230 
NATURE 
[Fan. 4, 1883 
to a rigorous examination in the seclusion of his palace, and he 
is much disquieted at the result. The people, he finds, are 
poverty-stricken, and await relief, and the present is a time of 
great anxiety and embarrassment. The crisis must be met with 
prompt measures and a reverent heart ; the ministers are accord- 
ingly enjoined to exhibit loyalty and justice, and to strenuously 
guard themselves against the thraldom of official routine. They 
are to discover the real state of the country, and to make such 
dispositions as may give rise to all possible advantage, and eradi- 
cate all possible evil. If all this be done, we have the Imperial 
assurance that the people will live in peace and quietness, till 
heaven be in harmony with earth, and all harmful influerces 
allayed. If decrees were always obeyed, the comet will have 
exercised a beneficent influence on the condition of the Chinese 
people. 
ALL interested in photography will find much that is useful 
and curious in Mr, Baden Pritchard’s Year-Book of Photo- 
graphy for 1883. 
Mr. E. Roperts has sent us his handy and useful Tide Table 
for 1883, containing the times of high water at London Bridge, 
and showing the possible overflows; to all Londoners interested 
in any way in their river, this table will prove serviceable. We 
have also from Mr. Roberts Tide Tables for the Indian ports, 
and Tide Tables for the port of Hongkong, in handy little 
volumes, containing many carefully compiled tables calculated 
to be of great service. 
THE total number of visitors to the Royal Gardens, Kew, for 
the year 1882, was 1,244,167. This is 407,491 in excess of the 
numbers for 1881, which in its turn was greater by 111,254 than 
the number of visitors in any previous year. As in 1881 the 
Sunday visitors (606,935) were about equal in number to those 
on all the other days of the week put together (637,232). 
A NEw natural history magazine in the Flemish language is 
announced. It is published at Ghent, and the title is Watura 
Maandschrift voor Natuurwetenschaffin uitgegeven door het 
Natuurwetenschappelijk Genootschap von Ghent. The editors 
are J. MacLeod, Ed. Remonchamps, and L. Baeklandt. The 
natural sequence is that another Belgian magazine, in Wallon, 
will appear. The ‘‘gift of tongues” is daily becoming more 
and more a necessity for a working naturalist, and De Can- 
dolle’s assertion that English is destined to become the language 
of science seems gradually more remote in realisation. 
THE December number of the Agricultural Students’ Gazetie, 
Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, contains an article by 
Sir J. B. Lawes on the future of agricultural field experiments, 
in which he points out that the time when isolated field experi- 
ments were of value has pas-:ed, and that now the questions to 
be solved in this way are such as can only be answered by care- 
fully conducted experiments lasting over many years. Miss 
Ormerod contributes a paper on the Gooseberry Caterpillar, the 
larva of Nematus Ribesit, in which she suggests the best mode 
of preventing its ravages. A readable summary of the recent 
work of Leuckart and Thomas on the life-history of the Fluke 
is given by Mr. Ozame. The other papers in the number are 
on Contagious Diseases, by Prof. Garside; on the Harvest of 
1882, by Prof. Little ; on Butter-making, by Mr. Weber ; besides 
much matter of more purely College interest. We notice that 
the College has commenced a series of field experiments on corn 
crops, in conducting which doubtless the advice of Sir J. B. 
Lawes will be followed. This Gazet/e in its new form promises 
to become of permanent value, and is exceedingly creditable to 
its editors, students of the Royal Agricultural College. 
THE third expedition fitted out by the Milan Society for the 
commercial exploration of Africa, will leave early this month 
for Massana. The leader of the expedition is Signor Bianchi, 
who knows Abyssinia thoroughly. Count Salimboni accompanies 
him as engineer, and Prof. Licata as naturalist. 
ProF, DoMENICO LovisATo and Lieut. Bove, who jointly 
undertook the last Italian Antarctic expedition, are about to 
undertake ancther Antarctic journey for scientific purposes. 
News has been received from the German traveller, Robert 
Flegel, who was sent out to explore the Niger-Binue district. 
