530 



NA TURE 



Oct. 31, 1872 



the bottom, and a safety-valve to allow of the expansion 

 consequent on decrease of pressure as the apparatus is 

 hauled up. A hydraulic machine will be carried on board, 

 capable of testing the accuracy of all the physical appara- 

 tus, thermometers, pressure-gauges, &c., from time to 

 time, in a chamber in which a pressure of three tons on 

 the square inch can be obtained. The attempt will be 

 made to use piano wire for sounding, after Sir William 

 Thomson's method. A small aquarium has been devised 

 by Mr. Moscley, which will be used for the study of the 

 development of interesting animals. Except in absolutely 

 calm weather it will be entirely closed, and a constant 

 stream of water will be passed through it from a reser- 

 voir by means of finely perforated roses made — at the 

 suggestion of Mr. Lloyd, of the Crystal Palace — 

 of vulcanite. The route to be followed by the 

 Challenger is not yet definitely fixed, and is still 

 under the consideration of the Admiralty, who will 

 be guided very much in the matter by the ad\'ice 

 of the Royal Society Committee ; but it will be very 

 nearly as follows : — 



The vessel, which is at present at Sheerness, will 

 probably go round to Portsmouth about the middle 

 of November, and sail from thence in the beginning 

 of December for Gibraltar, the first haul of the 

 dredge being made in the Bay of Biscay, if the weather 

 should chance to be favourable. From Gibraltar she 

 will proceed to Madeira, thence to St. Thomas, the 

 Bahamas, Bermuda, the Azores ; from thence to Bahia, 

 touching at Fernando Norohna ; then across to the Cape 

 of Good Hope, and, after a stay in that neighbour- 

 hood, southwards to the Crozetts and Marion Islands 

 and Kerguelens Land. A run southwards will then be 

 made as far as possible to the ice, and the course thence be 

 made to Sydney. New Zealand, the Campbell and Auck- 

 land groups, Torres Straits, New Guinea, and New 

 Ireland will then be visited. A long cruise of perhaps a 

 year will then be made amongst the Pacific islands ; 

 thence the expedition, passing between Borneo and Cele- 

 bes, and visiting Luzon and its neighbourhood, will pro- 

 ceed to Japan, where a stay of two or three months is 

 expected. Thence northward to Kamskatka, whence a 

 run will be made northwards through Eehring's Straits, 

 and then through the Aleutian Islands, southward to 

 Vancouvei-'s Island, and so through the deep eastern 

 region of the Pacific by Easter Island, and possibly by 

 the Galapagos Archipelago to the Horn, and thence home. 

 The voyage is expected to tike about three and a half 

 years. 



It is difficult to over-estimate the immense benefit which 

 science must derive from an expedition such as this. 

 Apart from the results of intense interest which may be 

 expected from the deep-sea work, the principal object of 

 the expedition, and which must go far to elucidate a sub- 

 ject on which our knowledge is at present of the most 

 imperfect description, abundant opportunity will offer for 

 the accurate investigation of the animal and vegetable 

 life of many highly interesting and yet imperfectly known 

 or totally unexplored regions. The investigation of the 

 floras of such islands as Fernando Norohna and the 

 Marion and Crozctt groups cannot fail to yield most in- 

 structive results ; and it is needless to speak of the 

 intense interest which centres in New Guinea. 



No expedition has ever started under such favourable 

 auspices as the present for yielding valuable scientific 

 results, and great praise is due to the Government for 

 the very liberal and thorough manner in which all 

 arrangements have been carried out. 



FIGUIER'S VEGETABLE WORLD 



The Ve,k;eiable IVorhi : being a History of Plants, ivitli 

 their structure and peculiar properties. Adapted from 

 the work of Louis Figuier. New and Revised Edition, 

 with 473 Illustrations. (London : CasscU, Petter, and 

 Galpin.) 



NOTWITHSTANDING its ambitious title, this is, 

 on the whole, a satisfactory book. If, however, in 

 dependence on the title, it is ordered in the expectation of 

 finding anything that will replace Lindley's " Vegetable 

 Kingdom," or Baillon's " Histoire des Plantes"- -at least, 

 what this latter will be when finished, if it ever is finished 

 —the purchaser will be disappointed. We have here a 

 repetition of the old plan of attempting to compress into 

 one small octavo volume an account of the Morphology, 

 Physiology, Classification, and Geographical Distribution 

 of plants. As far as can be, as we have said, the execu- 

 tion is good ; some parts are even exceptionally well 

 done ; the defects are those of the plan. The style of 

 Figuier's original work, florid and Gallic to excess, is en- 

 tirely unsuited to the English reader ; the " adapter " has 

 used his pruning-knife with judicious severity, and has 

 produced a book that may fill a useful place in popularis- 

 ing the study of botany, and leading the way to fuller and 

 more special treatises. 



The first part of the work, " Organography and Physi- 

 ology," treats of the structure and different forms of the 

 various organs in a systematic manner, and yet with a 

 fresher style than is usual in text-books. It is, moreover, 

 a relief to find that the majority of the illustrations, which 

 are excellent throughout, are not those which have wearied 

 the eye in many a familiar book. The details of termin- 

 ology are relieved by information on many interest- 

 ing points which we do not find in ordinary text-books. 

 Thus in the very early pages we have an account of 

 Knight's and Dutrochet's experiments with vertical and 

 horizontal wheels to determine the effect which gravitation 

 exercises in determining the downward tendency of the 

 roots. Further on is a description .and drawing of Hales' 

 apparatus for measuring the force of ascending sap, by 

 which he claims to have determined that the force wiiich 

 impels the sap in the vine is five times as great as that which 

 impels the blood through the large arteries of the horse. 



The portion devoted to the " Phenomena of Fertilisation 

 and Germination " is full, and about the best in the book, 

 the illustrations being especially superior to those found in 

 most other works of a similar character. The cut iicre re- 

 produced (Fig. 2) represents the very curious arrangement 

 by which the fertilisation of Vallisneria spiralis,^ favourite 

 water plant in aquaria, is effected. The female flowers 

 are borne on long spiral stalks which uncoil when the 

 flower is ready to open, so as to allow it to float on the 

 surface of the water. The male flowers, on the contrary, 

 have very short stalks which are entirely submerged, but 

 detach themselves when mature, rising to the surface, 



