Nov. 26, 1874J 



NATURE 



71 



The new and revised edition of Griffith and Henfrey's " Mi- 

 crographic Dictionary" is [advancing rapidly towards completion, 

 three numbers having been publislied during the last three 

 months, bringing the work down as far as " Skin ;" and it is 

 announced that the publication will now in all probability be 

 continued without intermission till its'completion. This is most 

 desirable, considering, in the present state of science, how short 

 a time it takes for a work of this kind to become out of date, and 

 it is already three years since the commencement of the publica- 

 tion of this edition. 



A MOVEMENT is On foot at the Cape of Good Hope to intro- 

 duce salmon and trout into the rivers of that colony ; and sub- 

 scriptions are being made with the view of practically testing the 

 idea. The only obstacle seems to be in the temperature of the 

 water. The latitude of the Cape may be roughly taken at from 

 28* to 35° S., which is just within the Tropic of Capricorn, and 

 about the same as New South Wales. These latitudes are much 

 lower than the corresponding portions of the northern hemi- 

 sphere in which trout, and specially salmon, are generally found, 

 and we doubt whether the climate would be found suitable for 

 them. No pait of New Zealand is further north than about 

 35° S. ; and it has not yet been proved that salmon will live in 

 the warmer parts of that country. Still, the practical test will 

 be in the transport of salmon to the Cape, and if the experiment 

 succeeds, the acquisition will be well worth the risk. 



There was a shock of earthquake at Innspriick last 

 Thursday. 



Strong shocks of earthquake were felt on the morning of the 

 :6th inst. at Smyrna. 



We hear that Mr. Alexander Agassiz has just started on an 

 expedition of several months' duration to South America, with 

 the object of exploring and investigating the natural history of 

 Lake Titicaca, and collecting antiquities from the surrounding 

 country for the Peabody Museum. 



We are informed that in the newly-disposed Indian Museum 

 Dr. Forbes Watson is appointed director ; Dr. Birwood, late 

 ■lonorary secretary to the Victoria and Albert Museum, Curator 

 of the Museum and Assistant Reporter on the Products of 

 India ; and Mr. F. Moore, who, in conjunction with the late 

 Dr. Horsfield, prepared the catalogue of the mammals and 

 birds of the Museum when it belonged to the East India Com- 

 pany, Assistant Curator together with Dr. Cooke and Lieut. 

 Royle. 



The Daily Telegraph of Tuesday contains a long and in- 

 teresting letter, dated Zanzibar, Oct. 19, from Mr. H. M. 

 Stanley, the joint commissioner of that paper and the Neio 

 York Herald to East Africa, principally in connection with the 

 suppression of the .slave trade. The letter consists mainly of an 

 account of Mr. Stanley's journey up one of the ten mouths of the 

 river Rufigi as far as Kisu, fifty miles from the sea. Mr. Stanley 

 gives a glowing account of the river and the country through 

 which it flows, and thinks its value, from a commercial point of 

 view, cannot be too highly estimated. He corrects the accounts 

 of previous travellers, and a map of the delta accompanying the 

 letter professes for the first time to lay down correctly the 

 various channels by which the river discharges its waters. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include two Muntjacs (Cervulus ?) from Formosa, 

 presented by Mr. W. P. Galton ; a Common Kestrel ( Tinntin- 

 cuius alaudariiis), European, presented by Miss M. Truefitt ; a 

 Roseate Cockatoo (Caeatua roseicapilla] from Australia, pre- 

 sented by Mr. II. I. Aveling ; a Pomerine Skua {LestHs ponm- 

 riitus), European, new to the collection, purchased ; a BUck- 

 eared Marmoset {HapaU penicillata) from South-east Brazil, 

 deposited. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



The Transactions of the Liiineat! Society, vol. xxx.. part 2, is 

 almost entirely occupied by Mr. Miers' paper On the Lecyt'hi- 

 dacese. The author prefers Lindley's proposal of erecting this 

 group into a distinct order rather than making it a sub-tribe of 

 Harringtoniece, itself a tribe of Myrtace.-e, as Bentham and 

 Hooker have done in their "Genera Plartarum." The order 

 will then be characterised by its alternate impunctate leaves, 

 epigynous stamens, petaJoid appendage to di^c on which the 

 stamens are seated, and peculiar fruits and seeds very different 

 from those of Myrtacen?, and will consist of the following twelve 

 genera: — Gust aria, Linn. (2 sp. ); Coiironpiln, Aubl. (9 sp.) ; 

 Bertholletia, H. and Bonpl. (2 sp.) ; Lecythis, Linn. (42 sp.) ; 

 C.hytroma, nov. gen. (Lecythis in. parte auct., 25 sp.) ; Eschwcil- 

 Icra, Mart. (46 sp ) ; Jiigastnim, nov. gen. (Lecythis in parte 

 auct., 6 sp.) ; Conratari, Aubl. (8 sp.); Cariniana, Casar. 

