AvcusT 14, 1902] 
the islands, instead of, as indicated above, each island adopting 
its own and often very irregular period. 
THE question of the existence of a portrait of Gilbert White 
is discussed by Mr. R. Holt-White in a letter to the August 
number of Mature Notes, with the result that there is no good 
reason to believe that any such picture is known. 
WE have received from Prof. H. F. Osborn a budget of 
papers on vertebrate palzeontology and kindred subjects, two of 
which, ‘‘The Law of Adaptive Radiation” and ‘* Homoplasy 
as a Law of Latent Homology,” were mentioned in this Journal 
as they appeared in the American Naturalist. Special interest 
attaches to a communication on the Eocene Primates and 
rodents of North America (Aull. Amer. Mus., vol. xvi. art. 17), 
in which it is stated that presumed representatives of the former 
group from the basal Puerco Eocene bear no sort of ancestra] 
relationship to the undoubted Primates of the overlying Wasatch 
beds. Whether the latter forms are anthropoids or lemuroids, 
or whether they include members of both groups, or, finally, 
whether they constitute a primitive group by themselves, is 
left undecided. Three American families are recognised, the 
first of which (Hyopsodontidz) is believed to be nearly related to 
the Hampshire Microchcerus. Of even greater importance, if 
well founded, is the author’s recognition of a group of primitive 
rodents in the Bridger and Wasatch Eocene, for which the name 
‘*Proglires”” is suggested. These forms had canines and rooted 
incisors, and their lower jaws lacked the backward-and-forward 
motion characteristic of their supposed descendants. They are 
typified by Cope’s genus Mixodectes. 
In the autumn of 1900 a gardener of Hundsheim, in German 
Altenburg, Lower Austria, brought to the high school at 
Vienna part of the lower jaw and an upper cheek-tooth of a 
rhinoceros which he said had been found in the vineyard where 
he worked, in association with other remains, not improbably 
including the entire skeleton. Recognising from the structure 
of the teeth that the remains did not belong to the ordinary 
woolly rhinoceros, Prof. F. Toula, to whom they were sub- 
mitted, proceeded to Hundsheim, and was fortunate enough to 
disinter the almost complete skeleton of the animal, which has 
now been mounted. Unfortunately, the terminal third of the 
skull is missing, but sufficient remains to show that the animal 
was a two-horned species belonging to the same group as the 
living Sumatran rhinoceros. In a preliminary notice Prof. Toula 
proposed the name Riznoceros ( Ceratorhinus) sumatrensts for the 
new species, and in a recent issue (vol. xix. pt. 1) of the 
Abhandlungen of the Austrian Geological Survey he describes 
the skeleton in detail, figuring the various bones in no less than 
twelve plates. The breccia at Hundsheim in which the skeleton 
was found is of Pleistocene age, and is notable for containing 
the remains of a goat allied to the tahr (Hemitragus). Rhino- 
ceroses of the 2. suatrensis group were previously unknown 
from the European Pleistocene. 
A BRIEF report on the disintegration of building stones in 
Egypt, by Mr. A. Lucas, has been issued by the Survey 
Department, Public Works Ministry, Cairo (1902). The decay 
of the building stones, which consist of limestone and sometimes 
of calcareous sandstone, appears mainly at or near the surface 
of the ground, and is often accompanied by an incrustation or 
efflorescence of sodium chloride. The cause of the disintegra- 
tion is the entry into the stone of moisture and soluble salts, 
chiefly from the soil, which is always in a more or less saturated 
state. 
THE coal, lignite and asphalt rocks of Texas are dealt with 
in a Bulletin published by the University of Texas (1902), the 
Mineral Survey being under the direction of Mr. W. B. Phillips. 
The Eocene lignites, the Cretaceous and Carboniferous coals are 
NO. I7II, VOL. 66] 
NATURE 379 
described, mainly from an economic point of view. The lignite 
industry has felt the competition of fuel oil more keenly than 
that of the bituminous coal, but as there is a marked tendency 
to increase the price of oil, there is hope for the lignite miners. 
The asphalt rocks comprise sandstones, alternating sands and 
clays, and limestones impregnated with bitumen, and they occur 
in the Cretaceous formation sometimes where it impinges upon 
the Carboniferous, and also in the Tertiary strata. 
WITH a view to stimulate planters in New South Wales to 
undertake the cultivation of the cork oak, the director of the 
Sydney Botanic Gardens has issued a pamphlet in which are 
embodied notes on the economic value, suitable soil and position 
for growing, and other details of management of this tree. 
IN the recently published ‘‘ die Organographie der Pflanzen,” 
want of space prevented Prof. Goebel from treating at any 
length the question of ‘‘regeneration in plants.” A series of 
articles on this subject is now appearing in the Azologisches 
Centralblatt, The discussion is limited to regeneration in so 
far as it relates to the development of new parts or latent rudi- 
ments, and illustrations are taken from the ferns Anezmia 
rotundifolza, Asplenium obtusifolium, from the genus Bryo- 
phyllum of the Crassulacez, and from Wyphaea stellata, var. 
bulbzllifera. In the case of the ferns, it will be noticed that 
the tendency is to push the formation of buds towards the apex, 
while in Bryophyllum the cutting off of supplies from the apex 
stimulates the growth of lateral buds. Cyclamen persicum 
affords an instance of the formation of new members induced 
by the stimulus caused by mutilation. If in the young seedling 
the stem apex is cut off just at the junction with the 
single cotyledon, one or more leaves are developed in various 
positions, perhaps more generally from the base of the petiole. 
A POPULAR paper on thunderstorms and lightning discharges, 
by Mr. A. H. Bell, and one on minute marvels of nature, by Mr. 
J. G. Ward, illustrated by photo-micrographs, appear in the 
August number of Good Words. The latter article contains 
several good reproductions of photographs showing internal 
structures of leaves. 
THE Royal Agricultural Sicicty of England has issued a 
sixpenny pamphlet, written by the Society’s zoologist, Mr. 
Cecil Warburton, with the title ‘‘ Orchard and Bush-Fruit Pests 
and how to combat Them.” After giving the ingredients and 
the methods of preparation of a few of the most useful and 
readily mixed insecticides, the pamphlet describes a number of 
commonly occurring insects affecting the leaves, blossoms, 
fruits or wood of orchard trees, with the best methods of pre- 
venting their attacks, of checking their depredations, or of 
destroying them altogether, where possible. The same kind of 
information is given with regard to various insects infesting cur- 
rants, gooseberries and raspberries. The pamphlet is illustrated 
with twelve original wood cuts and is published for the Society 
by Mr. Murray. 
A LECTURE on “ The Relation of Science to Art ; in reference 
to Taste and Beauty,” delivered before the Hampstead Scientific 
Society by Sir Samuel Wilks, Bart., F.R.S., on May 12, has 
been published by the Society. The scientific attitude of mind 
is so often considered to be opposed to artistic feeling that this 
analysis of the relationships between the two temperaments is of 
wide interest. The artist admires the form, and the man of 
science seeks to discover the cause which produces it. The two- 
fold characters of an object are closely associated and dependent 
on one another, but few individuals are able to appreciate them 
both fully. A large part of Sir Samuel Wilks’s address is devoted 
to the consideration as to ‘‘ whether beauty depends in any way 
upon fitness or utility, or whether the feeling is not an inherent 
faculty of the mind”; and the general conclusion arrived at is 
