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NATURE 



[October 12, 191 1 



cannot speak with certainty as to its first appearance in 

 the world's vegetation. Leaves constructed on a similar 

 plan have been found in Permian, Carboniferous, and 

 Upper Devonian rocks in England, Germany, I r rance, the 

 Arctic regions, South Africa, Kashmir, the Ural Moun- 

 tains, and elsewhere, but we still lack decisive evidence 

 as to the systematic position of these plants. 



It is, however, an undisputed fact that the maiden-hair 

 tree is connected by a long line of ancestors with the 

 earliest phase of the Mesozoic epoch. From many parts 

 of the world large collections of fossil plants have been 

 obtained from strata referred to the Rhsetic period or to 

 the upper divisions of the Triassic system. The vegeta- 

 tion in those far-off days, extending from Australia, Cape 

 Colony, and South America to Tonkin, the south of 

 Sweden and North America, was much more uniform in 

 character than is the case with widely separated floras at 

 the present day. One of the most widely spread plants 

 in this vegetation is one known as Baiera, which possessed 

 leaves differing only in the greater number and smaller 

 breadth of their segments from those of the rnaiden-hair 

 tree. In the later Jurassic rocks of Yorkshire true Ginkgo 

 leaves, as well as those of Baiera, are fairly common, and 

 a few fragments of flowers have also been found. Both 

 genera are recorded from Jurassic rocks of Germany, 

 France, Russia, Bornholm, and elsewhere in Europe ; they 

 occur abundantly in Siberia, and are represented in the 

 Jurassic floras of Franz Josef Land, the east coast of 

 Greenland, and Spitsbergen. 



The abundance of fossil Ginkgo leaves and seeds in 

 Jurassic strata in East Siberia has led to the suggestion 

 that this region may have been a centre where the 

 Gingkoales reached their maximum development in the 

 Mesozoic period. The occurrence of fossil species in the 

 Jurassic rocks of King Charles Land (78 N.) and in the 

 New Siberian Islands (75° N.), in central China, Japan, 

 Turkestan, California, South Africa, Australia, and 

 Graham's Land, demonstrates the cosmopolitan nature of 

 the group. During the Tertiary period Ginkgo flourished 

 in North America, in Alaska, and in the Mackenzie River 

 district, Greenland, Saghalien Island, and in several 

 European regions. In the Island of Mull beautifully pre- 

 served leaves of Ginkgo, indistinguishable from those of 

 the living tree, have been found in sediments deposited on 

 the floor of a lake during a pause in the volcanic activity 

 which in the early days of the Tertiary era produced the 

 thick series of basaltic rocks to which is due the charac- 

 teristic contour of the Inner Hebrides. 



The recent cultivation in Britain of the maiden-hair tree 

 is thus a reintroduction of a plant which formerly 

 flourished in this part of Europe. Where and when this 

 genus first appeared, and why a type once so vigorous has 

 narrowly escaped extinction, are questions which we can- 

 not answer with confidence; we are, however, certain that 

 the maiden-hair tree links the present with a past incon- 

 ceivably remote; it is a tree "sacred with manv a 

 mystery," antedating by millions of years the advent of 

 man and far surpassing the flowering plants in antiquity. 



As we search through the fragmentary records scattered 

 through the sediments of former ages, we discover evidence 

 of a shifting of the balance of power among different 

 classes of plants. Plants now insignificant or few in 

 number are found to be descendants of a long line of 

 ancestors stretching back to remote antiquity. Others 

 which flourished in a former period no longer survive. 

 We can only speculate vaguely as to the cause of success 

 or failure. As Darwin said, " We need not marvel at 

 extinction ; if we must marvel, let it be at our own pre- 

 sumption in imagining for a moment that we under- 

 stand the many complex contingencies on which the exist- 

 ence of each species depends." 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 

 Glasgow. — Dr. J. D. Falconer, late principal 

 tlie Mineral Survey of Northern Nigeria, and formerly 

 assistant to Prof. James Geikie, has been appointed to the 

 lectureship in geography, vacated l>\ Captain Lyons, 

 F.R.S. 

 Mr. J. S. Dunkerley has been appointed a university 



2189, VOL - 87] 



lecturer in zoology, with special reference to protozoology. 

