NA TURE 



[November 28, 1901 



that remarkable organism described in the larval form by 

 Jahannes Miiller in 1846 as Actinolrocha, and in the adult state 

 by S. Wright in 1856 as Phoronis. The identification of the 

 free-swimming Actinotrocha as the larva of the compound and 

 stationary Phoronis is one of the discoveries for which science is 

 indebted to Kowalewsky : but the question still remains un- 

 determined whether the organism should he placed with the 

 Gephyrean worms or with the llemichordata. In spite of the 

 numerous papers which have been devoted to this curious form, 

 the author, Mr. Iwaji lUeda, states that its life-history has 

 hitherto been very imperfectly worked out, and it is to this that 

 he has devoted much of his attention. Another point is the 

 manner in which the free-swimming larva; establish colonies in 

 certain definite and limited localities. From the fact that the 

 colonies are subject to periodical decay it is suggested that the 

 organism annually changes its generation. It may be remarked 

 that although in the title of the paper the name Actinotrocha is 

 employed, in the text the family is alluded to as the Phoronidx, 

 while various species of Phoronis are mentioned. 



Number 12 of Sir George King's " Materials for a Flora of the 

 Malayan Peninsula," reprinted from \\\e Journal of the Asiatic 

 Society of Bengal, is occupied entirely by the eleven genera of 

 MyrtacejE, including the ninety-six Malayan species of Eugenia. 



We have received the first three numbers of the BiUlelin of 

 the Imperial Botanic Garden of St. Petersburg, edited by Prof. 

 A. Fischer v. Waldheim. The Bulletin is intended to appear 

 at irregular intervals and to be devoted to original treatises, not 

 before published, in all branches of botany, critical notices, and 

 reports and communications from the Imperial Botanic Garden. 

 In the present instalment the papers are in Russian, with brief 

 French or German abstracts. They include articles on the 

 Exoascaces of the Caucasus, "migrating lichens," biological 

 observations on buckwheat, lichenological notes, &c. 



The origin and distribution of the cocoanut palm forms the 

 subject of an interesting paper by Mr. O. F. Cook in a recent 

 issue of the United States National Herbarium. It is con- 

 tended that this most useful tree must have originated on the 

 Pacific coast of South America and spread from thence to 

 Polynesia and Asia. It is pointed out that all the other species 

 of cocos are natives of South America. The cocoanut palm 

 was found upon the Pacific coast by early Spanish explorers. 

 Mr. Cook also claims an American origin for the banana and 

 yam. 



A RECE.NT number of the .Vustralian Town and Country 

 Journal is largely occupied with an illustrated account of the 

 new mining school recently opened in connection with Sydney 

 University. The erection of this school is largely due to the 

 exertions of Prof. A. Liversidge, F. R.S. It is now well I 

 equipped with machinery and laboratories, and should prove of 

 great value fur training men to conduct metallurgical operations. 

 The University of Sydney grants a degree in mining en- 

 gineering, and the course of instruction given at the school is 

 mainly in preparation for this degree. 



Lieut.-GeneralC. A. McMahox contributes notes on some 

 peridotites, serpentines, gabbros and associated rocks from 

 Ladakh, north-western Himalaya, to the Memoirs of the Geo- 

 logical Survey of India (vol. xxxi. part iii.) These rocks are 

 found intrusive in the Tertiary volcanic series. Mr. Vredenburg 

 (vol. xxxii. part i.) discusses very fully" the results of recent 

 artesian experiments in India, pointing out that many of the 

 so-called "artesian wells" are not fed by water under pressure. 

 He gives records of numerous borings and concludes that 

 artesian wells cannot be of utility in any extensive scheme of 

 irrigation. Mr. T. H. Holland (vol. xxxiv. part i. ) draws 

 attention to a peculiar form of altered peridotite in the Mysore 

 NO. 1674, VOL. 65] 



State, whereby a simple dunite has been changed into a breun- 

 nerite-picrolite-lalc rock. He remarks that it is important to 

 distinguish between this "primary" or contemporaneous 

 alteration, due to the action of vapours originally contained in 

 the magma, and the "secondary" changes that may be induced 

 subsequently and are unconnected with the processes of consoli- 

 dation. 



The publication of a ninth edition of " Stieler's Hand-Atlas" 

 has been commenced by .Mr. Justus Perthes, Gotha. The 

 work will be issued in fifty parts, which will appear at intervals 

 of two or three weeks. 



Prof. Andrew Gray's work on " Dynamics and Properties 

 of Matter," being Parti, of his " Treatise on Physics" (f. and A. 

 Churchill), is shortly to appear in the German language. The 

 work of translating has been undertaken by Prof. Auerbach, of 

 Jena. 



A CATALOGtJE of the Indian Decapod Crustacea in the collec- 

 tion of the Indian Museum, Calcutta, is in course of preparation 

 by Major \. Alcock, F. U.S. It is proposed to issue the 

 catalogue in three collateral and independent series, one for the 

 Bachyura, another for the Macrura, and a third for the Ano- 

 mura. The first fasciculus of Part i. has been received and 

 contains an introduction to the monograph, and descriptions, 

 with plates, of the Dromides or Dromiacea. 



Mr. John Heywood has published the second part of 

 Book II. of " Machine Drawing for the use of Engineering 

 Students in Science and Technical Schools and Colleges," by 

 Mr. Thomas Jones and Mr. T. Gilbert Jones. The part con- 

 tains forty-five plates, upon which drawings of engine and pump 

 details are given ; and descripllive text, with exercises, accom- 

 panies each plate. Students of engineering and machine con- 

 struction will find the drawings of service in .showing the details 

 of engines and pumps constructed at the present time. 



The sixth part of Prof. A. Engler's elaborate monographs of 

 the families and genera of* African plants (Monographieen 

 afrikanischer Pflanzen-Familien und -Gattungen) has been 

 published by Mr. W. Engelmann, Leipzig, and can be obtained 

 from Messrs. Williams and Norgate, London. The work, it 

 will be remembered, is being prepared under the auspices of 

 the Prussian Academy of Sciences, and when completed will 

 be a most valuable account of the plants of the African 

 continent. The present part deals with the Anonacese and is 

 by Profs. Engler and L. Diels. 



A SERIES of regional floras of India has been projected by the 

 Director of the Botanical Survey of India, and the first part has 

 been issued by Messrs. Taylor and Francis. In this volume 

 Mr. T. Cooke deals with " The Flora of the Presidency of 

 Bombay" from the order Ranunculaceae to Rulacea;. The 

 increase of knowledge of the botany of the Presidency in recent 

 years may be judged by the fact that the present part of the 

 projected work (comprising 1 92 pages) contains descriptions of 

 more than 130 species not included in Dalzell and Gibson's 

 "Flora of Bombay," published in 1861. We propose to review 

 the work when it has been completed. 



Messrs. G. Paii-ir and Son have recently published a pair 



of globes — one terrestrial and the other celestial- for the low 



price of three shillings. The globes are mounted on slender 



brass tripods, and each can be rotated on an axis. The 



diameter of each globe is four inches. It is, of course, not 



possible to represent any details upon a terrestrial globe of this 



i size, or to find many stars by means of the celestial globe, but 



j a young student may derive instruction from them as to the 



relative positions of the great land masses of the earth and the 



I meaning of the celestial sphere. 



