July 14, 19 10] 



NATURE 



.ID 



in otiiois it appears to foreshadow the prominent nose of 

 the modern European. 



The evidence of the nose of Palaeolithic man leaves the 

 question of pigmentation of the early European open. 

 The distribution of pigmentation among modern races 

 could be e.xplained be.U by supposing that the appearance 

 of the fairer races — the Caucasian and Mongolian — was 

 one of the more recent events of human evolution, and 

 that the site of their evolution was in the central popula- 

 tions of the more northern parts of the Old World. The 

 frizzled hair of the negro was a highly specialised feature. 

 Their thick everted lips, unlike the thin anthropoid lips, 

 at first sight seem also to be so, but when the arrange- 

 ment of the labial musculature is examined, it is seen that 

 the negro's lips are more anthropoid than the European's; 

 but the European form, notwithstanding their apparent 

 thinness, appears to be a modification of the negro form. 

 The high and prominent cheek-bones of the negro are due, 

 not to an absolute greater breadth of the face, but to the 

 fact that the muscles of mastication have become specialised 

 in different directions in the negro and European ; in the 

 negro the masseter muscle, which arises from the cheek- 

 bone, is particularly large, whereas in the European it is 

 the temporal muscle, which has its fixed basis on the side 

 of the skull, that retains the greatest relative develop- 

 ment. 



The apparent breadth of the negro's face is largely 

 owing to the fact that the basal part of the skull, to which 

 the neck muscles are attached, is small. The small attach- 

 ment of neck is a feature of the young of all Prim.ntes, 

 and also one in which the negro has assumed a less 

 anthropoid form than the European. The prognathism of 

 the negro is due to several factors ; it is chiefly due, 

 not so much to a larger, but to a healthier dental develop- 

 ment, which ensures a due forward revolution of the jaws 

 during the eruption of the permanent teeth, thus providing 

 an ample air-way in the pharynx. In Europeans the 

 revolution forwards of the jaws showed a distinct tendency 

 to become arrested prematurely, thus contracting the 

 pharynx. The negro condition was the more Simian, but 

 it is also one which modern Europeans would willingly 

 share with him, because of its functional merits. Sir 

 William Flower's method of estimating prognathism gave 

 misleading results. The most accurate method of stating 

 the development of the jaws was to give the area of the 

 palate and the total size of the teeth. 



Some of the most characteristic features of the negro 

 race were to be seen in their foreheads. While Palaeolithic 

 Europeans showed the Simian beetling brows and receding 

 forehead, features still shown in some degree by modern 

 white races, the great majority of African negroes were 

 characterised by prominent foreheads and a complete 

 absence of that condition which might be described as 

 supra-orbitalism. It is true that some tribes on the west 

 coast, the oceanic negroes, and the Tasmanians still re- 

 tain this primitive character. Indeed, the outstanding 

 feature of the negro's skull is a tendency to retain 

 characters of the immature skull of other races. Those 

 who know the psychology of the negro best ascribe to his 

 brain the boyish nature here ascribed to his skull. 



The pygmies, usually described as Negritos, are true 

 negroes in which the tendency to assume immature 

 characters has become hereditary to an extreme degree. 

 They are widely distributed. Sir Harry H. Johnston has 

 shown how they are scattered amongst the forest tribes 

 from the west coast almost to the east coast of Equatorial 

 Africa ; they stretch southwards almost to the Cape, and 

 isolated communities are found as far eastwards as the 

 Philippines and New Guinea. Two explanations may be 

 offered for their distribution : — (i) they are remnants of 

 a race that was spread formerly throughout the southern 

 half of the Old World ; (2) they are modifications produced 

 locally from the larger negro. The second explanation is 

 apparently the correct one, for the Congo pygmies share 

 all the physical features of the Bantu except size ; the 

 Bushman has the characters of the Hottentot, while the 

 pygmies of the far east find their nearest representatives 

 in the negroes of the .Oceania. Recent advances in our 

 knowledge of human pathology make this supposition of 

 the origin of pygmies more probable. Disturbances in the 



NO. 2124, VOL. 84] 



secretion of certain glands, such as the pituitary and thyroid, 

 lead to the production of the characters of Palaeolithic 

 features in some individuals and true dwarfism in others. 

