172 

Memoirs of the General Helvetic Society (vol. xxiv.) a review of 
the genus Zieobroma, after having compared his specimens in 
the herbaria of Kew, Berlin, and Geneva. 
The biological interest of the Mediterranean Region, which 
includes Southern Europe, the north coast of Africa, and those 
lands vaguely termed the Levant, is in many respects the opposite 
of that of the great Russian empire. Extending from the Straits 
of Gibraltar to the foot of the Caucasus and Lebanon, over 
40 to 45 degrees of longitude, by 10 to 12 degrees of latitude, 
from the southern declivities of the Pyrenees, of the Alps, the 
Scardus, and the Balkan, to the African shores, it shows, in- 
deed, a certain uniformity of vegetation through the whole 
of this length and breadth; but ict has evidently been the 
scene of great and frequent successive geological convulsions 
and disturbances, which, whilst they have wholly or partially 
destroyed some of the races most numerous in individuals, have 
at the same time so broken up the surface of the earth as to 
afford great facilities for the preservation or isolation of others 
represented by a comparatively small number of individuals. 
The consequence is that there is probably no portion of the 
northern hemisphere in the Old World, of equal extent, where 
the species altogether, and especially the endemic ones, are more 
numerous, none, I believe, which contains so many dissevered 
species (those which occupy several limited areas far distant from 
each other), and certainly none where there are so many strictly 
local races, species or even genera, occupying in few or numerous 
individuals single stations limited sometimes to less than a mile. 
In all these respects the Mediterranean region far exceeds, abso- 
lutely as well as relatively, the great Russian region, which has 
three times its length and twice its breadth ; it presents, also, 
perhaps almost as great a contrast to a more southern tract of 
uniform vegetation extending across the drier portion of Africa 
and Arabia as far as Scinde. This diversified endemic and local 
character exemplified in the plants of the Mediterranean region 
has, as far as I can learn, been observed also in insects. 
Of the three great European peninsulas which form the prin- 
cipal portion of the region, the Italian is the narrowest and has 
the least of individual character in its biology, but it is the most 
central one, and, including its continental base with the declivity 
of the Alps, may be taken as a fair type of the region generally ; 
it is also by far the best known. Italy was the first amongst 
European nations to acquire a name in the pursuit of natural 
science after emerging from the barbarism of the middle ages ; 
and although she has since been more devoted to art, and has 
allowed several of the more northern states far to outstrip her in 
science, she has still, amidst all her vicissitudes, produced a fair 
share of eminent physiologists as well as systematic zoologists 
and botanists ; and within the last few years the cultivation of 
biology appears to have received a fresh impulse. It is only to 
be hoped that it may not be seriously checked by local and 
political intrigues, which appear to have succeeded, in one in- 
stance at least, in conferring an important botanical post on the 
least competent of the several candidates. Amongst the various 
publishing academies and associations mentioned in my address 
of 1865, the Italian Society of Natural Sciences at Milan 
issues a considerable number of papers on Italian zoology ; 
and a few others in zoology and palcontology are scattered 
over the publications of the Academies of Turin and Venice 
and of the Technical Institute of Palermo. From the lists 
I have received, there appear to have been recent catalogues 
of Sicilian and Modenese birds by Doderlein in the ‘* Palermo 
Journal,” of Italian Araneida and Modenese fishes by Canes- 
trini in the ‘‘ Milanese Transactions,” and of Italian Diptera, 
commenced by Rondani in the Bulletin of the Italian Entomo- 
logical Society. Malacology, so peculiarly important in the 
study of the physical history of the Mediterranean region, has 
produced numerous papers, chiefly in the Milanese Transactions, 
and in Gentiluomo’s ‘‘ Bulletino Malacologica,” and ‘* Biblioteca 
Malacologica ” published at Pisa. I also learn that at the time 
of the decease of the late Prof. Paolo Savi, in the beginning of 
April, the manuscript of his ‘‘ Ornitologia Italiana” was com- 
plete, and had just been placed in the printer’s hands. 
In Botany, Parlatore’s elaborate ‘‘ Flora Italiana” has continued 
to make slow progress. We have received up to the second | art 
of the fourth volume, reaching as far upward as Euphorbiaceze, 
having commenced with the lower orders. 
Botany ceased with the year 1847, as | presumed to have been 
the case when I mentioned it in 1865, and has since been re- 
placed by a ‘‘Nuovo Giornale Botanico Italiano,” which con- 
tinues, with tolerable regularity, issuing four parts in the year, 
NATURE 


