> 4 2 



NATURE 



[July 13, 1882 



is disposed to regard the steppe-period as contempo- 

 raneous with the Ice- Age in Europe; but no traces of 

 glaciation occur in Northern China. He reiterates his 

 well-known views regarding the origin of the Loess, and 

 cites a number of authors who have elsewhere been led to 

 the same conclusion, that the deposit is essentially a 

 subaerial one, formed by long-continued wind-drift with 

 the help of vegetation. That this conclusion is true for 

 the high arid regions of Asia and Western America can- 

 not be doubted by any attentive observer who has watched 

 what is now daily going on in either of these re- 

 gions. In his first volume the Loess was spoken of as 

 "subaerial" — a term altered in the present volume into 

 "aeolian," which the author noticed for the first time em- 

 ployed geologically in Mr. Clarence King's Report on 

 the " Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel." It is a very 

 good term, but of much older date than the Baron sup- 

 poses, for he will find it in Captain Nelson's suggestive 

 paper on the Bahamas, published as far back as 

 1S52. 



In a section " Upon Abrasion and Transgression," 

 the author insists upon the paramount influence of the sea 

 as an agent in planing down the surface of the land. 

 "Regional abrasion," he affirms, "can only be accom- 

 plished by the advance of the breakers." This used to 

 be also the opinion of geologists in Britain, who from their 

 insular position and stormy climate had exceptional ad- 

 vantages in studying marine denudation. But there is 

 now a wide-spread conviction among them that the part 

 played by the sea in the levelling of land has been much 

 exaggerated. For the production of a plain of erosion 

 the co-operation of the sea is no doubt necessary. But 

 the abrasion of the land down to the level of the sea is 

 the work of the subaerial agents, and only the final touches 

 are given by the breakers. A " plain of marine denuda- 

 tion " is the surface down to which a terrestrial area has 

 been reduced. Its position and form were mainly deter- 

 mined by the lower limit of breaker action. But by far 

 the greatest amount of abrasion was done by wind, rain, 

 frost, rivers, glaciers, and other subaerial forces, which in 

 fact reduce the land to the level at which breaker action 

 could take effect. Oscillations of level might doubtless 

 assist the sea, but any such help would be of compara- 

 tively trifling value. 



In a final section the author gives a sketch of the coal- 

 fields of Northern China, and analyses of sixty varieties 

 of coal which will be found of some economic interest. 

 He must be congratulated on the appearance of this 

 second volume. The task he has undertaken is a most 

 laborious one ; but the method he follows is well suited 

 to combine scrupulous attention to details and general 

 intelligibility and interest. Without ample details his 

 work would be of comparatively little value to those who 

 shall hereafter travel over the same ground to verify, 

 modify, or extend his observations. On the other hand, 

 mere details would repel ordinary readers ; but Baron von 

 Richthofen skilfully caters for them in his large print 

 summaries, where they find the points so well put before 

 them as to induce probably not a few to attack the volu- 

 minous detail. It is to be hoped that the Baron may 

 find leisure enough to enable him soon to complete the 

 work. 



Arch. Geikie 



OLD ENGLISH PLANT-NAMES 

 Sinonoma Bartholomei. A Glossary from a Fourteenth 

 Century Manuscript in the Library of Pembroke College, 

 Oxford. Edited by J. L. G. Mowat, M.A. (Oxford : 

 Clarendon Press, 1882.) 



IT is announced that "under the general title of 

 ' Anecdota Oxoniensia,' it is proposed to publish 

 materials, chiefly inedited, taken directly from MSS., 

 those preserved in the Bodleian and other Oxford 

 Libraries to have the first claim to publication." The 

 materials will be issued in four series — (1) Classical, (2) 

 Semitic, (3) Aryan, (4) Mediaeval and Modern ; and the 

 work named at the head of this notice is the first of the 

 fourth series. 



Of the general value of these mediaeval glossaries it is 

 of course unnecessary to speak. The " Promptorium 

 Parvulorum" (c. 1440), issued by the Camden Society in 

 1865, and the Early English Text Society's " Manipulus 

 Yocabulorum " (1570) and "Catholicon Anglicum"(i483) 

 — the latter one of the most recent as it is one of the 

 most useful of their publications— may well be styled 

 priceless records of the English language. Our only 

 regret is that the whole work from which the " Sinonoma" 

 is taken has not been made accessible, as Mr. Mowat's 

 brief preface renders it abundantly evident that it con- 

 tains much which would be useful, and probably also 

 amusing — if we may judge from the few sample extracts 

 which he gives, one of which refers to the "pulvis pro 

 instrumento illo bellico sive diabolico quod vulgaliter 

 dicitur gunne." 



The editor tells us that " it was in the plant-names 

 chiefly that [his] interest lay"; and this is easily accounted 

 for when we see how large a proportion words of that 

 class bear to the whole glossary. We have lately had 

 from Prof. Earle an interesting little volume on " English 

 Plant-Names from the Tenth to the Fifteenth Century " ; 

 while the " Dictionary of English Plant-Names " by Mr. 

 Holland and myself, of which the third and last part is 

 nearly ready for issue by the English Dialect Society, is, 

 I hope, fairly complete for such names from the days of 

 William Turner downwards. Some day it will, I trust, be 

 found practicable to combine these two, adding to them 

 the names found in "Promptorium Parvulorum" and in 

 other early glossaries, both published and unpublished ; 

 and the " Sinonoma " will form a useful adjunct to such 

 a work. There can be no doubt that Mr. Earle's book 

 and the " Dictionary of English Plant-Names " will be 

 found to supplement one another to an extent hardly sus- 

 pected by Mr. Mowat, who, in spite of his interest in 

 plant-names, does not seem to have consulted the latter 

 work. For instance, he gives " Allium agreste, i. crawe- 

 garlek," and adds in a footnote "probably meadow- 

 saffron." A jneadow plant would hardly be termed 

 agreste; and a reference to the " Dictionary" would have 

 identified the crowgarlic with Allium vineale, which is so 

 called by Turner (" Names of Hebes"), and is, or was, 

 sometimes-^/SVfr Lisle's "Husbandry" (1757) — as trouble- 

 some a weed among corn in England as it is in the 

 continental vineyard from which it took its specific 

 name. Later on (p. 38) we find Mr. Mowat saying of 

 " Allium sylveste " [sylvestre] that it "can be no other 

 than meadow saffron." Here again the designation 



