Jan. 28, 1875J 



NATURE 



253 



Capt. Adriaanz, the master of the whaling-ship Britannia, 

 being then in lat. 79" N., and about eighty miles from 

 Greenland, on pulling up his sounding line, found two 

 specimens of a large plant-like polyp clinging to it ; the 

 length of the stem of the larger specimen was six feet, 

 and he noted that the expanded flower-like polyp which was 

 at one end of the stem was of a fine bright yellow colour. 

 Struck by their size and beauty, and the strangeness 

 of such creatures living at a depth in the sea of more than 

 220 fathoms, he brought them home to his friend Mr. 

 Dunze, of Bremen, who had been a pupil of the ilkistrious 

 Haller. Mr. Dunze gave the smaller specimen to Christlob 

 Mylius, a Professor of Botany at Leipzig, and the larger 

 to Peter Collinson, F.R.S, ; this latter gentleman gave it 

 to John Ellis, of zoophyte fame, to describe, which he did 

 in the Philosophical Transactions for 1752, accompanying 

 his description with a plate. What became of this speci- 

 men is unknown. MyUus's one found its way into a 

 collection in Goltingen, and was not to be found there by 

 Pallas in 1766. No specimens being found for thus more 

 than a century, an air of uncertainty hung round this 

 Cluster Polyp, and its portrait, so often copied in our 

 text-books, seemed to be all one was likely to know about 

 it. It was, therefore, with the greatest delight that the 

 writer of these lines, in the summer of 1872, saw two 

 specimens of Umbellula in the Swedish Museum of 

 Natural History at Stockholm ; one rare object after 

 another had been shown to him by Prof. Lovt^n ; but the 

 Umbellula, though the last, was not the least of the 

 treasures accumulated therein by this esteemed professor, 

 who stated that Mr. J. Lindahlhad dredged them up during 

 the expedition of H.S.M. Ingegcrd and Gladan to the 

 Greenland Seas in 1871. Within the last few days we 

 have received from Stockholm a quarto memoir, " Om 

 Pennatulid-sliigtet Umbellula af Josua Lindahl," with 

 three plates. This memoir was read before the Royal 

 Swedish Academy in February 1874, and describes the 

 two specimens as two species, under the names of U. 

 miniacca and U. pallida. Prof KoUiker has also described 

 one of the species found during the ChalLiii^er expedition 

 as U. Jhomsoni, making four species of the genus now 

 described. It is marvellous what changes have taken 

 place in our knowledge of the Natural Sciences in the 

 interval between the description of Ellis's species and those 

 so excellently described and figured in the memoir before 

 us. Tire other genus Grinillum of the family Umbellulinffi, 

 found about 1858 in a depth of 2,700 fathoms in the 

 Banka Sea, will, we trust, be re-discovered by Prof. 

 Wyville Thomson. It is only known by a fragment of 

 the stem in the Leyden Museum, the crown of polyps 

 having fallen overboard as Capt. Siedenburg, after whom 

 the species is called, was pulling in the line to which it 

 clung. E.P. W. 



SCIENCE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC-' 



THE Bulletin of the National Academy of Exact 

 Sciences of Cordova, of which the three first num- 

 bers have lately reached this country, gives us an interest- 

 ing account of a new endeavour of the well-known 

 naturalist. Dr. Burmeister, to introduce scientific studies 

 into his adopted country. In 1868 Dr. Burmeister pre- 

 sented a memorandum to Dr. Sarmicnto, lately President 

 of the Argentine Republic, upon the expediency of adding 

 a Faculty of Mathematical and Physical Sciences to the 

 National University of San Carlos in Cordova. In 

 response to this appeal authority was given to Dr. Bur- 

 meister by the Minister of Public Instruction to import 

 eight professors from Germany to establish the Faculty ; 

 and Dr. Burmeister himself was appointed Special Com- 

 missioner for the purpose, and eventually Director of this 

 branch of the University. For a long time, Dr. Burmeister 



* Eoletin de la Academia Nacional di Ciencias Exactas existentcntc Cfl ia 

 "Universidad de Cordgva. Entregas i, 2, and 3. Bueaos Aires, 1874. 



