52 



NATURE 



[May 1 6, 1872 



placed is one whose appointment will command the confidence 

 of ornilhologists, not in this country only, but throughout the 

 world. 



Just before going to press we have received the new scheme 

 for the Natural Sciences, prepared by the Board of Studies at 

 Oxford. We can only at present note the publication of this 

 important document, of which we will give the main features 

 next week. 



At the meeting of the French Academy on May 6, MM. Mas- 

 cart and Janssen were selected to be recommended to the Minis- 

 ter of Public Instruction as candidates for the Chair of General 

 and Experimental Physics at the College of France, vacant by 

 the resignation of M. Regnault. 



A MEETi.NG of gentlemen who have within the last fifty years 

 attended the Natural Philosophy class in the University of Edin- 

 burgh was recently held, to consider the best means of recognis- 

 ing the long services of Mr. James Lindsay, Experimental 

 Assistant to the Professor of Natural Philosophy. Mr. Linds.iy 

 has been connected with the University for the last 58 years, and 

 has acted as Experimental Assistant to the Professor of Natural 

 Piiilosophy for 53 sessions, serving successively Prof Sir John 

 L-^sli?, Principal James David Forbes, and Prof P. G. . Tait. 

 Mr. Lindsay has assisted these geatlemeu in their original in- 

 vestig.xtions, and has thus been intimately associated with the 

 progress of physical science in Scotland within the last half- 

 century. All have borne unqualilied testimony to his accuracy 

 as an experimentalist. Mr. J. C. Young, of 4, Brighton Place, 

 Portobello, and Mr. James Dewar, of 15, Gilmour Place, Edin- 

 burgh, are the secretaries to the committee, and will gladly 

 receive subscriptions in aid of the fund, which, we doubt not, 

 will speedily be collected for so worthy an object. 



At the meeting of the Zoological Society on June 4, Prof 

 Owen will read a paper upon a new large wing less bird 

 recently discovered in the post-tertiary deposits of Queensland, 

 Australia. Prof Owen refers these remains to a new genus of 

 Sinithioitcs, allied to the Emeu (Diviinnis), which he proposes to 

 call Droi?iontis. 



The Conversazione of the Society of Arts is fixed to take 

 place at the South Kensington Museum on Wednesday, the iglh 

 of June. 



The President of the Inttitution of Civil Engineers, Mr. 

 Hawksley, has issued cards of invitation for a conversazione on 

 Tuesday, the 28th inst, in the Western Galleries of the Inter- 

 na!ional Exhibition Buildings at Kensington. 



Dr. Hooker has just is=ued his Report of the Rcyal Gardens 

 at Kcw for the year 1871. The number of visitors has not been 

 quiie equal to ei;her of the two preceding years ; but the director 

 afributcs this entirely to the dimmishcd number of those 

 clas es whose presence is in every way undesirable : the 

 number of visitors who take an intelligent interest in the 

 gardens and their productions being, he believes, steadily on 

 the increase. The number of Sanday visitors is more than two- 

 I'.i ds of the total number on all the other days of the week ; 

 Munday, the "artisans' day," shov/ing considerably the largest 

 numbers of any of the week days, and Dr. Hooker speaks of the 

 almost uniformly orderly conduct of the visitors on this day, con- 

 tra-ting in some instances favourably even with that displayed by 

 some of the fashionable Saturday visitors. In the Botanic 

 Gardens no change of importance has been introduced, except 

 the making of a few more shrubberies, and bringing together 

 vari JUS scattered young trees by threes or in clumps, so as to give 

 more extent of lawn in certain parts, and broader masses of 

 foliage in others. The works in the Pleasure Grounds ar.d 

 Arboretum have been almost uninterruptedly continued, and a 

 very large space has been planted, partly with young trees 



brought from the plantations in the Queen's garden, &c., and 

 partly with smaller things to act as a shelter to these. The inter- 

 change of living plants and seeds has been continually kept up 

 with siniUar establishments abroad and in the colonies ; and a 

 gardener has been sent out to Jamaica to re-establish the 

 Botanic Garden there, at the request of the Governor, Sir J. P. 

