January 23, 190S] 



NA TURE 



279 



practices are, is still on a higher level than the foul Sikta 

 worship current in Bengal, to which it presents many 

 obvious anc».Iog;ics. 



In the Times of January 17, Dr. H. R. Mill gives an 

 interesting statement of the rainfall of the British Isles 

 during the past year, compiled from a preliminary ex- 

 amination of the large mass of material so far received 

 from the observers of the British Rainfall Organisation. 

 It shows that, for the United Kingdom generally, the year 

 1907 was not a wet one, despite the popular belief, but 

 that, in fact, the rainfall was very close to the average 

 of thirty years (1870-1S99). Expressing the amounts in 

 percentages, the following provisional values arc 

 obtained : — 



General Rainfall in 1907. Average = 100. 



Scotland Ireland j^'j^^ 



106 ... 102 ... lOI 



Wale 



fln^land 



(Nonh) 



97 



England 

 (South) 



99 



The most prominent features were the very wet three 

 months of spring and early summer, and the extremely 

 drv September ; this month scarcely yielded a quarter of 

 its average rainfall in England and Wales, and less than 

 a third for the British Isles as a whole. In London 

 (Camden Square) the annual fall was 23-01 inches, 8 per 

 cent, below, and the number of rain-days 9 per cent, 

 above, the average of fifty years (1858-1907). Dr. Mill 

 states that the large number of rain-days, combined with 

 the unusually low temperature of the summer, quite 

 account for the general impression that last year was very 

 wet in London. 



In Mitteilungen ai(s den deutschen Schutsgeiietcn (vol. 

 XX., part iii.) there is an important discussion of the 

 climate of Swakopmund by A. Gtilland, based on observa- 

 tions for the years 1899-1905. Swakopmund lies in 

 22° 42' S. lat., on the west coast of the German South- 

 U'pst .African Protectorate. 



.'\ PAPER on the fruits and seedlings of Rhus siiccedanea, 

 contributed by Mr. S. Tabata to the Journal of the College 

 of .Science, Tokio (vol. xxiii., article i), furnishes a brief 

 account of a microchemical examination of the substances 

 found in the fruits. The fruits are the source of the fat 

 or tallow that enters into commerce as Japan wax. The 

 fat is present in all parts, but only assumes a waxy 

 consistence in the mesocarp. Before germination of the 

 seeds, the cotyledons contain fat, magnesia, and proteins 

 in considerable quantity, but no starch. Starch is formed 

 during germination at the expense of these substances. 



An article on the absorption spectrum of protochlorophyll 

 is communicated to the Bulletin du Jardin inip&rial 

 hotanique, St. Petersburg (vol. vii., part ii.), by Mr. N. A. 

 Monteverde. An alcoholic solution of the colouring 

 matters prepared from the leaves of etiolated oats and 

 wheat plants provided the protochlorophyll and accessory 

 yellow pigments. Five bands were observed in the absorp- 

 tion spectrum, of which one in the blue is attributed to 

 the yellow pigments, and the other four, in the orange, 

 yellow, green, and blue, are referred to the protochlorophyll. 

 The first of a series of papers by Dr. L. Cockayne 

 dealing with the coastal vegetation of the South Island 

 of New Zealand is published in the Transactions of the 

 New Zealand Institute, vol. xxxix. In this part the author 

 presents a general sketch of the coastal plant covering. 

 Although the saline nature of the soil and the strong 

 winds are recognised as potent factors influencing dis- 

 tribution, the opinion is expressed that the coastal plants 

 as a whole occupy their peculiar station, not from ehoice, 

 but from necessity, having been driven out of more favour- 

 NO, 1995. VOL. 77] 



able situations by better equipped competitors. Th& 

 vegetation of the South Island below the parallel of 

 42° S. bears the impress of a subantarctic origin in some 

 of the coastal formations, whereas in the North Island 

 a subtropical element is more characteristic. Of ninety- 

 four species enumerated, more than half are endemic and 

 thirteen are subantarctic. 



Under the title of " Heredity and Forestry," Prof. \V. 

 Somerville discusses in the Transactions of the Royal 

 Scottish Arborlcultural Society (vol. xxi., part i.) an 

 interesting matter with regard to the results obtained by 

 sowing seed of forest trees from different localities. Com- 

 parative experiments in Switzerland have shown that plants 

 raised from the seed of the common spruce grown at a 

 high elevation, e.g. 6000 feet, make much slower growth 

 than plants raised from seed grown at a lower elevation, 

 e.g. 2000 feet. Similar results have been recorded for 

 spruce in Austria. Other characters, such as the weight 

 of the seed, length of growing period, and possibly 

 tendency to disease, appear to vary with the situation of 

 the trees from which seed is taken. It becomes, there- 

 fore, important to obtain seeds for afforestation purposes 

 from a locality similar to that in which the plantation 

 will be made. The conclusions appertaining to the spruce 

 do not necessarily apply to other trees, such as the Scots 

 pine, for which data are not available. 



Mr. Drvsdale Turner contributes to the December 

 (1907) number of the Agricultural Students' Gazette — the 

 organ of the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester — an 

 interesting summary of the life-history of the warble-flies 

 Hypoderma lineata and H. bovis. Considerable losses are 

 caused by the ravages of this insect in Great Britain, 

 and farmers and stock-keepers are fully alive to the 

 necessity of keeping it in check. H. lineata resembles a 

 bee in appearance, and can be seen from the middle of 

 May to the beginning of September. It attaches its eggs 

 to the hair on the various parts of the bodies of cattle, 

 particularly the legs, just above the hoofs. The animal 

 licks the place where the eggs are deposited, and the 

 larvs are carried by the tongue into the mouth and to the 

 gullet, through the walls of which they pass, and 

 eventually lie just under the skin on the animal's back; 

 the developed maggots finally work their way out of the 

 skin about June, and fall to the ground, where they pupate. 

 H. bovis probably has a similar history. Various remedial 

 measures are quoted, and in particular it is stated that 

 the parish of Bunbury, in Cheshire, has been freed from 

 the pest by systematically destroying the maggots. The 

 same journal also contains a risutyiii, by Prof. Duncan, of 

 the regulations that have been made from time to time 

 concerning contagious diseases in animals. 



The Journal of the Department of Agriculture of South 

 Australia for November, 1907, contains an account of the 

 wheat yield during the last decade, and the estimated yield 

 for the present season. The figures are very striking ; 

 they are as follows : — 1897-8, 2-64 bushels per acre ; 

 1898-9, 4-91 bushels; 1899-1900, 4-64 bushels; 1900-1, 

 5-88 bushels; 1901-2, 460 bushels; 1902-3, 3-64 bushels; 

 1903-4, 7-72 bushels; 1904-5, 6-53 bushels; 1905-6, 11-46 

 bushels; 1906-7, 10-19 bushels. The fact that the last two 

 seasons gave much higher yields than usual is attributed 

 to the use of artificial manures and to timely rains. As 

 the rainfall during the past twelve months is below the 

 average, a yield of only 8-75 bushels is predicted for the- 

 present season. When we remember that the average 

 wheat yield in Great Britain is 30-9 bushels, and the 

 average of the yields of all other countries is 17-5 bushels, 