tells us, his exertions to obtam a staff of professors from his 

 old colleagues in Halle were unsuccessful. The novelty 

 of the idea and the distance of Buenos Ayres rather stood 

 in. the way of his offers being accepted. At length, in 

 1870, two of the vacant posts were filled by the arrival of 

 Dr. Alax Siewert to occupy the chair of Chemistry, and 

 of Dr. P. G. Lorrentz to fill that of Botany. In the fol- 

 lowing year the assistance of Dr. G. H. Weyenbergh, 

 of Haarlem, was obtained for the chair of Zoology, and 

 that of Dr. Sellack for the professorship of Medicine. 

 Not until 1S73 was the staff finally completed by the 

 appointment of Dr. Voglcr to the professorship of Mathe- 

 matics. In the same year, as we understand from Dr. 

 Burmeister's report, the plans for the construction of the 

 new buildings necessary for the University were finally 

 approved of by the National Congress, and the works are 

 now in process of execution. 



From, notices which subsequently appear in the Bulletin 

 we fear that Dr. Burmeister has met with some difficulties 

 in controlling his start' of professors. This can be hardly 

 wondered at when the novelty of the plan is considered, 

 and the difficulty of getting eight persons, strangers to 

 each other, to work together to establish a new institution 

 in a far distant country, where a foreign tongue is spoken. 

 We have little doubt, however, that under Dr. Burmeis- 

 ter's supervision all will ultimately right itself, and that 

 the Academy of Exact Sciences of Cordova will become 

 an institution highly creditable to the enlightened rulers 

 of the Argentine Republic, who have established the 

 National Observatory under the direction of the distin- 

 guished astronomer Dr. Gould in the same city. 



That some progress has already been made in the cul- 

 tivation of the natural sciences in Cordova is apparent by 

 several papers contributed to the first three numbers of 

 the Bulletin, amongst which are essays " On the Land 

 and Fresh-water ISIoUuscs," by Dr. Doering ; " On certain 

 genera of Microlepidoptera,"by Dr. Berg ; "On the Vege- 

 tation of the province of Tucuman,' by Dr. Hieronymus ; 

 and " On the Salinas of Buenos Ayres," by Dr. Schicken- 

 dautz. 



NOTES 



At the suggestion of the Council of the Royal Geographical 

 Society, a manual will be prepared for the use of the Arctic Ex- 

 liudition, consisting of reprints of papers in the transactions of 

 learned societies which would not otherwise be accessible, and 

 other materials ; the object being to funiish an exact view of the 

 state of existing knowledge of Greenland and the surrounding 

 seas. The geographical and ethnological portions will be under- 

 taken by the Arctic Committee of the Geographical Society. 

 The other sections will be edited by Mr. Rupert Jones, under 

 the supervision of a Committee of the Royal Society. The 

 appointments of the lieutenants and other officers to the Arctic 

 Expedition were made this week. The Royal Society has le- 

 commended the appointment of a botanist and a zoologist fcr 

 the consideration of the Admiralty, but they have not yet been 

 Liiiicially selected. Good progress is being made in the strength- 

 ening of the ships at Portsmouth, which have been ordered to 

 be ready for sea by the middle of May. The statement, in some 

 ut our contemporaries, that Capt. E. Hobart Seymour is to be 

 second in command of the Expedition, is incorrect. 



Many sorts and conditions of men will regret as a personal 

 loss the death of the Rev. Charles Kingsley, which took place on 

 Saturday last. We regi'et his loss as that of a man who had a 

 warm love for science, and who by his writings and example has 

 done much to foster a love for it among others. He was an 

 honour to his country and his cloth, and it would be a good 

 thing for the latter in many ways if its members could be per- 

 suaded to follow his example, and, like him, take a hearty 



