March 4, 1875] 



NATURE 



355 



Lindsay and the Germans are saiisfied with what they have got. 

 The morning before the transit was beautifully clear and in every 

 respect favourable, but the morning fl//tv was ju«t the reverse, the 

 sky being entirely overcast. Both expeditions should have been 

 at their post earlier. The English expedition to Rodriguez was 

 successful in regard to weather, which is a lucky incident, for 

 the chances in favour of Mauritius were greater. The fact is 

 that there was an atmospheric disturbance, probably a gale, 

 passing to the N. ani N.W. of Mauritius and Bourbon on 

 the 9th, which had passed Rodriguez some days sooner. 

 Lord Lindsay has a slight attack of fever. lie leaves soon 

 for India en route to England. Davies is going to observe 

 the solar echpse of the 6th April in Buimah. Dr. Copeland will 

 probably go round the Cape in the Venus. Mr. Gill left for Aden 

 to-day with his fifty-two chronometers." 



The fitting of the Arctic ships Alert and Discovery is 

 making rapid progress at Poitsmcuth, in the hands of the dock- 

 yard shipwrights, who are working extra hours, in order that 

 they may be rigged and out of their hands by the I2th of April. 

 The sledges have all been made, and the tents are in progress. 

 V'' Meanwhile the officers are pursuing their special studies. We 

 understand that Commander Markham, and Lieutenants Archer, 

 Giffard, and Fulford are going through a course of instruction 

 in magnetism. LieutenaniS Parr and May are to be initiated into 

 some special astronomical woik. and two other lieutenants will 

 receive charge of the pendulum observations. The work con- 

 nected with spectrum analysis will aho be provided for, and one 

 or more of the oihcers will take up photography. The ships 

 will be commissioned in the middle of April, and will sail early 

 in June. 



Prof. Robert Willis, M.A., F. R.S., Jacksonian Professor 

 of Natural and Experimental Philosophy in the University of 

 Cambridge, died on Sunday n'ght. The late professor graduated 

 at Gonville and Caius College in 1826, coming out ninth 

 wrangler, and was elected a fellow of his College. He was 

 appointed to the above professorship in 1837. lie had been 

 President of the British Association, and was member of the 

 Board of Visitors of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. The 

 professorship vacant by the death of Mr. Willis is worth 300/. 

 per annum. Tlie professor is elected by the persons whose 

 names are on the electoral roll of the University. 



Mr. E. Ray Laxkester, M.A., Fellow of Exeter College, 

 ^ Oxford, has been elected to the Professorship of Zoology and 

 Comparative Anatomy in University College, London, rendered 

 vacant by the death of Dr. Grant. 



Mr. J. R. Blakf, M.A., F.G.S., has been elected to the 

 lectureship on Zoology and Comparative Anatomy at Charing 

 Cross Hospital Medical School. 



In connection with the Loan Exhibition of Scientific Appa- 

 ratus, meetings have been recently held at the South Ken'iington 

 Museum, of the sub-committees for the sections of Mechanics, 

 Physics, Chemistry, Geology, and Biology. The limits of the 

 exhibition and various details connected with it were discusseJ, 

 and recommendations prepared for submission to the General 

 Committee at its next meeting. 



It is announced that the Queen has, on the recommendation 

 of the Prime Minister, granted a pension of 200/. a year to Mr. 

 Wood, in recognition of his labours at Ephesus. 



The Queen has been pleased to approve of the following 

 appointments to Companionships of the Order of St. Michael 

 and St. George : — Mr. Augustus Charles Gregory, Surveyor- 

 General of Queensland, who formerly rendered important and 

 valuable services in connection with the exploration at Northern 

 Australia ; Mr. Walter Lowry BuUer, the well-known omilho- 

 ogist, author of " The Birds of New Zealand ; " and Major 



Peter Egerton Warburton, of South Australia, v\lio lately con- 

 ducted important explorations in that colony and Western 

 Australia. 



