I go 



NA TURE 



{Dec. 24, i< 



specimen illustrated the fact that light or the absence of 

 light was not the cause of the alteration of position. — ■ 

 The following specimens were exhibited from Mr. E. M. 

 Holmes, viz. : — (i) Ustilago utarina, Dur., a fungus new to 

 Britain, having been discovered by Mr. Holmes, last autumn, 

 growing on Scir^us paj'vulus at Studland Bay, Dorset, on 

 ground covered by brackish water ; (2) fruit of Afaelia cuangensis 

 from Limpopo, Natal, sent him as the pod of a mahogany- 

 tree ; (3) fruit of T>-ic/iilia Drcgei. from the same district, — oil is 

 obtained from the seeds by boiling, and with this insecticide 

 the Kaffirs anoint their bodies. — Mr. F. R. Cheshire gave an 

 epitome of his late researches on the tongue of the bee, de- 

 scribing the structure and mode in which he believes suction of 

 nectar takes place. — A paper was read, on Entomostraca col- 

 lected by Mr. A. Haly in Ceylon, by Prof. G. S. Brady. The 

 freshwater forms were obtained at Colombo ; the marine species 

 were dredged at a depth of two fathoms in the Gulf of Manaar. 

 The freshwater Copepoda and Cladocera approach well-known 

 European species. Among the Ostracoda is a curious new 

 generic form, Cyprinotes. Additional information is also given 

 by the author respecting Cyfiris cylindrica [Malcolmsonia) and 

 C. suhjohosa. — Mr. H. N. Ridley read a paper on orchids from 

 Madagascar. The collection (fifty in number) was obtained by 

 Mr. Fox in the neighbourhood of Imerina. Among them are 

 three genera new to the flora of the island, viz. Arnotiia, in- 

 digenous to the Mauritius ; Brmvnicca, hitherto only known 

 from South Africa ; Hololhrix, an East African representative. 

 Another interesting novelty is Salyrium ,^igas. — Two otlier 

 papers, read in abstract, were : a monographic revision of the 

 recent Ephemerida;, part iv., by the Rev. A. Eaton ; and Co- 

 lombian species of the genus Diahrotica, part ii., by Mr. Joseph 

 Baly. 



Anthropological Institute, December 8. — Mr. Francis 

 Gallon, F. R. S. , President, in the chair. — Mr. H. H. Johnston 

 exhibited a collection of photographs of African natives and 

 scenery. — Mr. H. W. Seton-Karr exhibited a number of photo- 

 graphs of North American Indians, taken by him during his recent 

 visit to Canada. — Mr. Joseph Hatton exhibited several ethnologi- 

 cal objects collected by his son, the late Frank Hatton, in North 

 Borneo. Mr. W. M. Crocker also exhibited some objects from 

 Borneo ; and Mr. R. Meldola exhibited some photographs of 

 Nicobarese. — A paper by Mr. E. H. Man, on the Nicobar 

 Islanders, was read, in which the author described the wild 

 race inhabiting the interior of Great Nicobar and called by the 

 inhabitants of the other islands of the group " Shom Pen." It 

 appears certain that they are the descendants of a very ancient 

 aboriginal population of Mongolian origin. The height of the 

 males appears to range between 5 feet 2 inches and 5 feet 

 8 inches ; their skin is fairer than that of the generality of the 

 coast people, who on tlieir part are less dark than the Malays ; 

 the hair is straight, and is commonly worn uncut and unkempt. 

 Their dwellings are small and erected on posts ; the floors being 

 raised six or seven feet above the ground necessitates the use of 

 ladders. Mr. Man hopes before long to be able to supplement 

 in many particulars the meagre information that has hitherto 

 been obtainable regarding the Pen, but the task is one of con- 

 siderable difficulty. 