 Dr. Carl H. Browning, hitherto lecturer in bacteriology, 

 has been appointed lecturer in clinical pathology and 

 director of the new clinical laboratory at the Western 

 Infirmary. Dr. A. Maitland Ramsay has been appointed 

 university lecturer in ophthalmology. Principal Sir Donald 

 MacAlister, K.C.B., has been appointed a member of the 

 executive committee of the Carnegie Trust for the Uni- 

 versities of Scotland in succession to Prof. William Stewart, 

 resigned. 



His Majesty in Council has approved a new Ordinance, 

 whereby geography is added to the subjects which may be 

 offered in the final examination for the B.Sc. degree. 



London. — An appeal has been issued, with the authority 

 of the Senate, for funds to build the Francis Galton 

 Laboratory at an estimated cost of 15,000/. As stated in 

 an article in Nature of March 16, Sir Francis Galton in 

 his will expressed a hope that his bequest for the promo- 

 tion of eugenics, amounting to about 45,000/., would not 

 be used for the provision of buildings, fittings, or library. 

 The income is accordingly being used for the salaries of 

 the professor (Karl Pearson, F.R.S.) and his staff. A 

 site for the proposed laboratory has been allocated by the 

 L niversity at University College, and sketch plans, pre- 

 pared by Prof. Simpson, are printed with the appeal show- 

 ing adequate accommodation for lecture-room, museum, 

 research laboratories for eugenics and biometry, together 

 with a room for Galtoniana. The appeal directs attention 

 to the importance of the work to be carried on in the 

 laboratory in relation to future legislation dealing with 

 social problems. " It is essential that the statistical facts 

 on which such legislation may be based shall be analysed 

 in a purely scientific manner by workers who can give time 

 and energy to investigation, quite independently of any 

 ulterior end or party bias." Already the laboratory, in 

 spite of the difficulties due to inadequate accommodation, 

 is carrying out on a considerable scale the founder's wish 

 to " provide information, under appropriate restrictions, to 

 private individuals and to public authorities." Contribu- 

 tions and promises of support will be gratefully received 

 by Sir Edward Busk, chairman of the Galton Laboratory 

 Committee, at the University. 



Six lectures on "The Causes and Economii Effects "f 

 Changes in the General Level of Prices" (illustrated from 

 the history of the nineteenth century) are being delivered 

 by Mr. W. T. Layton at University College (University of 

 London) on Tuesdays at 5.30 p.m., the first having been 

 given on October 10 The lectures are open to the public 

 without fee or ticket. 



A special course of twelve lectures, dealing with 

 illumination, will be delivered at Battersea Polytechnic 

 during the coming session, the first six being delivered on 

 Tuesday evenings, beginning on October 17, and tie 

 six on Fridays, commencing January u. 1012. The course 

 will be open to students and all interested in the subject. 

 The course will deal with all illuminants, including 

 el- ,ii 1., gas, oil, and acetylene lighting, tin effect of light 

 on the eye and the hygienic aspects of illumination, the 

 measurement of light and illumination, &c. Practical 

 problem-., such as the lighting of schools, streets, fact 

 &c, will als,, be treated, I 1" lecturers will lie Prof. I. T. 

 Morris, Mr. |. G. Clark, Mr. F. Scott-Snell, Dr. W. I. 

 Ettles, .H.,1 Mr J. S. Dow. 



Additional buildings of the Royal Albert Memorial 

 University College, Exeter, will be formally opened by the 

 Lord-Lieutenant of Devon, the Earl Fortescue, on Friday, 

 October 20. The buildings are the first instalment of an 

 enlargement scheme which was approved by the governors 

 in 1904. The steady development of the college work has 

 necessitated periodical enlargement of the building accom- 

 modation. The last extension, in 1S99, was formally 

 opened by his Royal Highness the Duke of York (now King 

 George V.), and the previous extension, in 1895, by the late 

 Duke of Devonshire. The present addition has been en < ted 

 on a site purchased at the rear of the main building of the 

 Royal \H»n Memorial al a cost of 8675/. for land and 

 about 10, .lee;', for I'm building. This occupies only about 



