Dec. 3, 1874] 



NATURE: 



85 



variety in the vegetation ; mangroves monopolise all 

 available space." The stagnant waters he describes as 

 covered wiih a brownish green slime, disturbed occa- 

 sionally by an alligator. 



" .Some spots were literally crowded with numerous 

 varieties of ducks and teal. . . . Their cackling would 

 often alarm a company of huge white cranes, quietly con- 

 gregated on a sandljank. ... 



" On the floating islands, proud storks and sedate 

 melancholy herons were engaged in catching and con- 

 suming their breakfast, whilst every nook of the mangrove 

 thickets, every shallow in the lake, every log of wood on 

 the water, was tenanted by all manner of birds, including 

 alike the busy wagtail, the grandfalherly pelican, and the 

 stately flamingo. As we cut the placid waters, a brace of 

 neat sand-pipers or a swift kingfisher, scared by the snort 

 of the engine, would suddenly emerge from the margin 

 of the channel, and, darting ahead, be again frightened 

 into the air almost before they had settled. 



" .Soaring in graceful circles far overhead, a variety of 

 hawks view the scene from aloft, ready to pounce upon 

 whatever appears an easy prey ; whilst thousands of dark- 

 blue glittering swallows hurry from island to island, 

 feeding plenteously on the myriads of insects that hover 

 above the water." 



The vegetation near Colirna is thus described : — 



" The trees are not large, but are so interwoven as to 

 form impassable barriers, even apart from the bushes and 

 shrubs that spring from every spot of vacant ground. 

 Hundreds of creepers cling to every trunk, and twine 

 round every branch, connecting by a thousand wiry 

 threads, thickets, shrubs, and cacti — a massive bulwark of 

 profuse vegetation, through which the axe alone can hew 

 a way. The huge Orj(<i>io cactus, with its tree-like stem, 

 often 2 ft. in diameter, and 10 ft. to 15 ft. high, sends up 

 its stiff, straight branches to .1 height of 30 ft. or 40 ft. from 

 the ground, whilst the smaller species mingle in thousands 

 with the shrubs and bushes nearer the earth. Wherever 

 the creepers may have neglected trunk or bough, prolific 

 parasites, gay alike with lapcr leaf and gorgeous blossom, 

 hasten to perform their part in this fairy work of nature. 

 The flowers have little scent, but their profusion of white, 

 yellow, and red, blended with the countless shades of 

 green, charm the eye with tints as various as they are 

 magnificent." 



Beyond the fact of mentioning lava near Colima, Mr. 

 Geiger has made no attempt to give any geological infor- 

 mation, and the principal physical feature noticed is 

 that the country is much broken up by bariancas, narrow 

 ravines, which sadly interfere with the making of straight 

 roads. The book is full of interesting information about 

 social life. 



LesRnscs: — Ifisloirc ; Culliire; Description. ParHippolyte 

 J amain ct Eugene Forney ; prdface par Ch. Naudm. 

 60 chromolithographies d'apres nature, par Grobon. 2" 

 edition. (I'aris : J. Kothschild.) 

 Like so many of our garden-flowers, the history of most 

 of our cultivated varieties of the rose is involved in 

 obscurity. A few species, as Rosa cenli/olia (the Cabbage 

 Rose), gallica, damasceim (the Uamask Rose), moschnla 

 (the Moss Rose), lutea (the Yellow Rose), have retained 

 their distinguishing characters ; but the majority of the 

 florist's flowers are the result of hybridisation or variation, 

 in which all trace of their nativity is lost. The same is 

 the case also in Western Asia, the rose which yields the 

 famous attar of roses being of very doubtful origin, 

 probably a form of A'. <lamasrr::.t. In the work before m 

 we have a history of the cultivation of the rose, followed 

 by a description of the various species and varieties, with 

 their geographical distribution ; an account of the various 

 modes ol cultivation ; and a h:iiory of the diseases and 

 insect enemies to which it is liable — all embellished with 

 very beauti'^ully executed woodcuts. The greater part of 



this handsome volume is occupied by sixty chromolitho- 

 graphs of well-known roses, which arc triumphs of the 

 engraver's art. The colours are so truthful, and the execu- 

 tion so clear and brilliant, that even in engravings coloured 

 by hand you could scarcely obtain more accurate or 

 beautiful illustrations. The volume is one that deserves 

 a place on every drawing-room table. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



{The Editor Joes not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by /lis correspondents. A either can he undertake lo return, 

 or to correspond with Ike writers of, rejected manuscripts. 

