60 
NATURE 
[May 20, 1886 
Society absorbed much of the scientific work of the residents. 
The first meeting of the new Society was held at the beginning 
of last month, when Prof. Milne delivered a lecture dn the 
geology of Japan, which is reported in full in the afan Weekly 
Mail of April 3, and which is too comprehensive and detailed 
to lend itself to adequate treatment in a short note. We 
observe, however, that in speaking of the difference between the 
fauna of Yezo and of the other islands of the Japanese archi- 
pelago he suggests that the line between the two should be 
called Blakiston’s line (from Capt. Blakiston, who first pointed 
it out), on the model of Wallace’s line between the Javan and 
Australian fauna. Prof. Milne proposed this nomenclature a 
few years ago, and it is now adopted by some German publica- 
tions. The difference, indeed, is not so great as that marked by 
Wallace’s line, still it is of considerable importance. Thus in 
Japan we have the monkey, the sheep-faced antelope, the bear, 
and the pheasant ; but on the other side of the straits the bear 
is a totally different one, the monkey, the pheasant, or the 
antelope is not found, and a totally different fauna exists. The 
suggestion of marking the dividing line with Capt. Blakiston’s 
name is an appropriate one. 
Dr. TRIMEN’s Report for 1885 on the various botanic gardens 
in Ceylon, of which he is Director, is a very satisfactory docu- 
ment, as such reports from our colonial gardens generallyare. It 
contains a considerable number of meteorological observations, 
and describes the arrangements made to carry out the scheme of 
a garden at Badulla, in the new province of Ceylon, for which 
funds have been voted. The usual report on the distribution of 
plants and seeds is given, and then comes a long list of addi- 
tions to the collections of plants at the various gardens, which is 
followed by some interesting notes on economic plants and pro- 
ducts. Under this head he makes various recommendations and 
suggestions which will no doubt be of the utmost value to per- 
plexed planters who are assailed on all sides by dangers which 
are only too apparent, but which it requires scientific training 
and investigation to combat. Thus he advises that tea. and 
cinchona should not be grown together, as it is only in such cases 
that the planter’s scourge, Aelopfeltis, does any appreciable 
damage to tea. On the other hand, he thinks that the diminu- 
tion in the cultivation of cacao, through dread of helopeltis, is 
unreasonable, for the insect only attacks cacao grown in the 
open, and not that grown under the shade of trees, for example 
The Ceylon Herbarium has been arranged during the year in 
accordance with Dr. Trimen’s ‘‘ Systematic Catalogue of Ceylon 
Plants,” and in the work of rearranging he was able to put 
together a series of notes describing about 280 additions to the 
flora of Ceylon, and 40 new species or varieties. That much 
yet remains to be done is obvious from the fact that during 1885 
fifteen additional have been discovered in the island, many of 
which are striking plants. The Government has approved the 
formation of an exhibition containing specimens of the plants, 
grains, &c., of the island. Like many other colonial officials, 
Dr. Trimen has been busy during the past year preparing for the 
Colonial and Indian Exhibition, where the series of woods in 
the Ceylon section was prepared by him. 
ACCORDING to a letter received from Baron Schwerin, the 
well-known Swedish geographer, who is at present on a scientific 
mission to the Congo for his Government, he observed the great 
November meteor-stream on the 27th of that month, at 8 p.m., 
off Cape Palmas, on the Guinea coast (lat. 4° 299” N., and long. 
7° 44’ 16” W.). He describes it as the most magnificent spectacle 
he ever beheld, ‘‘the whole sky being furrowed from nearly 
north to south by falling stars, looking like gigantic fireworks, 
in which thousands of ‘ star-rockets ’ were burnt off.” 
ON the evening of April 27 a bolide was observed in several 
parts of the north-western provinces of Russia. A large ball of 
bluish colour was moving from south to north; in about two 
seconds it changed its colour into a bright electric-white, and 
suddenly broke in many pieces and disappeared. 
IN consequence of the ice breaking on the Volga, a consider- 
able number of naphtha-barges were wrecked this spring, and 
about 2,000,000 poods, or 33,000 tons, of naphtha are now floating 
along the river. According to the observation of past years the 
presence of such a large amount of hydrocarbon in the water 
will produce a very disastrous effect upon Russian fisheries, not 
only along the Volga, but even on the northern coast of the 
Caspian Sea. 
THE tendency amongst modern Oriental scholars is to trace 
the origin of Chinese arts, sciences, and civilisation to Babylonia. 
The theory, however, is not accepted by many of the most 
eminent Chinese scholars. In the last number of the China 
Review, Dr. Edkins of Pekin gives his reasons for assigning a 
Babylonian origin to Chinese astronomy and astrology. Amongst 
these are the following :—Roth peoples divided our day and 
night into twelve hours ; the sun-dial is a Babylonian invention, 
and reached China at a very early date ; the intercalary month 
belonged to the Accadians, and is found in the first sections of 
the Chinese Book of History. Geminus states that it was the 
dwellers on the Euphrates who discovered that, after 223 luna- 
tions or eighteen years, eclipses of the moon recur in the same 
order. The early use of the intercalary month by the Chinese 
implies that either they, or those from whom they derived it, 
knew this fact about lunations. Early Chinese astronomy, Dr. 
Edkins thinks, is too good to come from the Chinese of those 
days, and, on various learned grounds which he states, he con- 
cludes that the double hour, the astrolabe, the dial, the inter- 
calary month, and the knowledge of the length of the year were 
all communicated from Babylon to China at different periods by 
land or by sea between about B.C. 2200 and B.C. 820. 
THE invitation to Norwegian sea-captains to make barometrica! 
observations during the eclipse next August was not issued by 
the Norwegian Meteorological Society but by our Norwegian 
contemporary JVaturen, to which the returns are also to be 
sent. 
Messrs. WHITTAKER AND Co., and Messrs. Bell announce 
in their new ‘‘ Series of Hand-Books for Practical Engineers ” 
Dr. Jul. Maier's book on ‘* Arc and Glow Lamps.”’ It will be 
a complete hand-book on the subject, especially relating to its 
practical applications, giving the latest results and improve- 
ments. The next volume in the same series will be Mr. Gisbert 
Kapp’s “ Electric Transmission of Energy,” which is promised 
early next week. Mr. William Anderson has revised and 
added some new matter to his ‘‘ Lectures on the Conversion of 
Heat into Work,” which excited much attention when delivered 
last year at the Society of Arts. They will be published in 
book form by Messrs. Whittaker and Co. 
THE additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during the 
past week include two Shaw’s Gerbilles (Gerdil/us shawt) from 
North Africa, presented by Mr. W. R. Ogilvie Grant; two 
Black-backed Jackals (Canzs mesomelas) from South Africa, pre- 
sented by Mr. F. Mosenthal ; a Ring-tailed Coati (Vasua rufa) 
from South America, presented by Mr. T. P. Lymn; a Brown 
Condor (Sarcorhamphus equatorialis) from Chili, presented by 
Mr. R. J. James ; two Red Kangaroos (MJacropus rufus) from 
Australia, two Grey Parrots (Pszttacus erithacus) from West 
Africa, an Indian Rat Snake (Ptyas mucosa) from India, a 
Green Lizard (Lacerta viridis), European, deposited ; an Indian 
Coucal (Centropus rufipennis) from India, an African Tantalus 
(Pseudotantalus ztbis) from West Africa, four Black-tailed God- 
wits (Zimosa egocephala), European, a Spotted Eagle Owl (Budo 
maculosus) from South Africa, purchased ; an Eland (Oveas 
canna), four Chilian Pintails (Dafa spinicauda), bred in the 
Gardens. 
