May 26, 1870] 
NATURE 
71 
ee 
in safety to Hankow. The medals presented by the society to 
the chief public schools were awarded to G. G. Butler, Liver- 
pool College ; M. Stuart, Rossall School; G. W. Gent, Rossall 
School ; and J. H. Collins, Liverpool College. Sir Roderick 
Murchison, in the course of his opening address, said that he 
grieved at being unable to offer some encouraging sentences on 
the prospect of speedily welcoming Dr. Livingstone home; at the 
same time (he proceeded) there is no cause for despondency as 
to his life and safety. He had been forsome time at Ujjiji, on 
the Lake Tanganyika, whence he wrote home on the 30th May 
last, though unable to make any movement for want of carriers 
and supplies. These were, indeed, forwarded to him by Dr. 
Kirk from Zanzibar, when an outbreak of cholera stopped and 
paralysed the relieving party. Recent intelligence, however, 
has reached the Foreign Office to the effect that the pestilence 
had subsided to so great an extent that we may presume the com- 
munication between the coast and Ujiji has before now been re- 
opened. The work which still lies before Livingstone has been 
often adyerted to, and it is hoped that he will live to advance to 
the north end of the Tanganyika, and there ascertain if its 
waters flow into the Albert Nyanza of Baker. If the junction 
should be proved, we may indulge the thought that, informed as 
Livingstone must now be of the actual carrying out of the great 
project of Sir Samuel Baker, he may endeavour to meet his 
great contemporary. ‘The progress of the great Egyptian expe- 
dition of Baker having been delayed in its outset, we know that 
it only left Khartoum to ascend the White Nile in February. 
After reaching Gondokoro, as was expected to be the case in 
the first days of March, some time must necessarily elapse in 
establishing a factory above the upper rapids, and beyond the 
tributary Asua, where the steam-vessels are to be put together 
before they are Jaunched on the Nile water, on which they are 
to pass to the great Lake Albert Nyanza. As soon, however, as 
a steamer is on that lake, we may be assured that Baker, with 
his well-known energy and promptitude, will lose not a moment 
in the endeavour to reach its southern end, in the expectation of 
there giving hand and help to Livingstone. 
THE paragraph inserted among our ‘‘ Notes” of April re- 
specting Mr. Wilson Saunders’s collection of ‘‘ mimetic ” plants 
at the recent Linnean soirée having been copied by our able 
contemporary the Gardener's Chronicle, a correspondent in that 
paper asks for a complete list of the mimetic pairs. In giving 
us the list, Mr. Saunders states that the plants were none of 
them grown for the purpose, but simply selected from his green- 
house on the spur of the moment for the purposes of the soirde. 
Olea europea... cme, Jo Oleacez) 
Swammerdamia Antennaria + + « Composite) 
Kleinia ficoides  . - + © « « Composite 
Cotyledon tricuspidata 50 . Crassulacez 
‘Thujopsis letevirens . Coniferz 
Selaginella circinata . Lycopodiacez. 
Phyllanthus Xylophylla Euphorbiaceze 
Polygonum platycladon. Polygonacez. 
Peperomia sp. Brazil. . ee 
. Nematanthus longipes . . Gesneracez 
Haworthia planifolia . c pereaa| 
Cotyledon (Echeveria) aloides . Crassulacez 
Gymnostachyum Verechetiee c panes) 
Echites rubro-venosa . Apocynee 
Sempervivum arenarium Spe! 
Haworthia atrovirens . Liliaceze 
Echinocereus Blankii . . . . .« Cactacez 
Euphorbia echinata Euphorbiaceze 
Aralia sp. Bahia . . . Araliacezx) 
Philodendron sp. Trinidad . . Araceze! 
Dorstenia sp. (near villosa) Brazil... . et 
> Eranthemum sp. n. Brazil . . . Acanthacez, 
Grevillea sp. . Sen, MCC et 
Acacia chordophylla . Leguminose 
Euonymus latifolius . .,.. . eres} 
Hedera canariensisvar. . . . . . Araliacexe 
Tlex Aquifolium yar,. . . . . , panes! 
Osmanthus Aquifolium var... . Oleacez, 
AN admirable article appears in the British Medical Journal 
for May 21st, on Government Honours to Medical Science. 
Starting with Faraday’s reply, when consulted by the Govern- 
ment of the day as to the propriety of a more liberal distribution 
of titlesand other honours amongst men of science, that ‘* Govern- 
ment should, for ifs ow sake, honour the men who do honour and 
service to the country,” the writer shows how this principle 
might be carried out by the appointment of Medical Sanitary 
Inspectors for the whole country, instead of merely for large 
towns ; of State Inspectors of Civil Hospitals; and other similar 
arrangements. 
WE quote from the Monzteur Scientifique :—‘*M. R. Wolf, of 
Ziirich, has just published the véswzé of his observations on the 
solar spots made since 1864. The minimum occurs in 1867, 
and agrees with the period of 11} years, found by Sabine and 
himself, Designating the relative frequency of the spots by, 
M. Wolf expresses the variation of the magnetic declination at 
Christiania by the formula v = 0'04137 + 4/'921, which does 
not, however, completely agree with observation.” 
WE quote the following from the Pal/ Mall Gazette for the 
benefit of our Darwinian readers :—‘‘ Two new birds have arrived 
at the Zoological Gardens the alleged habits of which afford a 
curious theme for speculation, and serve to supply an illustration 
to poets and philosophers. The male has a strong, short, curved 
beak; the female, a much longer bill. The naturalists tell us 
that the male breaks open the bark of the tree, within which 
lies hid the grub on which they feed; and the female pulls out 
the worm and presents her mate with half the meal. Here isa 
delightful instance of the essential incompleteness and mutual 
helpfulness of the sexes, the two forming one, as we are told they 
should, in perfect conjugal union. We hope that observation 
may confirm the tale ; butanimals at the Zoological Gardens are 
painfully apt to disappoint the expectations which we have been 
led to form of them. There is the aye-aye, forinstance. Every 
one has heard of its marvellously long nail, and its singular 
adaptation to the necessities of the creature’s existence. Pro- 
fessor Owen has founded an exquisite argument on the use of the 
long nail in extracting the creature’s food from the deep crevices 
in which it is supposed to find it. It is an admirable instance of 
design. But although all sorts of ingenious devices have been 
adopied to induce the aye-aye to use its nail for these purposes, 
it seems to have a rooted objection to do so, and has never been 
known to do anything else than scratch its nose with it, which 
nobody can suppose to be a final cause.”’ 
WE have received from the Colonial Government of Victoria 
a copy of the Reports of the Mining Surveyors and Registrars for 
the quarter ending 31st December 1869, containing the Gold 
Mining Statistics for the quarter, the estimated yield of gold and 
quantity of gold exported ; the summary of yield of gold from 
quartz, quartz tailings, &c., crushed ; and the number and dis- 
tribution of miners on the gold fields of the Colony on the 31st 
of December. 
Tue Botanical Garden at Rotterdam is about to be suppressed 
by the communal administration. M. Rauwenhoff, the director, 
and M. Witte, the head gardener, have given this information to - 
their European coz/fréves. 
A JOURNAL of Horticulture has been started in Portugal under 
the title of Journal de Horticultura Fratica de Portugal, by M. 
José Marques Loureiro, M. Welwitsch has shown how wide a. 
field for further exploration by botanists still remains in the Por- 
tuguese settlements in Africa. 
A NINTH supplement to the Annals of the Munich Observatory 
is published, containing the particulars of 4793 telescopic stars ' 
between -3° and -9° declination, together with the observations 
of Lalande, Bessel, Riimker, and Schjellerup. 