In his last report of the progress and prospects of the cultiva- 

 tion of various useful trees in India, Dr. King speaks of the 

 caoutchouc-yielding trees and the difficulties attending their cul- 

 tivation. But his account of the Assam indiarubber tree, Ficiis 

 clasttca, whose large glossy foliage is familiar to almost everybody 

 in this country, excites some surprise. He writes : " The rub- 

 ber of this country (India) is obtained from fig-trees, most of 

 which (at least in early life) are parasitical [by which he means, 

 of course, epifhytieal\. These figs begin life by establishing 

 themselves on the tops of other trees, along the trunks of which 

 they send their twining aerial roots, which ultimately reach the 

 ground. In course of time the supporting trees are killed, but 

 the figs remain and grow, often entirely obliterating their pre- 

 decessors. It is from the long aerial roots that the rubber is 

 mostly got, and not from the branches. After a few severe tap- 

 pings a fig ceases to yield rubber from its roots. The number 

 of rubber trees, even in a country like Assam, is limited, and it 

 is easy to foresee their early exhaustion. It is trae it is also 

 easy to propagate these figs by cuttings, but plants produced 

 from cuttings put into the soil cannot very well have aerial roots, 

 and may consequently be expected to yield little, if any, rubber. 

 The artificial formation of indiarubber plantations on the sum. 

 mits of tall forest trees is obviously impracticable." Now, it 

 has long been known that the^e indiarubber trees are epiphy- 

 tical, but it seems far more probable that the mode of growth 

 refeiTed to simply renders it difficult to extract tlie caoutchouc 

 untd the roots come down within reach, not that they represent 

 the principal seat of its secretion. Indeed, if this really be the 

 case, it seems quite inexplicable, for this secretion pervades the 

 whole system. However, it can be only partially true. The 

 aerial roots of Ficits elastiea are not only produced from the epi- 

 phytical examples, but also from those growing in the ground. 

 Mr. Mann and other writers describe them as running along for 

 a distance of thirty or forty feet on the surface of the soil, and 

 mention the fact that the collectors tap the lower parts of the 

 stem and these trailing roots. Looking into Mr. Mann's report 

 on the same subject, he specially mentions' the reckless felling of 

 large trees to obtain the caoutchouc more readily ; and in refe- 

 rence to .the cultivation of the tree in question, he says tliat 

 planted trees would yield at half the age a naturally grown tree 

 would, as in the latter case several years elapse before an aerial 

 root can reach the ground and establish itself. Dr. King's argu- 

 ment in favour of growing the Para caoutchouc, Ihvea brastli- 

 ensis, on this ground must fall through ; but as the latter is 

 reported to furnish the best quality of caoutchouc, there is a 

 good reason for attempting its cultivation. 



Ds. Kalendek, of Linderhohe, near Cologne, gives an 

 elaborate account, in the Kdlniiche Zeitung, of the new enemy 

 to the potato which has caused such ravages in the potato 

 plantations of the United States, namely, the Colorado Beetle 

 {Doryphora decemlineata). The general opinion on this beetle 

 is rather uncertain at present, some considering it almost harm- 

 less, while others attach great importance to its being pre- 

 vented from visiting Europe. Dr. Kalender applied to the 

 Prussian Minister for Agriculture, and obtained the most reliable 

 information, which is based upon a report of Mr. C. Riley, in 

 the " Annual Report on the Noxious, Beneficial, and other 

 Insects in the State of Missouri." It appears that the insect 

 p.asses the w inter in the ground, but as soon as the potato plants 

 have developed their first shoots the beetle shows itself. The 

 females then deposit their orange-coloured ova, in lumps of ten 

 to twelve, upon the under surfaces of the leaves ; tlie larvse 

 appear after five to eight days, and begin their destructive work, 

 which lasts two or three weeks, after^ which period they trans- 



