 
periodicals. 
Amonc the numerous articles of interest in the Scottish 
Naturalist for January (commencing the 2nd volume) we may 
single out especially, “ On the occurrence of the hooded seal (Cys- 
tophora cristata) at St. Andrews,” by Mr. R. Walker ; a com- 
mencement of an article on Scottish gall-making insects, by Mr. 
P. Cameron, jun., illustrated by a beautiful coloured plate of 
Nematus gallicola ; and a paper on the recent remarkable abun- 
dance of Vanessa Antiopa, the ‘‘Camberwell beauty,” in this 
country, by the editor, who sums up strongly in favour of the 
native rather than the foreign origin of the insects captured in 
