148 
NATURE 
| Dec 22, 1870 

fruit; for whereas all the eastern species have very long 
appendages to the seed, which are no doubt instrumental in its 
dispersion, these appendages are very short in the Madagascar 
species, and are wholly absent in the Seychelle one ; which thus 
presents a case analogous to that of the prevalence of wingless in- 
sects on oceanic islets. Lastly, the Seychelle Islands species further 
differs from all others in the structure of its ovary and capsule. 
‘Tosum up, deviation from the typeof the genus commenceson the 
western confines of the principal centre of its distribution, namely 
in Ceylon ; and the initial deviation, that met with in the Ceylon 
species, is the slightest, but is propagated (so to speak) west- 
wards, equally characterising the two African islands Pitcher- 
plants, which again deviate still further from the type; the maxi- 
mum deviation, however occurs, not in the great sub-continental 
Island of Madagascar, where the endemic species has a consider- 
able range ; but in the very small oceanic Archipelago of the 
Seychelles, where the only native species is confined to the one 
mountain summit of one island of the group ! 
The only other fact that struck me as bearing upon this subject 
of distribution is, that though present in the Seychelles, the genus 
Nepenthes is absent from the Mascarene group (Mauritius, 
Bourbon, and Rodrigues). This is only one instance of the 
broad distinction that exists between the vegetation of these 
Archipelagos, and which is in some way connected with the fact 
that the Mascarene group is volcanic, the Seychelles group formed 
of granite and quartz. Coincident and perhaps co-ordinate with 
these phenomena of plant distribution, geographical position, 
and geological structure, are the facts that the flora of the Sey- 
chelle Archipelago is more Asiatic, and the florule of its several 
islets very uniform ; whilst the florule of the islets of the Mas- 
carene Archipelago differ wonderfully, and in their totality are 
more African than Indian. The flora of the Mascarene group 
may hence be regarded either as a very ancient outlying province 
of the African, or as consisting of a more modern assemblage of 
plants, derived at various periods from Africa, but subsequently 
much altered by causes operating in the several islets ; or more 
probably its peculiarities are attributable to both causes. Long 
as the Mascarene and Seychelle islets have been colonised, 
under Dutch, French, and English rule, their floras are still 
very imperfectly known; so much, however, of Mascarene 
botany is known, as to show that its relations with those of the 
Seychelle group and Madagascar, and the relations of all these 
with India and Africa, are most complicated, and present one of 
the most puzzling problems in Phytogeographical Science. 
Royal Gardens, Kew, Dec. 18 J. D. Hooker 
THE author of the notice which appeared in a recent Number 
of NaTuRE is probably unaware that a minute analysis of the 
“water” found in the pitcher of Nepenthes was made a few 
years since by Dr. Volcker. For full particulars I will refer your 
correspondent to ‘‘ Annals and Magazine of Natural History,” 
27, 4, 128, and *‘Phil. Magazine,” 3, xxxv., 192; but Imay perhaps 
be allowed to give the results of the analysis. My extract is 
from Liebig and Kopp’s *‘ Annual Report, &c.”  ‘* The liquid 
was generally clear and colourless, rarely yellowish, and reddened 
litmus. That which was collected from different plants gave 
respectively 0°92, 0°91, 0°57, 0°58, 0°62, and 0°27, per cent. of 
residue, which contained in 100 parts 38°61 per cent. of organic 
matter, consisting chiefly of malic acid with a little citric acid, 
50°02 of chloride of potassium, 6°36 soda, 2°59 lime, 2°59 
magnesia.” 
During the early part of the present year I was led to suspect 
the presence of some form of tanno-gallic acid in the tissue of 
the stalk, and the kindness of a chemical friend enabled me to 
verify my conclusions ; but no quantitative analysis has, to my, 
knowledge, been made beyond the one I have referred to. 
Hull, Dec. 1 H, PocKLINGTON 
Cockroaches 
Tur facts mentioned by your correspondent, Mr. Arthur 
Nicols (in your number of Dec. 8), are notorious to all West 
Indians. A friend of mine was marked for life by these things 
on board a ship coming home from Jamaica. 
As for their scent, if you crush one in England it smells evil 
enough ; and I don’t doubt Aristophanes’s sharp Greek nose had 
found that out. I have known bread, &c., in the West Indies 
uneatable from being run over by the small dark Cockroach of 
England, Svatla orientalis; while the great pale species, 2. 
occidentalis, is utterly unbearable. C. KINGSLEY 