Royal Meteorological Society, December i6. — Mr. R- 

 H. Scott, F.R.S., President, in the chair. — Mr. J. Hartnup, 

 Mr. A. W. Preston, Mr. R. Sheward, and Mr. W. B. Worth- 

 ington were elected Fellows of the Society. — The following 

 papers were read : — On the influence of forests upon climate, 

 by Dr. A. Woeikof, Hon.Mem.R.Met.Soc. The first step 

 towards a scientific investigation of the influence of forests upon 

 climale was taken by the establishment of the Bavarian Forest 

 Meteorological Stations. This example was followed by Ger- 

 many, France, Switzerland, Italy, and other countries. As a 

 general result it was found that during the warmer season the 

 air and earth temperatures were lower in the forest, as compared 

 with contiguous woodless places ; that their variations were 

 less ; and that the relative humidity was greater. Dr. Woeikof 's 

 discussion of this question shows that in the western portions of 

 the Old World extensive forests materially influence the tem- 

 perature of neighbouring localities, and that the normal increase 

 of temperature from the Atlantic Ocean towards the interior of 

 the Continent is not only interrupted by their agency, but they 

 cause the summer to be cooler in regions situated further in the 

 interior than those nearer the sea. Hence, forests exert an 

 influence on climate which does not cease at their borders, but 



is felt over a greater or less district, according to the size, kind, 

 and position of the forests. From this it naturally follows that 

 man, by clearing forests in one place and planting others in 

 another, may considerably affect the climate. — Report on the 

 phenological observations for 1885, by the Rev. T. A. Preston, 

 M.A., F.R.Met.Soc. The year has been a very dry one, and 

 this has acted in such a manner on vegetation that, although 

 the winter was mild, plants were veiy late in flowering, and 

 lasted only a short time. The bloom was often profuse, and, as 

 bees and other insects could visit them, the crop of fruit was 

 unusually great — the apples, for instance, being often spoilt in 

 quality from the enormous number on the trees ; whilst in the 

 case of wild fruits the brilliant colour of the bushes when in 

 fruit was quite as beautiful as when in bloom. But at the same 

 time the drought acted very prejudicially, especially to root- 

 crops and bush-fruit, as well as strawberries. In the case of 

 the root-crops, the seed had great difficulty in germinating, and 

 the weak plants were at once overpowered by insect pests, so 

 that the crops of turnips were generally complete failures. The 

 insect pests also did much damage to bush-fruit, while the 

 drought prevented the strawberries from swelling. The corn 

 did not suffer to .any great extent, the dry season allowing the 

 land to be prepared : and, although the straw was often short, 

 the yield was not unsatisfactory. A general absence of butter- 

 flies was noticed in some places. In the south of England the 

 white butterflies were most abundant at one time, but the autumn 

 butterflies were not so plentiful as usual. — Etudes sur les cre- 

 puscules rosees, by Prof. A. Ricco, of Palermo. — The storm of 

 October 15, 1885, at Partenkirchen, Bavaria, by Col. M. F. 

 Ward, F.R.Met.Soc. This was the most destmctive storm 

 which has occurred in this valley since the winter of 1821-22. 

 The storm burst suddenly at 7 p.m., and lasted about half an 

 hour, but in that short period nearly every house was unroofed, 

 and it is computed that in one forest alone above 250,000 trees 

 were laid prostrate. 



Geological Society, December 2. — Prof. T. G. Bonney, 

 F.R.S., President, in the chair. — Charles Dawson, Francis J. 

 Ede, Lewis Edmunds, Henry A. Gordon, George Fi-ederick 

 Harris, Samuel Learoyd, John Main, Mansfeldt Heniy Mills, 

 Rev. Thomas Randell, James Radcliffe, Andrew Edmund 

 Castlestuart Stuart, Tudor Gruffydd Trevor, and Arthur Smith 

 Woodward were elected Fellows of the Society. — The following 

 communications were read : — On some borings in Kent ; a con- 

 tribution to the deep-seated geology of the London Basin, by 

 W. Whitaker, B. A. (Communicated by permission of tlie 

 Director-General of the Geological Survey.) Seven deep borings 

 in the eastern part of Kent were described, all of them reaching 

 to the Gault. The chief one is at Chatham Dockyard, where, 

 after passing through the whole thickness of the Chalk, the 

 Gault was found to be 193 feet thick, whilst the Lower Green- 

 sand was only 41 feet, and was underlain by Oxford Clay, a 

 formation not before known in Kent. These parts involve the 

 thinning of the Lower Greensand from 200 feet at the outcrop a 

 few miles to the south, and the entire loss of the whole of the 

 Wealden series, which, further south, exists in great force, the 

 Weald Clay being 600 feet thick, or perhaps more, and the 

 Hastings Beds 700 feet or more. Still further south, in the 

 central part of the Wealden district, there are outcrops of the 

 Purbeck Beds, whilst the Subwealden boring continues the 

 series downwards. We have thus an addition to the beds 

 wanting at Chatham of some 400 feet of Purbeck and Port- 

 landian, of over iioo feet of Kimeridgian, and of nearly 500 

 feet of Corallian, S:c. In a section of 32 miles, therefore (the 

 distance between the Subwealden and the Chatham borings), 

 we have a thinning of beds to the extent of over 3400 feet, or at 

 the average rate of about 100 feet in a mile. This northerly 

 thinning agrees with the facts that have been brought before us 

 from other deep borings in and near London ; but the Chatham 

 boring is the first in the London Basin in which a Middle 

 Jurassic formation has been found. The teaching of the deep 

 borings, as a whole, is that north of the Thames older rocks rise 

 up beneath the Cretaceous beds, whilst on the south newer 

 rocks come in between the two. The question of the finding of 

 the Coal-measures beneath parts of the London Basin seems to 

 admit of a hopeful answer, whilst the lesson of the deep borings 

 as regards water-supply is that there is small chance of getting 

 water from the Lower Greensand at great depths underground. 

 It would be well if underground exploration could be conducted 

 on a systematic plan, with proper regard to both topographical 

 and geological considerations, and not left any longer to the 