It appears that on April 10 last the traveller crossed the Binue 
River to the southern shore, and reached the large town of 
Wukari on April 13. By way of Bantadchi he proceeded, in 
four days’ journey, to the decaying government city of Bakundi, 
in one and a half days more to Beli, and thence he reached 
Kontcha in the Adamnua district on May 26, From Kontcha 
to Jola is only a seven days’ route. Flegel, whose health has 
much improved, strongly advises the establishment of a German 
station in that healthy and fertile country. 
WE have on our table the following books :—Sydney Obser- 
vatory, Double-Star Results, 1871-81 (Sydney) ; Der Electricitat 
und der Magnetism, vol. i., Clerk Maxwell (Springer, Berlin) ; 
Cutting Tools, R. H. Smith (Cassell, Petter, and Galpin); A 
New Theory of Nature, D. Dewar (\W. Reeves); Transactions 
of the Sanitary Institute, vol. iii. (Stanford); The Great Pyramid, 
R. A. Proctor (Chatto and Windus) ; Microbes in Fermentation, 
Putrefaction, and Disease, Ch. Cameron (Bailliére, Tindall, 
and Co.); The Nebule, a Fragment of Astronomical Hi-tory, 
A. E. Garrod (Parker) ; Relative Mortality of Large and Smalk 
Hospitals, H. C. Burdett (Churchills), To the Gold Coast for 
Gold, Burton and Cameron (Chatto and Windus); Physicel 
Optics, R. T. Glazebrook (Longman) ; Essays in Philosophical 
Criticism, Seth and Haldane (Longmans) ; Year-Book of Pho- 
tography, 1883, H. B. Pritchard (Piperand Carter) ; Report on 
the Oban Pennatulida (A. M. Marshall and W. P. Marshall) ; 
Catalogue of Batrachia gradientia, G. A. Boulenger (British 
Museum); The Brewer, Distiller, and Wine Manufacturer 
(Churchills) ; The Churchmau’s Almanak for Eight Centuries, 
W. A. Whitworth (Wells, Gardner, and Co.) ; Celtic Britain, 
Prof, J. Rhys (S.P.C.K.) ; Zoological Record, vol. xviii. 1881 
(Van Voorst) ; Rankine’s Useful Rules and Tables, sixth edition 
(Griffin) ; Madeira Spectroscopic, C. Piazzi Smyth (W. and A. 
K. Johnston); Ragnarok, the Age of Fire and Gravel, Ig. 
Donnelly (Sampson Low and Co.) ; The Electric Lighting Act, 
1882, Clement Higgins and E. W. W. Edwards (W. Clowes). 
THE additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during the 
past week include a Black-eared Marmoset (Hafale penicillata 8) 
from South-East Brazil, preseated by Miss Tilleard ; a Grey 
Ichneumon (ferfestes griseus) from India, presented by Mr. W. 
L. Brodie; a Rose Hill Parrakeet (Platycercus eximius) from 
Australia, presented by Mr. Geo. Lawson, F.Z.S.; a Black 
Tortoise (Zestudo carbonaria) from St. Thomas’, West Indies, 
presented by Viscount Tarbat, F.Z.S. ; an Indian Cobra (Vaze 
tripudians) from India, presented by Capt. Braddick ; two 
Common Curlews (Mumenius arguata), a Common Lapwing 
(Vanellus cristatus), a Golden Plover (Charadrius pluvialis), 
British, purchased. 
BIOLOGICAL NOTES 
On A NEw GENUS OF CRYPTOPHYCE..—It would appear 
that the interesting fresh-water genus of Algz described by 
3ornet and Grunow as Mazza (vide NATURE, Vol. xxvi. p. 557) 
i; without doubt the same as Nostochopsis of Wood. This 
genus of Wood was first briefly described in the Proc. Amer. 
Philos, Soc., 1869, and more fully, and with good figures, in the 
“‘Fresh-water Alge of the United States,” 1872. The Phila- 
delphia species, 1. lobatus, Wood, is referred by its discoverer 
to the Rivulacez, and is apparently a different species from that 
described by Bornet and Grunow from Brazil. 
