470 



NATURE 



[OcTOUlOR 13, I9IO 



that of Sphenodon, but the author fiads that it is inner- 

 vated from the right habenular ganglion, and not from 

 the left as Dendy has shown to be the case in the 

 Tuatara. He now adopts the view that the pineal eye 

 and epiphysis are dislocated members of one and the 

 same pair of sense-organs, serially homologous with the 

 lateral eyes, as Dendy has also maintained in the cases 

 of Sphenodon and Geotria. He suggests that, inasmuch 

 as the pineal eye is well developed in small and unpro- 

 tected lizards, it is, though incapable of image-formation, 

 probably still of service in giving notice of the approach 

 of an enemy flying in the air when the lizards are sleep- 

 ing in the sun with their paired eyes closed. 



Wi- have rfcenlly had an opportunity of seeing at work 

 the large new microtome brought out by the Cambridge 

 Scientific Instrument Company. It is designed to cut flat 

 sections up to 150X120 mm., the thickness of which can 

 be varied by 0002 mm., the maximum thickness of the 

 section being 006 mm. The sliding carriage, in which the 

 object, embedded in paraffin or celloidin, is held, is moved 

 backwards and forwards on plane guides by a handle work- 

 ing through levers. The object is fed upwards by a ratchet 

 turning a toothed wheel, and an arrangement similar to 

 that found in the well-known rocking microtome of this 

 company is adopted to lower the object-holder on the re- 

 turn stroke, so as to prevent the object fouling the knife. 

 The knife can be very securely clamped either at right 

 angles to the direction of movement of the object, when 

 the latter is embedded in paraffin, or at an oblique angle 

 when cutting celloidin. .'\rrangements are provided for 

 changing the inclination of the cutting edge of the knife, 

 and there is a small angular scale on the knife-holders, so 

 that the angle found most suitable when cutting a particu- 

 lar object can be easily noted and repeated. The strength 

 and rigidity of the instrument are striking features, but the 

 care and attention devoted to the details of construction are 

 no less evident, the device just mentioned, for reading off 

 the angle of the knife, being an example of the useful de- 

 tails which will be greatly appreciated by the operator. 

 \\ I- have seen a number of sections, cut by this microtome, 

 of various tissues which can be cut only with some difti- 

 culiv, which demonstrate the capabilities of the instrument, 

 and we can recommend it to those whose work necessitates 

 the preparation of large flat sections of material containing 

 cartilage, decalcified bone, and other resistant tissues. 



.\ SM.4LL pamphlet on the cultivation of mushrooms, of 

 which Mr. R. L. Castle is the author, has been published 

 in the series of " One and All " garden books. It can 

 be recommended as a practical and authoritative guide. 



.\ LIST of varieties of sweet peas classified according to 

 colour has been prepared by the National Sweet Pea 

 Society, and is published in the Gardener's Chronicle 

 (October 8). It is described as an up-to-date selection of 

 varieties in commerce, and comprises sixty-three varieties 

 grouped in twenty-five classes ; the first item in each class 

 is that which produced flowers most true to colour in the 

 society's trials. The society has also issued a list of 

 varieties " too-much-alike " with the intention of allow- 

 ing only one out of each colour group to be shown on a 

 competition stand. Further, the society is taking steps 

 to arrange for the registration of new varieties. 



.\ COLLECTION of plants obtained by Mr. G. Nakhara in 

 the southern half of the island of Saghalien is described 

 by Mr. G. Koidzumi in the Journal of the College of 

 Science, University of Tokyo (vol. xxvii., art. 13). It 

 provides a supplement to the list of plants collected and 

 NO. 213;, VOL. 84] 



determined by Dr. Fr. Schmidt in i86,S, to which it adds 

 about fifty species — one, Cirsium Mamiyantim, being new 

 to science — and raises the total number of ferns and 

 flowering plants to three hundred. A dozen species are 

 limited to the Oehotsk region, including an Abies and a 

 Picea. The special features of the flora are a predomin- 

 ance of the families Compositae and Rosacese, and the 

 small proportion (3 : 2) of species to genera. 



On the subject of tree plantations in Inverness-shire 

 Mr. W. Dallimore places on record in the Kew Btilleliii 

 (No. 7) some useful data regarding cost and the species 

 that have given good results on different estates. The 

 area planted on the Ardverikie Estate since 1873 exceeds 

 10,000 acres, for which 34,000,000 plants have been 

 required. Scots pine, larch, and spruce have been most 

 extensively planted ; the pine and larch have grown w'ell 

 on dry ground at altitudes exceeding 900 feet, while the 

 spruce has succeeded better on wet ground, but Abies 

 nobilis has, on the whole, proved more vigorous than any 

 of the three. The cost of planting, including fencing, is 

 given at 3;. 12s. per acre. Interest attaches to a note 

 regarding a larch forest on the Invergarry Estate that at 

 an early stage was condemned on account of the larch 

 disease, but was spared at the urgent request of the 

 forester in charge, and has now developed perfectly clean, 

 straight trees. 



The issue of the Geographical Journal for October 

 includes the paper on the land of the Incas, read before 

 the society by Sir Clements R. Markham, K.C.B., F.R.S. ; 

 the paper provides a graphic account of southern Peru 

 and part of the north of Bolivia, with their variety of 

 climates, geographical features, and products. The land 

 of the Incas extends from the water-parting of the mari- 

 time Cordillera tc that of the eastern Andes, and from 

 the gorges through which the rivers force their way into 

 the .Amazonian plain to the Knot of Vilcanonota, where 

 the two Andean chains unite. The paper gives interest- 

 ing glimpses at Uie Tiahuanacu ruins of unknown history, 

 and shows how intimate is the author's knowledge of this 

 part of South America. In the same issue appears Major 

 G. F. A. Whitlock's paper on the Yola-Cross River 

 Boundary Commission, Southern Nigeria, from which 

 some idea can be obtained of the difficulties of accurate 

 surveying in little known countries. Mr. Edward A. 

 Martin gives an e.xhaustive account of further experiments 

 he has made on dew-ponds. He has come to the con- 

 clusion that very rarely does dew ever form on the surface 

 of ponds, and rarely on the puddled margins. He holds 

 that if we continue to use the term dew-pond we must 

 remember that the word must be used in the widest sense 

 as including any form of condensation out of the atmo- 

 sphere. Rain appears to be the all-important replenisher 

 of these as of all other ponds which are not fed by 

 springs. 



The application of the method of correlation to investi- 

 gations of the connection between meteorological elements 

 at different places promises to be a fruitful, though some- 

 what laborious, method of approaching the problem of 

 seasonal forecasts. In a note in Bulletin 4, 1910, of the 

 Central Meteorological Observatory of Japan, Dr. T. 

 Okada has correlated the mean monthly pressures and 

 temperatures for some places in the Far East. He finds 

 that at Zikawei (Shanghai) the coefficient of correlation 

 between pressure and temperature in December is 

 — 0-764 + 0050. Taking pressure at Zikawei and tempera- 

 ture at Nagasaki, 500 miles distant, he finds for the 



