
Fuly 27, 1871] 
NATURE 
245 

that of the vanquished towards the victors ; a fitting response to 
the note of reconciliation given forth by the venerable Baron 
Liebig, to which we referred some weeks since. 
NorFo.k has always been noted for its devotion to ornitho- 
logy. The “ Transactions of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists’ | 
Society for 1870-71” contains several interesting and useful 
papers, among which we may especially mention ‘‘On the 
Ornithological Archzeology of Norfolk,” by T. Southwell, ‘‘On 
a Method of Registering Natural History Observations,” by 
Prof. Newton, “A Natural History Tour in Spain and Algeria,” 
by J. H. Gurney, and ‘‘ On Certain Coast Insects found exist- 
ing inland at Brandon, Suffolk.” The author of this last paper 
believes that these species must have survived for several thousand 
years, since the great valley of the fens was submerged. The 
insects found are peculiar to coast sand-hills, the nearest of which 
are at a distance of forty miles; and yet, ‘‘in spite of their 
isolation and alteration of condition, the species are as true and 
as clearly defined as those of our present coast.” 
Mr. W. G. M‘Ivor, Superintendent of the Cinchona Planta- 
tions of the Bengal Government in British Sikkim, has published 
a lengthy report, of which the following is an abstract :—‘‘ The 
plantations are situated in the Valley of Rungbee in the 
Himalayas, about thirteen miles frem Darjeeling, which seems 
admirably adapted for the growth of cinchona, The climate is 
very moist, being rarely free from rain. Nevertheless the state 
of the plantations is reported as very unsatisfactory ; the plants 
have nothing like the luxuriant foliage which characterises those 
grown in Southern India on the Nilgheries. They seem to thrive 
for three or four years at the most, and then become diseased.” 
Mr. M‘Ivor says that trees of equal height do not produce so 
much bark as in the South of India, being of more slender 
growth, and the bark being thinner. 
A GREAT demand for the English sparrow in various parts of 
the United States has induced their importation from England 
and Germany in large numbers; but in many instances where 
this has been done in large cages, most of the birds have died on 
the passage. In one instance, where four hundred were placed 
in two cages, only seven were safely landed in New York. Per- 
sons who haye given this subject their attention, advise that the 
importations be made in long low cages, known as store cages, 
which are two or three feet long, about nine inches high, and 
twelve from back to front, with perches within two inches of the 
bottom. In a cage of this kind three or four dozen can, it is said, 
be readily transported, provided they be supplied with proper 
food, as well as with sand and fine gravel and plenty of water. 
M. Wurtz has announced to the French Academy of Sciences 
that a young chemist in his laboratory has succeeded in trans- 
forming lactose, or the uncrystallisable sugar of milk, into dul- 
cose or dulcine, the sugar of mannite, which may easily be 
obtained in very beautiful crystals, by the successive reaction of 
hydrochloric acid and sodium-amalgam. 
M. Fre.ix PLATEAv has recently undertaken a number of ex- 
periments to determine the question whether the cause of the 
death of fresh-water animals when removed to sea water, and 
of marine animals when removed to fresh water, is the dif- 
ference in the density or in the chemical constitution of the 
water. His observations were made mostly on various species 
of Articulata; he found that those fresh-water species which 
possess an aérial respiration can survive the change to salt water, 
while those which possess only a branchial and cutaneous respi- 
ration die quickly. By experimenting on water made denser by 
the solution of sugar, M. Plateau came to the conclusion that 
the density of the water is not the destructive agent, but a portion 

| 
of the salts held in solution. The chlorides of sodium, potassium, | 
and magnesium, he found to be very quickly fatal to fresh-water 
species, while the sulphates of magnesium and calcium had no 

prejudicial effect. In the same manner the death of marine 
animals in fresh water appeared due to the giving off of sea- 
salt from their bodies to the surrounding fluid. All these facts 
he believes explicable from the laws of endosmose and diffusion. 
“A Key to the Natural Orders of British Wild Flowering 
Plants,” by Thomas Baxter, is designed to provide an “easier, 
although perhaps less scientific, method of identifying the orders 
of British Wild Flowering Plants than is generally found in 
analytical keys.” There is no royal road to botany, and we 
doubt whether it is any real advantage to the student to sacrifice 
scientific in favour of superficial characters. 
A CORRESPONDING member of the Glasgow Natural History 
Society, having been lately in Panama, has contributed to a 
local journal in the latter city an interesting account of the ants 
of the country. He describes a curious covered way or tubular 
bridge. In tracing one of these covered ways he found it led 
over a pretty wide fracture in the rocks, and was carried across 
in the air in the form of a tubular bridge of half an inch in 
diameter. It was the scene of busy traffic. There was nearly a 
foot of unsupported tube from one edge of the cliff to the other. 
Mr. TuwairEs, in his ‘‘ Enumeration of Ceylon Plants,” says 
that from the large extent of forest land which has been and is 
now being appropriated to coffee cultivation, there is little doubt 
that some of the indigenous plants will in time become exceed- 
ingly rare, if not altogether extirpated, or exist only in the 
Botanic Garden, into which as {many as possible are being intro- 
duced. The obtrusive character, too, of a plant brought to the 
island less than fifty years since is helping to alter the character 
of the vegetation up to an elevation of 3,000 feet. This is the 
Lantana mixta, averbenaceous species introduced from the West 
Indies, which appears to have found in Ceylon asoil and climate 
exactly suited to its growth. It now covers thousands of acres 
with its dense masses of foliage, taking complete possession of 
land where cultivation has been neglected or abandoned, pre- 
venting the growth of any other plants, and even destroying small 
trees, the tops of which its subscandent stems are able to reach, 
The fruit of this plant is so acceptable to frugivorous birds of all 
kinds that, through their instrumentality, it is spreading rapidly, 
to the complete exclusion of the indigenous vegetation from spots 
where it becomes established. 


METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATORIES 
ys the part of the Quarterly Weather Report of the 
Meteorological Office just issued, for January—March, 
1870, the following information is given with regard to the 
observatories from which the observations are recorded, 
accompanied by the illustrations which the courtesy of the 
committee enables us to reproduce. As correct an idea 
as possible is thus given of the value of the thermo- 
metrical and anemometrical observations published by 
them, and the local influences which may exert an effect 
in each case. 
VALENCIA.—The observatory is situated close to the 
shore on the south side of the island, about three miles 
from the open sea. 
The anemograph is on the roof of the house, which 
is two stories high. Its exposure is fairly good, for 
although it is situated in a valley, with hills of the 
height of about 1,000 feet to the seuth and south-east 
of it at a distance of three miles, and with a slight hill 
about 700 feet high distant three-quarters of a mile on the 
north-west of it, the country towards the other points 
of the compass is quite open, and the situation for 
wind is as favourable as can be obtained on that very 
rugged coast. The only point from which the wind is 
materially deflected or checked by local influence is the 
north-west. The house is an ordinary dwelling house of 
small size. 