 Grant. 



The following works, bearing more or less on Science, are 

 announced as in the press : — By Messrs. Longmans — "An Ex- 

 position of Fallacies in the Hypothesis of Mr. Darwin," by Mr. 

 C. R. Bree, M.D., F.Z.S., 8vo, with plates; "As Regards 

 Protoplasm," by Mr. J. IE Stirling. New and imjiroved edition, 

 completed by the addition of Part II. in reference to Mr. 

 Huxley's second issue, and a new preface in reply to Mr. 

 Hu.xley in "Yeast;" ani by Messrs. Strahan — "Town 

 Geology," by the Rev. Charles King^ley. 



The first part has just appeared of the long-expected Flora of 

 British India by Dr. J. D. Hooker, published under the autho- 

 rity of the Secretary of .State for India in Council. The terri- 

 tory included in the Flora is that comprised within the British 

 territories in India (including the Malay Peninsula and the An- 

 daman Isles), together with Kashmir and Western Tibet, but 

 excluding Affghanistan and Beluchistan, the plants of which 

 countries are included in Boiss'er's " Flora Orientalis," and be- 

 long to quite ancther botanical region, that of Western Asia. 

 Of the 12,000 to 14,000 species of flowering plants and ferns be- 

 longing to British Indian botany, not a twelfth part has hitherto 

 been brought together In any one general woik on Indian plants; 

 the description of the remainder being scattered through innumer- 

 able British and foreign journals, or contained in local floras or 

 works on general botany ; and a very large number being either 

 very badly described, or not at all. The v.'ork is, therefore, one 

 of considerable labour as well as importance, Dr. Hooker being 

 assisted in it by various other botanists. There are a large num- 

 ber of new species described in this part; and the natural orders 

 included in it are Ranunculacere, Dilleniacea;, Magnoliacea.', 

 AnonaceiE, Menispermace.'e, Berberide-f, NymphceaccK, Papa- 

 veraceae, CapparkleK, ResedaccK?, Bixinese, Violace*, and Pitto- 

 spores, by Dr. Hoo'^er and Dr. Thomson ; Cruciferre by Dr. 

 Hooker and Dr. Anderson ; Fumariacea; by Dr. Hooker ; and a 

 part of Polygalea; by Mr. A. W. Bennett. 



The Annual Report of the Maidstone and Mid-Kent Natural 

 History and Philosophical Society for 1S71 refers to the success- 

 ful attempt made during the year to introduce instruction by 

 means of science classes in connection with the society. The 

 senior clas es of all the schools in Maidstone have been enrolled 

 in one great class for the study of Physical Geography, and a 

 class of over 300 pupils, constant in their attendance, receives 

 weekly lectures on this subject. The instruction is given 

 gratuitously by members or officers of the Society, and the 

 apparatus has also been provided or constructed by them. A 

 class is also in operation for the study of Inorganic Chemistry. 

 The Society is by this means performing a most useful function 

 in spreading a love of science among our school-boys. 



An error has been pointed out to us in the article entitled 

 "English Rainfall in iSyi " which appeared in our issue of 

 April iS. One inch of rain is computed at 22,500 gallons per 



acre, instead of, as it should be, < 1 ' ^ — = 22,623 gallons, 

 277,274 • •'^ 



or more exactly 22,622'532, per acre. The error applies to 



columns 7 and S of the table there given, and to the first half of 



the second paragraph following, the error being equiv.a'ent to 123 



in every 22,500 gallons. The correct estimate of the rainfall on 



a squ.are mile during the year is 22,623 ^ '^4° X 22 '42 = 



32i.,6i2,902 gallons, or 14,739,053 hectolitres, nearly. 