The od Journal of | 
[Sune 29, 1871 
the last received being the second of the third volume. The most 
valuable of the systematic papers it contains are Beccari’s de- 
scriptions of some of his Bornean collections. Delpino, well 
known for his interesting dichogamic observations, as well as for 
some rather imaginative speculations, has also contributed 
to systematic botany a monograph of Marcgraviacez:, but, un- 
fortunately, without sufficient command of materials for the com- 
pilation of a useful history of that small but difficult group, and 
with a useless imposition of new names to forms which he thinks 
may have been already published, but has not the means of 
verifying. De Notaris, under the auspices of the municipality of 
Genoa, has published a synopsis of Italian Bryology, forming a 
separate octavo volume of considerable bulk. 
Of the other two great European peninsulas I have little to 
say, notwithstanding their great comparative biological import- 
ance. The Western or Iberian Peninsula is the main centre of 
that remarkable Western flora to which I specially alluded in 
1869, and which, more perhaps than any other, requires com- 
parison with entomological and other faunas. But Spain is 
sadly in arrear in her pursuit of science. With great promise in 
the latter half of the last century, and certainly the country of 
many eminent naturalists, especially botanists, she has now for 
so long been subject to chronic pronunciamentos that she leaves 
the natural riches of her soil to be investigated by foreigners. 
Willkomm and Lange’s * Prodromus Flore Hispanicze,” which, 
when I last mentioned it, was in danger of remaining a frag- 
ment, has since been continued, and, it is hoped, will shortly 
be completed by the publication of one more part. I have no 
notes on any recent zoological papers beyond Steindachner’s 
Reports on his Ichthyological tour in Spain and Portugal, and 
the Catalogues of the Zoological Museum of Lisbon publishing 
by the Lisbon Academy of Sciences. The Eastern Peninsula, 
Turkey, and Greece, with the exception of some slight attempts 
at Athens, has no endemic biological literature, and, with its 
present very unsatisfactory social state, affords little attraction to 
foreign visitors. The Levant, in respect of Botany at least, has 
has been much more fully investigated ; but there, asin Turkey, 
much yet remains to be done; and pending the issue of Boissier’s 
second volume already mentioned, I know of nothing of any im- 
portance in the biology of the East Mediterranean region as 
having been worked out within the last two or three years. As 
a hiatus, however, and yet a link between the Indian and the 
European Floras and Faunas, it will am ply repay the study to be 
bestowed upon it by future naturalists. 
( Zo be continued) 


ASTRONOMY 
On the Great Sun-spot of June 1843 * 
ONE of the largest and most remarkable spots ever seen on the 
sun’s disc appeared in June 1843, and continued visible to the 
naked eye for seven or eight days. The diameter of this spot was, 
according to Schwabe, 74,000 miles; so that its area was many 
times greater than that of the earth’s surface. Now, it has been 
observed during a number of sun-spot cycles that the larger spots 
are generally found at or near the epoch of the greatest numbers. 
The year 1843 was, however, a inimum epoch of the eleven- 
year cycle. It would seem, therefore, that the formation of this 
extraordinary spot was an anomaly, and that its origin ought not 
to be looked for in the general cause of the spots of Schwabe’s 
cycle, As having a possible bearing on the question under con- 
sideration, let us refer to a phenomenon observed at the same 
moment, on the Ist September, 1859, by Mr. Carrington, at 
Redhill, and Mr. Hodgson, at Highgate. ‘‘ Mr. Carrington had 
directed his telescope to the sun, and was engaged in observing 
his spots, when suddenly two intensely luminous bodies burst 
into view on its surface. They moved side by side through a 
space of about thirty-five thousand miles, first increasing in 
brightness, then fading away. In five minutes they had 
vanished, . . . It is a remarkable circumstance that the 
observations at Kew show that on the very day, and at the very 
hour and minute of this unexpected and curious phenomenon, a 
moderate but marked magnetic disturbance took place, and a 
storm, or great disturbance of the magnetic element, occurred 
four hours after midnight, extending to the southern hemisphere.” 
The opinion has been expressed by more than one astronomer 
that this phenomenon was produced by the fall of meteoric 
matter upon the sun’s surface. Now the fact may be worthy of 
* From the “ American Journal of Science and Arts,” vol. i., April 1871. 