 (7 sp.) ; Allantonia, nov. gen. (12 sip.) ; Grias, Linn. (4sp.) ; 

 and Cercophorn, nnv. pen. (i sp. ) Many of the species are now 

 described for the first time, and the paper is illustrated by thiriv- 

 three beautiful plates, ilhistrntive of each of the genera, and of 

 the fruits and seeds of a large number of the species. The part 

 contains also the Rev. O. P. Cambridge's " Sy-tematic List of the 

 Spiders at present known to inhabit Great Bri'ain and Ireland : " 

 78 genera and 45 7 species. 



The Journal of Botany for the four months, August to 

 November, 1S74, contains the following among the moie im- 

 portant original papers : — In descriptive phanerogamic botany, 

 Mr. W. P. Hiern contributes Notes on Ebenacetv, with descrip- 

 tion of a new species ; Dr. H. F. Hance, a description of some 

 Asiatic Corylacea: ; a paper On a small collection of plants from 

 Kinkiarg, and another On three new Chinese Calami ; Mr. J. 

 G. Baker, a paper On the genus Androcvinbium (Colc'hicacea?), 

 with description of seven new species ; a description of a new 

 species of Neleniof>sis (Colchicaceas) from Formosa ; and an 

 article On the Allinrns of India, China, and Japan ; and Dr. J. 

 Miiller describes a number of new Euphorbiacea; collected by 

 Dr. Lorenz in the Argentine Republic. — In cryptogamic botany, 

 .Mr. E. M. Holmes describes .and draws a very rare British moss, 

 Dicranum flagellare ; the Rev. J. M. Crombie also describes and 

 draws a new genus of lichens, Phycographa, Nyl., and gives a 

 valuable revision of the British Collemacei.— In geographical 

 and local botany. Miss E. Hodgson gives a sketch of the botany 

 of North or Lake Lancashire ; Mr. J. F. Duthie a very inte- 

 resting paper On the botany of the Maltese Islands in 1S74 : ^'r. 

 T. R. Archer Briggs, Notes on some plants of the neigtibour- 

 hood of Plymouth ; and the editor completes his Botanical 

 Bibliography of the British Counties. — In each number there are 

 also, in addition, a number of short notes and queries, extracts 

 and abstracts of important papers pub'ished elsewhere, and 

 reviews of books. The editor continues the extremely useful 

 practice of giving a list of the botanical papers in each month's 

 home and foreign journals. 



Astronomische Nachrichten, Nos. 2,010 and 2,011, contain a 

 paper by H. J. H. Groneman, on his theory of the aurora. He 

 goes into the questions of the annual variation and the eleven - 

 year period, together with its height and magnetic effects. — In 

 No. 2,012 there is a letter from Stephen Alexander on the obser- 

 vation of the varying brightness of fupiter's satellites as seen in 

 transit, and he discusses M. Flammarion's explanation of this 

 phenomenon. — J. G. Galle contributes a paper on the observa- 

 tions of the planet Flora, made by Dr. Gould and contained in 

 this number, and discusses them with reference to their givintr a 

 value of the solar parallax. — In No. 2013, Dr. Holetscbek gives 

 an hypothetical ephemeris for the planet Peitho (118) from Oct. 

 7 to Nov. 12, for the purpose of recognising the same. — A. 

 Griitzmacher gives position observations of Borrelly's comet, 

 made during August.— Dr. Holetschek has estimated the orbit 

 of Comet I., 1871, and contributes details of the orbit. Its 

 period seems to be 518S years. — C. T. W. Peters gives time 

 observations on the solar ecHpse of Oc>. 9, 1S74. — J. H. Safford 

 sends his computation of the orbit of Alcmene, and an ephemeris 

 for March and April 1875. 



Zcitschrift der QLsterreichischcn Gesellschaft fiir Meleorolo^e, 

 Nov. i.^In this number we have the first part of an article by 

 Dr. J. Hann, on the laws of change in temperature of ascending 

 currents of air, and some of the consequences thereof. He 

 observes that although Poisson's equation, by means of which we 

 may reckon the loss of temperature of ascending air by expan- 