 No notice is taken 0) anonymous communicalions.] 



Dr. Petermann's Letters to the Presidents of the Royal 

 Geographical Society in 1865 and 1874 



The letter from Dr. I'etermann lo the rrcsidcrit of the Royal 

 Geographical Society, dated Nov. 7, 1 874, * refers to what took 

 place ten jears ago, and to the two letters wliich he then 

 addressed' to Sir Roderick Murchi'on on the subject of arctic 

 exploration, a subject on which he then, a.s now, assumed for 

 himself the right of speaking as an authority. Tlierc are many 

 geographers who feel very strongly that J Jr. Pelermann did 

 great injury to the cause of arctic diicovery in 1865, and it 

 seems desirable that as he his again put him-,clf forward as an 

 authority, hi« pretensions to tijat character should l,c examined. 



Captain (now Admiral) Sherard 0^1)0In read an exhaustive 

 paper before the Royal Geographical Society on Jan. 22, 1865, 

 in which he advocated a renewal of arctic exploration by tlie 

 route of Smith Sound. The long seiies of vojages in the direc- 

 tion of .Spitzbcrgen had proved, by a process of induction, tii.it 

 the Smith Sound route was the one that should be followed ; 

 while the development, during the Franklin searches, of that 

 system of sledge traveUing with which the nameof M'Clintock 

 is associated, caused a revolution in the method of exploring', 

 and must be looked upon in the light of a discovery. From that 

 time it has been known that land must be the basis of pohr 

 exploration, that a real advance can only be made l)y following 

 the land-ice, and that sending ships into the drifting packs 

 between Greenland and Novaya Zemlya ii a useless waste of 

 time and money. Sir George back, Admiral Collinson, Sir 

 i,'.opold M'Clintock, Admiral Sherard 0:.born, Captain Veaey 

 Hamilton, and other arctic officers practically acquainted wi'h 

 the subject held that view in 1865, and they hold it now. Their 

 opinions were based on practical experience and on the records 

 of former voyages, and nothing lias occurred since either lo 

 alter or to modify them. 



Admiral Osborn's proposal was cordially supported, and there 

 appeared to be good reason to expect that it would be unani- 

 ii.ously accepted ; when two letters from iJr. I'clermann to Sir 

 Roderick Murchuon, by causing ause'ess and barren discussion, 

 had the effect of destroying these fair prospects. 



Dr. I'etermann has no practical knowledge whatever of the 

 arctic regions. lie is famous for hiving propounded atheoiy 

 more than twenty years ago, and he has ever tince striven to 

 make the obstinate facts fit into it — a hopeless task. So that 

 while he has no actual acquaintance with the polar regions, the 

 exigencies of his theory prevent him from juilging of what he 

 reads with an unbiassed mind. It was in January 1852 that the 

 I'etermann theory was first given to the world, in the lorm of a 

 " Plan of Search for Sir John Franklin." The theory is that there 

 is an open sea round the pol?, caused by the Gulf Stream, and 

 that it can be reached late in the autumn with perfect ease, by 

 sailing north between Spitzbergen and Novaya Zcmlya. He 

 urged that Franklin's ships were beset near the coast of Siheri.i, 

 and that the way to reach them was by sailing across the polar 

 ocean during the winter. 



This is the Pelermann theory. It might have been very mis- 

 chievous in 1852, by diverting the search from the proper direc- 

 tion ; but fortunately it was considered absurd, and received little 

 or no attention. Unluckily for the cause of arctic research, Dr. 

 I'etermann reuscitated his theory in a mo<lilied form, in his two 

 letters to Sir Roderick Murchison, in which he advocated the 

 Spitzbergen route in 1865. 



Dr. Pelermann assigned eight reasons for his preference, 



which are ea.sily disposed of. His first reason was that the 



voyage from England to the North Pole is shorter by Spitz- 



• Published in Nature, vol. xi.p. 37. 



