424 



XATURE 



[September 28, igu 



angle, and the lambda angle — when compared with modern 



I uropean crania. In view of the doubts still expressed 



>me authorities regarding the crania from Galley Hill 



Briinn, the problem oi the connection of them with the 



pies must remain somewhat uncertain. 



1 '.'in Museums Journal for September contains an interest- 

 article by Mr. 11. Stuart Page on the evolution of 

 English pottery, with valuable suggestions for the pre- 

 paration of a type collection. He begins his survey with 

 th" old English slip-ware made at the end of the seven- 

 th nth and the beginning of the eighteenth centuries. He 

 points out that the advent of Oriental porcelain entirely 

 changed the outlook of the English potter. This was 

 introduced by the East India Company when the custom 

 of tea-drinking was becoming established in this country, 

 and we can easily realise how wonderfully beautiful these 

 thin, white, glossy, transparent vessels must have appeared 

 to people who were then daily using the home-made coarse 

 utensils. From a valuable chart appended to this paper 

 we can understand the subsequent course of evolution. In 

 dealing with the preparation of a type collection, Mr. 

 Page warns his fellow-curators that they must not attempt 

 to compete with private collectors in purchasing specimens 

 which from their rarity have acquired a high fictitious 

 value. Only the educational needs of a museum should be 

 kept in view, and a collection of less than a hundred 

 pieces carefully selected, arranged in the position for 

 which they were designed, and fully labelled, would, he 

 suggests, be sufficient for the purpose. As the Board of 

 Education is now prepared to give financial aid in the 

 formation of such type collections, it is the duty of curators 

 to select their examples with discrimination. Such a 

 scheme should commend itself to those museums where 

 space and funds are limited, and in those places where a 

 large number of specimens already exist ; the idea could 

 be carried out so as to serve the place of an index to the 

 main collection. 



Is Phytopathology (vol. i., No. 3), Mr. J. K. Johnston 

 states that the Bacillus coli (the common microbe present 

 in the intestinal tract of man and most animals), when 

 inoculated into coconut plants, is capable of destroying 

 the soft tissues. The B. coli, or a form indistinguishable 

 from it, is also the cause of " bud-rot," a disease of the 

 coconut plant. 



Judging from the report for 1910, the Sarawak Musi um 

 to be doing its work, in the matter of the fauna 

 and flora of Borneo, in a thoroughly efficient manner. In 

 addition to duplicates, the museum contains 40,975 11 

 specimens of Bornean animals, referable to 5852 species and 

 subspecies. Besides these, there are between 4000 and 

 5000 forms not yet properly named. His Highness the 

 Raja has sanctioned the building of a new wing, which 

 when complete will make the museum two-thirds as large 

 again as at present. Arrangements have been made for 

 the publication of a Sarawak Museum Journal, of which 

 the first part was expected to appear in February last. 



\k lu interesting information with regard to Un- 

 economic products of India is to be found in the report 

 of the Industrial Section of the Indian Museum for 

 1910-11, more especially in the part dealing with the 

 work of the laboratory. Among the items, reference may 

 be made to the analysis of a sample of Para rubber, the 

 yield ol , grown at Darjiling, this rubber 



being of good quality. On the other hand, rubber from 

 1 1 iwn in Assam, proved unsatisfactory. 

 The tree in question is referred to as Fiats altissima, HI.. 

 var. typica. King; but such a reference, even if it be 

 J 1S7. VOL. 



generally used in botany, is incorrect, as Ficus altissima 

 typica (to use the zoological form of nomenclature) is 

 clearly the original type described by Blanford. Experi- 

 ments as to the suitability of Indian fish-oils ! 

 ing of jute are likewise discussed, and it has been found 

 that such oils, which in some cases must be diluted with 

 mineral oil, would be satisfactory for this purpose if they 

 could be produced at a sufficiently low price. An outbreak 

 of beri-beri in Bengal led to the analysis of samples of 

 rice, which showed that while husked rice contained from 

 0-6 to o-S per cent, of phosphoric anhydride, " polished " 

 grain contained an average of only 0-4 per cent., which in 

 some samples was reduced to from 026 to 022 per cent. 



To The American Naturalist for September Mr. T. 

 lour contributes a translation of an important article, 

 by Dr. 1'. N. van Kampen, on the zoogeography of the 

 Indian Archipelago, originally; published in Dutch in 

 V atuurkundig Tijdschrift voot ft ederlandsch-Indie for 

 1909. By means of maps of the distribution of mammals, 

 amphibians, and fresh-water fishes it is shown that 

 Wallace's line : ' has no value as a zoogeographic 



I ndary," and that nearly the entire eastern half of the 



must be regarded as a transition area between 

 1 >i iental and Australian regions, the boundaries of 

 which cannot be defined. After reference to the theory 

 that the Australian fauna came from South America, it is 

 concluded " that in post-Cretacean times there was a 

 broad connection between the three Greater Sunda 1 

 and Asia on the one hand, and between New Guinea and 

 Australia on the other ; that, further, also between the 

 Sunda Islands and New Guinea a connection must have 

 I. which was really less easy to pass over." Ci 

 -idered to possess an impoverished Indian fauna, due 

 to the absence of free connection with the larger western 

 isles, this poverty being most noticeable in 

 fishes. Its fauna may be the result of the consolidation of 

 smaller islands, which were supplied by feeding lines from 

 Mauds to the south, north, and east. " It is peculiar that 

 the truly Indian character of Celebes remained unsusp 

 so long; while, on the other hand, no one doubted, but 

 rather laid stress upon, the Australian relationship of that 

 vast easterly island, New Guinea, the fauna of which is 

 fully as Indian as that of Celebes is Australian." An 

 African element is supposed to be represented in Cel< 

 I-. the black ape (Cynopithecus) and the babirusa, the 

 considered to be related to the baboons and 

 the latter to the wart-hog. The evidence for this si 

 lusive. 

 THE lions for recruitment of the Indian 



Imperii are published in The Indian 



with some cogent criticisms not alto- 

 gethei The substitu ,; ' d recognised 



training schools in place of a d blishment at 



doi s not meet with favour, but the appointment of 

 nber, retired or active, of the Indian forest depart- 

 ment as a controlling director is a hopeful 

 arrangement. Coincidently the number contains a com- 

 niunical I ment of India revising the 

 regulations for the training of provincial candidates at the 

 Forest I 1 Dun. 



\ 1 1 vision of the small liliaceous tribe Nolineae, inter- 



1 nd Draca e, has been 



n -1 by Dr. VV. Trelease, and is in the 



Proceed ol thi Vmerican Philosophical Societj (vol. 1., 



nhor recognises four genera by the 



ded on 



and fruit 



