312 



NATURE 



[Feb. 1 8, 1875 



no means dear. Brandis's "Forest Flora of North-west 

 and Central India " is an admirable and scholarly book. 

 With the preparation of this Dr. Stewart was at first 

 associated, and the present list is apparently a rough 

 draft of the ground intended to be covered by the more 

 elaborate work. After testing Dr. Stewart's list in severa.1 

 places, it is clearly evident that it is a mere compilation 

 of no value whatever, critical or otherwise. One example 

 out of many will suffice : Hopca floi ibunda, Wall., is 

 identified \v\<}a.Shorea robusta, the well-known Sal. A. De 

 Candolle fell into this error ; but seeing that Wallich's 

 specimens are in London, Dr. Stewart might easily have 

 avoided following him. The confusion in Indian botany 

 is already sufficiently deplorable without importing fresh 

 mystifications. 



Mr. Etheridge, jun., F.G.S., contributes a notice of 

 some newly discovered specimens of PotJwciies, a car- 

 boniferous fossil which has been held to represent fhe 

 oldest known angiospermous Phanerogam. A note on 

 the Chinese Lan-hwa makes Prof Balfour by some error 

 speak of Olfafragraiis as belonging to the Orchidacea. 

 The remainder of the matter fiUing the 188 pages of this 

 part contains nothing else worth noting. 



THE RECENT STORMS IN THE A TLANTIC 



IN reference to the suggestion contained in the last 

 number of Nature, p. 290, we notice in the Times 

 of the 13th inst. the following telegram : — 



"New York, Feb. 12. — In consequence of the continu- 

 ance of intensely cold weather, the East River is totally 

 blocked with ice, and the shipping on the Hudson River 

 is seriously impeded. In all parts of the States travelling 

 is almost suspended, and the present condition of things 

 is without parallel in the history of the last forty years." 



The cold weather appears to have set in during the 

 Christmas week, and not to have abated in the end of 

 January and the first days of February, when we in 

 Western Europe were brought under the influence of the 

 polar wind. It remains to be seen whether the gales 

 abated in the Atlantic when both sides were brought under 

 similar conditions. We find in one of the most recent 

 numbers of the Nciu Vofk Herald a list of the several 

 years in which the freezing of the East River occurred at 

 New York. Our contemporary notes, — January 19, 1792 ; 

 January 8, 1797 ; January 19, 1821 ; January 21, 1852; 

 January 1854; January 8, 1856; January 17, 1857; 

 January 23, 1867 ; February 1S71. 



It cannot be said that each of these years was cold in 

 Europe as well as in the States ; so that it may be asserted 

 with some degree of probability that the freezing of the 

 East River in New York, and the freezing of the Seine or 

 the Thames, are not regulated by the same laws. With- 

 out going deeply into the matter we can say, exempli 

 gratia, that in 1821 the first part of the winter was cold 

 in Europe, but that the weather was milder among us 

 when the East River was frozen. On the contrar)', the 

 whole of the winter in 1853-1854 was rather cold in our 

 temperate regions. In 1857 the freezing of the East River 

 occurred when the winter was beginning to get colder in 

 Europe. But in 1 871, the cold disastrous winter which 

 helped so much the German armies was over, and 

 February was rather mild, when the East River was bridged 

 over by coalescing icebergs. Consequently the only point 

 which can be easily settled is to ascertain whether differ- 

 ences of temperature between America and Europe are 

 an indication of the existence of gales raging in mid- 

 ocean. The interest of the suggestion is independent of 

 the origin of the inequality of temperatures, which can be 

 attributed to many different causes, but would take too 

 long to enumerate, and which would lead to no imme- 

 diate practical conclusion. 



W. DE FONVIELLE 



NOTES 



The British Eclipse Expedition in charge of Dr. Schuster 

 sailed last Thursday in the Peninsular and Oriental Company's 

 steamship Snrat, for Galle and Singapore. Dr. Vogel, of Berlin) 

 joins the expedition at Suez, and Dr. Janssen at Singapore. 

 Prof. Tacchini, also a member of the expedition, is already at 

 Calcutta. The Viceroy has chosen Camorta, in the Nicobars, 

 and Mergui as observing stations. The English observers 

 will proceed to Camorta, where, as Mr. Hind has already 

 stated in Nature, totality lasts 4m. 27s. Before the acci- 

 dent to the Charyhdi!, that ship had been detailed by the 

 Admiralty for the conveyance of the observers from Singapore 

 to Siam. The Sural passed Gibraltar yesterday, all well. 



The medals of the Geological Society will be awarded as 

 follows at the anniversary meeting to be held to-morrow : — The 

 Wollaston Medal to Prof L. G. de Koninck, of Liege, a distin- 

 guished pali^ontologist, especially as regards carboniferous fos- 

 sils ; the balance of proceeds of the Wollaston Fund to Mr. L. C. 

 Miall, of Leeds, who has done good v;ork on the Labyrintho- 

 donts ; the Murchison Medal to Mr. W. J. Henwood, of Pen- 

 zance, for researches in respect to mineral veins and underground 

 temperature ; and the Murchison Fund to Prof PI. G. Seeley, 

 in aid of his researches in fossil osteology. 



The medal of the Royal Astronomical Society has been 

 awarded this year to M. D'Arrest, for his great catalogue of 

 Nebulse. 



Capt. Hoffmeyer, Director of the Danish Meteorological 

 Institute, has issued a circular in reference to his admirable Daily 

 Weather Charts, from which it is gratifying to see that they have 

 been well received by the meteorologists of Europe. He is re- 

 solved to continue the publication, although hitherto the sub- 

 scriptions have not been .qutiScient to cover the outlay. In the 

 hope, however, that the number of subscribers will more and 

 more increase, Capt. Hoffmeyer will continue to issue the charts 

 at the same price as heretofore ; he will, moreover, issue charts 

 embracing a larger portion of the globe than before, and giving, 

 besides, some idea of the distribution of temperature. Thfse 

 changes in the charts have been adopted in accordance with the 

 advice of the directors of various central institutions. lie has 

 rejected Mercator's projection in order to avoid the exaggerated 

 dimensions of northern regions, and he has somewhat diminished 

 the scale in order to be able to embrace more degrees of longi- 

 tude. He has also placed beside the stations figiires show- 

 ing in centigrade degrees the observed temperature, without 

 the correction for altitude. Subscriptions are received at the 

 Meteorological Office, 116, Victoria Street, London, S, W., at 

 the rate of lis. dd. per quarter, including cost of delivery. We 

 hope tliat Capt. Hoffmeyer will be encouraged in his most laud- 

 able enterprise by an increased number of subscribers ; it is the 

 duty of all friends of science to do what they can to support so 

 valuable a work. 



The tercentenary of the University of Leyden appears to 

 have been a very brilliant affair. The delegates from other 

 universities, to the number of over seventy, were treated with 

 boundless distinction and hospitality. They came from Claudio- 

 polis in the east, and Coimbra in the west, and from Finland in 

 the north. Considerable disappointment was felt at no repre- 

 sentative being sent by Oxford, and that no notice of any kind 

 was taken of the invitation. No doubt Oxford will be able to 

 render a? reason for this seeming uncourteous conduct. The 

 Universities of Cambridge, Dublin, and London were all repre- 

 sented. It is interesting to hear that amongst the honorary 

 degrees none was received with so much applause as that con- 

 ferred on Mr. Darwin. 