 In the Miocene period the large-bodied Primates had 

 already appeared ; primitive men were certainly not 

 pygmies in size. 



An analysis of the cranial features of the aborigines of 

 Tasmania and of Australia shows that we have in these 

 two races an early stage in the differentiation of the 

 negro and negroid races of mankind. The Tasmanian is 

 the most primitive type of negro yet discovered ; the 

 Australian, on the other hand, although deeply pigmented 

 and less Simian in some features than the Palaeolithic 

 European, is the most primitive representative of the 

 negroid race. Negroid as he is, the native Australian 

 represents a stage in the evolution of the dominant non- 

 negroids of the northern hemisphere. It is a remarkable 

 fact that the negro and negroid races occur side by side, 

 not only in Austral-Asia, but in Asia proper and in Africa. 

 The negro Semangs of the Malay Peninsula live with the 

 negroid Sakai as neighbours ; the Veddahs of Ceylon are 

 not far from the negro of the Andamans ; even m 

 Quaternary Europe the negro race discovered by Dr. 

 Verneau in the caves of Grimaldi were early successors, if 

 not contemporaries, of Palaeolithic man. The Grimaldi 

 negroes find their nearest modern representatives in the 

 Oceanic, not the African, negro; equatorial Africa and 

 northern Europe were the probable centre in which the 

 black and white races had reached their present degree of 

 structural evolution. The two centres were linked together, 

 and always had been linked, by racial zones which showed 

 intermediate characters. Modern anthropologists are in- 

 clined to ascribe the characters of intermediate races to 

 intermarriage. Interbreeding had certainly played a part, 

 but probably a small one. The truer explanation seems 

 rather to lie in regarding intermediate races as represent- 

 ing intermediate stages of physical and mental evolution. 



TREES AND FORESTS. 

 T^HE botanical gardens at Peradeniya, Ceylon, are 

 ■'- celebrated for their vegetation splendour, so that a 

 list of beautiful flowering trees recommended by the 

 curator, Mr. H. F. Macmillan, will appeal to many out- 

 side the range of those for whom the Circular (vol. iv.. 

 No. 20) of the gardens is immediately intended. In the 

 author's opinion, the leguminous tree Amherstia nobths 

 is not to be excelled, although Lagerstroemia flos-reginae 

 passes under the name of " pride of India," and Poinciana 

 regia is the famous "flame-tree." The Amherstia was 

 introduced to Ceylon from Burma, and it is remarkable 

 how manv of the plants mentioned have been imported 

 from the 'tropics of the New and Old World._ Gliricidia 

 niaculata is a recent introduction from the West Indies; 

 Solaiiiim macranthum, the " potato-tree " from Brazil, is 

 noteworthy as the only species of the order that grows to 

 the size of a tree. 



A description of the indigenous trees of southern 

 Rhodesia, together with their vernacular names and pro- 

 ducts, is provided by Mr. C. F. H. Monro in the Proceed- 

 ings of the Rhodesia Scientific Association (vol. viu., 

 part ii.). An important matter is the production of timber 

 suitable for mining, construction, and agricultural purposes. 

 The most useful timbers are yielded by Copaifera nwpam, 

 Pterocarpiis angolensis, Photinia mahohohobo, and Pari- 

 ttarium mobola. Baikiaea plurijuga is known as Rhodesian 

 teak ; Afzelia cuanensis supplies the local mahogany, while 

 a somewhat similar, handsome wood is furnished by Fatirea 

 saligiia. a species of Proteaceae. The woods of some of 

 these, as also of Callitris Whytei and Terminalia sertcea, 

 are said to be ant- and borer-proof. 



Two forest pamphlets (Nos. 12 and 14) recently issued 

 bv the Government of India relate to Berrya Ammomlla, 

 a' tree, belonging to the family Tiliacea;, that 15 

 found principally in Burma, and Pterocarpus macro- 

 carpus, a leguminous tree yielding Burma padauk timber. 

 Regarding the former, logs up to 20 feet in length, and 

 measuring 4' feet in girth, can ordinarily be obtained. 

 The timber 'is tough, elastic, and straight-grained ; it 



