452 



NATURE 



[October 5, 191 1 



Moreover, it would seem to be as though there had 

 been a marked degeneration not only in the physical 

 conformation of the pre-Bantu inhabitants of South 

 Vfrica from the earliest Strandlooper type downwards, 

 but also in the character and size of the stone imple- 

 ments manufactured by these primitive South African 

 peoples. 



Dr. Peringuey in some of his remarks (p. 168) 

 would seem to regard the Bushman as not being a 

 primitive race, but an example of retrogression in 

 some directions and a singular advance in others. 

 He puts forward the interesting hypothesis that the 

 ancestors of the Bushman having discovered the 

 potency of vegetable and animal poisons, gave all 

 their attention to the manufacture and shooting of 

 poisoned arrows, and therefore no longer cared to 

 fabricate large stone weapons. 



Dr. PeYinguey writes as a South African, and South 

 Africans are apt to hold heretical notions regarding 

 the Bantu. One is that there is a Bantu physical type 

 of negro, which is not the case ; and the other is that 

 the Bantu languages in their present form are of 

 immense antiquity, and came to Africa from India. 

 The Bantu-speaking peoples of South Africa vary in 

 physical type, just as they do in the rest of Bantu 

 Africa, and do not present any collective differ- 

 ence from millions of other negroes not speaking a 

 Bantu language. As to this language family, I have 

 given at different times reasons which appear to me 

 conclusive for supposing that it cannot have origi- 

 nated in North Central Africa more than some 3,000 

 years ago. It was brought into existence in the heart 

 of Africa, just like its neighbour Hausa, by the in- 

 trusion of some half-white race similar to the Hamite 

 or the Fula. 



This book gives interesting illustrations of the 

 steatopvgia and peculiarities of the external genitalia 

 of the Bushman race. H. H. Johnston. 



CALIFORNIAN TREES.' 



PERHAPS the noblest and most fascinating of all 

 subjects for the writer and student of trees is 

 the sylva of California. The arboreal vegetation of no 

 other area of similar dimensions rivals it in interest 

 or in the size of its individual types. Three trees alone 

 — the two Sequoias ("Big Tree" and "Redwood") 

 and the Douglas Fir — give to it a unique distinction, 

 and they are supplemented by a group of scarcely 

 less wonderful pines, firs, and spruces. Whilst it is 

 the immense coniferous trees that give to the Cali- 

 fornian sylva its remarkable fascination, many of the 

 "broad-leaved," or non-coniferous, species are scarcely 

 inferior in interest and distinction. There are, for 

 instance, the magnificent Madrona — Arbutus Menziesii 

 — a close ally of the Killarney arbutus, but reaching 

 125 feet in height, with a trunk 5 feet in diameter; 

 the golden chestnut (Castanopsis chrysophyUa), its 

 leaves a tawny gold beneath, also over 100 feet high; 

 the Mountain dogwood (Cornus Nuttallii), an ally of 

 our Cornelian cherry, but often 50 to 60, sometimes 

 100, feet high, with its beautiful white involucres 

 (i inches across. Mr. Jepson, therefore, may well be 

 congratulated on his subject. 



To us in the British Isles it possesses an exceptional 

 inn-rest, because most of the Californian trees can be 

 cultivated in the open air in many parts of our 

 1 ountry. Nowhere else, indeed, out of California itself, 

 can its coniferous trees be seen to such perfection as 

 in the Perthshire valleys and in various places in the 

 south and west of England and Ireland. 



The history of the Californian sylva as known to 

 Europeans strikes one as curiously recent. Botanical 

 knowledge began with the visits of the Malaspina and 

 the Vancouver expeditions. The latter, a voyage of 

 survey organised by the British Government, touched 

 California about 1793. Most of the botanical work 

 accomplished on this journey was done by Archibald 

 Menzies, but he only penetrated a few miles from the 

 coast. David Douglas visited and explored California 

 in the interests of the Horticultural Society of London 

 about 1S27, and with him may be said to have com- 

 menced the real revelation of its sylva. It was carried 

 on by Nuttall, Fremont, Kellogg, Brewer, Bolander, 

 and others. But even the existence of the "big trees " 

 (Sequoia gigantca) was not definitely and authorita- 

 tively made known till nearly the middle of the nine- 

 teenth century, although hunters and wandering 

 pioneers had previously brought home accounts <>f 

 marvellous trees— mostly received, however, with the 

 scepticism the stories of such folk obtain. 



Among the later investigators of the Californian 

 sylva a foremost place is held by the author of this 



1 Memoirs of the University of California, 

 fornia/' By W. L. Jepson. Pp. 480+85 p! 



i., "The Sil 



maps. (I or.don '. T. 

 ty Press,' 1 Hi") Price 2/. M. net. 



volume. Only two years ago he published an admir- 

 able little book, " The Trees of California," of which 

 the present elaborate work is an amplification. The 

 new volume opens with an interesting essay on the 

 remarkable topography of California, its climate, rain- 

 fall, and tree distribution. The two great mountain 

 systems (the Coast Ranges and the Sierra Nevada) 

 enclose a great oval plain known as the "Great 

 Valley," drained by the San Joaquin and Sacramento 

 rivers, which meet about midway, and empty into the 

 Pacific. This region, 400 miles long and averaging 

 about 50 miles in width, is sparsely wooded and weak 

 in number of species. One peculiar characteristic of 

 its scencrv is the park-like grouping and disposition of 

 a few species of oak, chiefly the Valley oak (Ouercus 

 lobata) and the Live oak {0. Wislizenii). They never 

 form forests as the coniferous trees of the foot hills 

 and mountain slopes do, and scarcely anywhere on this 

 central plain does an aggregation of individuals 

 amount to more than what may be termed a grove. 

 Besides the great valley of the Sacramento and San 

 Joaquin, the author discusses his subject from the 

 point of view of four other great geographical areas: 



NO. 2l88, VOL. 87] 



