May 27, 1886] 
NATURE 
79 
and snows falls in winter. Composites abound. Of 
nearly 1000 species that have been collected in this 
region, 61 genera and 231 species are referable to this 
Order. Of Orchids only four species have been found ; 
Rutacez, Ericaceze, and Restiacez are all but absent, and 
Proteacez wholly so. 
(5) The Kalahari Region is the name Mr. Bolus gives 
to the vast tract of country north of the Composite 
region, west of the Natal region, and south of the tropic 
of Capricorn. It is a desert country, with an extreme 
climate, a rainfall of summer thunderstorms, hot summers 
with cool nights, and frosts in winter. Its essential fea- 
tures are of a country clothed with grass in tufts, and 
isolated shrubs and trees, which form forests in the north, 
and are thus probably continuous with the forests of 
tropical Africa. The Cape flora has here disappeared, 
and with it we take leave of Mr. Bolus’s very able and 
most interesting contribution to botanical geography, re- 
gretting that want of space prevents any notice being 
taken of the many valuable observations and comparisons 
that he has made relating to the affinities of the South 
African with the Australian flora, and other matters of 
scientific interest. Wo IDs Isic 
THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF 
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES 
| HE Comité International des Poids et Mesures, which 
has its bureau at Sévres, has recently issued its ninth 
_ Report to the contracting Governments. The Report 
_ gives an account of the work done by the Committee 
- during 1885, and a statement of the probable expenses of 
the Committee for the current year. During the last 
year new instruments for the accurate comparison of 
| standards of the metric system have been obtained at a 
! cost of about 500/, making a total cost of about 7000/. 
for instruments supplied to the Bureau. For the present 
year the expenses of the Bureau are estimated at 100,000 
_ francs (4000/.), the annual expenditure of the Committee 
| being limited by the Convention to that amount, of which 
_ sum about 2650/. is for payments to various officers of the 
| Comité. These expenses are divided amongst the twenty 
| contracting Governments, the annual contribution of Great 
| Britain and Ireland amounting to about 3007. The new 
instruments include a comparator for measures of length 
by M. Brunner; new mercurial thermometers by M. 
Tonnelot ; an air thermometer by M. Golaz; a sphero- 
meter by M. Brunner ; and other measuring instruments 
by MM. Oertling, Boudin, Alvergniat, Simmen, and the 
Société Genevoise. 
In the fourth volume of the 7ravaux et Alémoires of 
the Bureau (Paris, Gauthier-Villars, 1885) reference was 
| made by the Director of the Bureau to the work then in 
_ progress, and in the present Report a summary is given 
of the whole work done by the Committee during the 
past twelve months. 
The work of the Director has specially included the 
verification of the lengths and coefficients of expansion 
of several standard metres, and the determination of the 
weights and specific gravities of several standard kilo- 
grammes for different Governments and scientific au- 
thorities. A report is given on the comparison of the 
new kilogramme prototype (K. ll.) with the old kilo- 
“gramme des Archives, and also on the verification at 
‘Paris, by Dr. J. Broch and Mr. H. J. Chaney, of certain 
British standards. During the present year the Com- 
mittee report that Dr. Broch will continue his researches 
on the influence of light on the defining-lines of standards 
of length, and M. Benoit will also carry on his experi- 
ments on the best means of comparing end-measures of 
length (mesures a bouts) with line-measures (mesures a 
traits). Dr. Thiesen will continue his interesting studies 
on balances and the verification of kilogramme standards. 
r 
Dr. Chappuis, with the assistance of Dr. Guillaume, will 
also continue the experiments on the verification of ther- 
mometers. 
It would appear that the Committee are carrying out 
the duties intrusted to them with all possible care and 
despatch. In the preparation of the alloy of platinum- 
iridium, of which the standards of the kilogramme and 
metre are made, extraordinary difficulties were originally 
encountered, owing mainly to the presence in the iridium 
of iron, rhodium, ruthenium, osmium, and other metals, 
and the Committee therefore obtained the assistance of 
MM. Stas and Debray. The report of these eminent 
metallurgists shows that the Committee are indebted 
to Mr. G. Matthey for the production of an alloy 
having the high purity and finish required for such 
work, : 
The Report of the Committee includes copies of its 
correspondence with the different contracting Govern- 
ments. In an able note to the Japanese Minister, Dr 
A. Hirsch (the Secretary of the International Committee) 
explains the objects of the Metric Bureau, and it is grati- 
fying to find that Japan has now joined the Convention. 
From the correspondence with this country it would appear 
that our Government will in due course obtain copies of 
the new metric standards. 
The Committee announce that the vacancies caused by 
the death of Prof. Heer and the resignations of Gen. 
Wrede and Dr. Gould have been filled by the election by 
the Committee of Prof. Th. v. Oppolzer, Mr. W. H. M. 
Christie, and Prof. Thalén. 
The Report also includes copies of a correspondence 
with reference to a proposal made by the French Govern- 
ment to extend the functions of the Bureau to the deter- 
mination and verification of electrical standards of resist- 
ance and light, for the use of the different Governments. 
The proposal appears to have gone no farther at present 
than asking the several contracting Governments whether 
they would have objection to the preparation of estimates 
showing the cost of a new or extended Bureau for elec- 
trical purposes. The replies of Belgium, Denmark, 
Spain, the United States, Italy, Servia, and Switzer- 
land are attached, but, excepting Spain and Switzer- 
land, it cannot be said that generally the Governments 
appear to have given the proposal the most cordial 
welcome. 
THE WEATHER OF THE ICE SAINTS’ 
FESTIVALS OF 1886 
i year we chronicled (NATURE, vol. xxxii. p. 62) 
one of the most disastrous snowstorms that ever 
occurred at this season in Vienna, where, on May 15, 
there fell 5} inches of snow, and the cold accom- 
panying the storm was so intense that several persons 
who were exposed to it were frozen to death. - Over 
Austria and Hungary snow covered the fields and vine- 
yards, and, the crops being in a somewhat advanced 
condition at the time, an incalculable amount of damage 
was done. But the festivals of the Ice Saints (May 11, 
12, and 13) this year have been marked off for a wider 
and deeper remembrance by storms of wind, rain, hail, 
and snow in all the continents of the northern hemi- 
sphere, which, for number and destructiveness, are per- 
haps unexampled at this time of the year. f 
In the British Islands the cold acquired its greatest 
intensity on the five days from May 11 to 15, and was 
coincident with a system of pressures which appeared in 
the Channel, and thence proceeded in a north-north- 
easterly direction through the North Sea to the south- 
west of Norway, which was reached on the 15th. It 
necessarily resulted from this distribution of pressure that 
northerly and easterly winds prevailed in these islands, 
and temperature fell correspondingly low. Over that 