Press, 
EARED SEALS AND THEIR HABITS* 
J ee paper, which forms the first number of the 
second volume of the “ Bulletin of the Museum of 
Comparative Zoology at Harvard College in (Trans- 
atlantic) Cambridge,” is one of great zoological import- 
ance, and likewise of much general interest. The Eared 
Seals, a group of marine Carnivora, which form a well- 
marked division of the Pinnipedia, distinguished by the 
possession of a small external ear-conch and other 
peculiarities, are still very imperfectly known, altheugh 
of late years they have attracted the attention of several 
eminent naturalists. Unfortunately, however, the great 
variations which occur in the sexes and different ages of 
these animals, have not been sufficiently appreciated by 
those who have studied the few specimens of them pre- 
served in European museums. The consequence has 
been that numerous artificial species have been manu- 
factured upon stray skulls and imperfect skins, which 
have exhibited what were really only individual differences. 
Moreover, what is worse than this, under the prevailing 
mania for coining new generic names, more genera of 
Eared Seals have been established than the number of 
species which actually existin nature. Foremost amongst 
these offenders, we regret to say, has been one of our own 
countrymen, who, in a recent article published in the 
“Annals of Natural History,” has subdivided, on the most 
trivial characters, the family O/arizd@ into four sub- 
families and ten genera! We shall see how much more 
reasonable and consonant with nature are Mr. Allen’s 
views on the arrangement of these animals, 
Mr. Allen commences his piper by an Introduction, in 
which he discusses at some length the writings of pre- 
ceding authors on this subject. He then proceeds to set 
forth his own views, distinguishing first of all the Eared 
Seals from the two other families of the Pinnipedia (the true 
seals and the walrus), and afterwards the different genera 
and species of Usavzd@, in a very neat and perspicuous 
manner, Mr. Allen is only able to recognise eight species 
of these animals, and considers two of these rather 
doubtful. Four of them belong to the “ Hair-seals,” or 
“Sea-lions,’ which have no under fur, and four to the 
smaller ‘‘ Fur-seals,” or “ Sea-bears,” which have a dense 
under coat, and furnish the seal-skin cloaks so much now 
in fashion with English ladies. The well-known “ Sea- 
lion” in the Zoological Gardens belongs to the former 
group—being a female of the Southern Sea-lion (Ofaria 
Jubata). 
Mr. Allen next begins to treat at great length of the 
North Pacific species of Eared Seals, of which he is able 
to give us a full and excellent account from the speci- 
mens in the Museum to which he is attached, together 
with those in other American collections. These North 
Pacific species are the Steller’s Sea-lion (Ammetopias 
Stellerz), Gillespie’s Hair seal (Zalophus Giliesfit), and 
the Northern Fur-seal (Callorhinus ursinus). Of these 
three animals such full particulars are given that it seems 
scarcely possible that there can be any more confusion 
respecting them. But the most remaikab'e part of the 
present memoir is perhaps the account of the extraordinary 
habits and customs of the Northern Fur-seal, given from 
Captain Brvant’s observations of these animals, on the 
Pribyloff Islands, off the Northern part of Alaska Terri- 
tory. As is the case in other known species of Eared- 
Seals, there is an enormous discrepancy in the size and 
weight of the two sexes, the weight of the female being 
rarely more than one-fourth of that of the full-grown 
male, 
The Fur-seals resort to the Pribyloff Islands dwming 
the summer months for the purpose of breeding, and in 
St. Paul’s Island, where Captain Bryant made his obser- 
**On the Eared Seals (Otariade), with detailed Descriptions of the 
North Pacific Species.” By J. A. Allen. Yogether with an Account of 
the Habits of the Northern Fur Seal (Cadlorhinus ursinus). By Charles 
Bryant. Rig Three Plates. S8yo, 108 pp. (Cambridge: University 
1870. 

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