204 



NA TURE 



[Dec. 



1886 



NOTES 

 Mr. C. L. Griesbach, lately geologist to the Afghan 

 Boundary Commission, and deputy superintendent of the Geo- 

 logical Survey of India, has been appointed by the Viceroy to 

 officiate as superintendent. 



The annual meeting of the Association for the Improvement 

 of Geometrical Teaching will be held on Friday, January 14, 

 1887 {11.30 a.m.) at University College, Gower Street. At the 

 afternoon meeting (2 p.m.) the following papers will be read ; — 

 "On the Teaching of Modern Geometry," Rev. G. Richardson ; 

 "The Modern Treatment of Maxima and Minima," Rev. J. J. 

 Milne; and on " Geometry from an Artist's Point of View," 

 G. A. Storey, A.R.A. The meetings are open to all who are 

 interested in the objects of the Association. 



Our readers will be interested to hear that at the meeting of 

 the British Association recently held in Birmingham, a move- 

 ment was originated in the Committee of Section D (Biology) 

 having for its object an application to Government for a small 

 grant out of the Civil List to Mr. Thomas Bolton of Birming- 

 ham, whose important services to science as a naturalist and 

 microscopist have long been well known and appreciated. A 

 memorial setting forth Mr. Bolton's claims was prepared by 

 Mr. W. R. Hughes, late President of the Birmingham Natural 

 History and Microscopical Society, and was signed by Sir 

 J. W. Dawson, the President of the British Association, and by 

 a large number of eminent men of science. It also received the 

 signature of the Mayor of Birmingham. The memorial was 

 recently presented to Lord Salibbury as First Lord of the 

 Treasury, who has recommended that Her Majesty grant Mr. 

 Bolton a Civil List pension of 50/. per annum. 



The finest of all Japanese botanical bool s is the Honzo 

 Dsufu. It is also from a scientific point of view the most valu- 

 able, inasmuch as it contains excellent coloured figures of no less 

 than 1500 species of Japanese plants, of many of which there are 

 no other published representations. Franchet and Savatier, in 

 their " Enumeratio plantarum in Japonia sponte nascentium," 

 quote throughout the copy in their possession, which was not, 

 however, quite complete. It is in ninety-six volumes, or rather 

 iivraisotis, and is rare even in Japan. It was prefaced in 1828, 

 but only the first six livraisons have ever been printed, and the 

 rest only exists in hand-made copies. It has long been desired 

 to obtain a copy for the library of the Royal Gardens, Kew, and 

 this wish has at length been gratified by the kind liberality 

 of Mr. Tokutaro Ito, ^^randson of the well-known Japanese 

 botanist, Keisuke Ito. Mr. Ito is now studying botany at the 

 University of Cambridge, and lately communicated a revision of 

 Japanese BerhiriJacfir to the Linnean Society, of which he has 

 recently been elected a Fellow. The Kew copy of the Honzo 

 Dsufu is probably the finest to be obtained in Japan. It came 

 from the library of Senator Tanaka (himself a distinguished 

 botanist), who, with extraordinary generosity, placed it at the 

 disposal of Mr. Ito for presentation to Kew. 



In the AnnaUn of the Vienna Natural History Museum, Herr 

 von Pe'zeln and 1 r. von Lorenz have just published the first 

 of a series of articles on the types of birds contained in that 

 Museum. This cannot fail to be of the greatest use to students, 

 who often require to know the present resting-place of typical 

 specimens. Following the Cuvierian arrangement as adapted 

 by Gray in his " Hand-list of Birds," the authors present, as a 

 first instalment, a list of the types of the Accipitres and Teniii- 

 rostrts. The chief interest naturally centres round the species 

 procured by Johann Natterer in Brazil, for nothing more 

 wonderful is known in the history of ornithology than the way 

 in which Natterer's collections, made in the early part of the 

 present century, still remain the basis of our knowledge of the 

 ornithology of that country, and, notwithstanding the subse- 



quent efforts of travellers, there are numbers of Brazilian species 

 obtained by Natterer alone, and unrepresented in any Museum 

 except that of Vienna. Curiously enough, too, the Vienna 

 Museum also possesses several of Latham's and Shaw's types, 

 founded on the ."ipecimens in the Leverian collection, and pur- 

 chased in 1806. The value of a type was not understood in 

 England so long ago as 1806, and the specimens were allowed 

 to leave the country, to find a home in Austria. Such would 

 scarcely be permitted now, under the enlightened management 

 of our authorities at the Natural History Museum at South 

 Kensington, who are doubtless mindful of the disgrace attaching 

 to the British Museum in former years, when that institution 

 allowed the whole of the Gould collection of Australian birds, 

 with its 300 types, to go for 1000/. to America, where it now 

 lies, scarcely heeded, in the Museum of the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences of Philadelphia. Let us hope that the Gouldian types 

 are better looked after in the Philadelphia Museum than so.i e 

 of the types of Du Chaillu's Gaboon species, which are no 

 longer forthcoming, to the no small embarrassment of ornitho- 

 logical students. 



Prof. Menzbier has recently published, in the Bulletin of 

 the Society of N.ituralists of Moscow, an account of the birds 

 collected by Mr. Zaroudnoi, a Russian naturalist, who has been 

 exploring the oasis of Akhal-Tekke, the Kara-Kum dese;t, and 

 the adjacent mountains, in Central Asia. The want of fund.'- 

 appears to have crippled the efforts of the traveller to a great 

 extent, but he managed to procure 184 different species of birds, 

 though his observations were confined to the summer months 

 and early autumn. Mr. Zaroudnoi found several rare species 

 nesting, and besides his own observations there are some inter- 

 esting scientific notes from Prof. Menzbier's pen. We are 

 informed that the traveller has recently prosecuted a further 

 expedition into Khorasan and Northern Afghanistan, the results 

 of which may be expected to be of considerable importance to 

 zoologists. 



The Auk^ which is the journal of the American Ornithologists' 

 Union, and answers to our English Ibis, has just completed its 

 third volume, under the able editorship of Mr. J. A. Allen, who 

 is the President of the American Ornithologists' Union. The 

 present volume abounds in interesting memoirs, and fully 

 maintains the high standard of the journal. The Union now 

 numbers 46 active members, 112 associate members, 26 foreign 

 members, and 59 corresponding members. The Committees 

 on the Migration and Geographical Distribution of North 

 American Birds and for the Protection of North American 

 Birds have both done excellent service during the past twelve- 

 month. 



Mr. G. H. Hi.vsby, of Hobart Town, has forwarded us a 

 useful list of the birds of Tasmania : 178 species are found in the 

 island, but the author is apparently unaware that several Tas- 

 manian birds to which he gives the same scientific name as the 

 Australian species are considered by recent writers to be peculiar 

 to Tasmania itself. 



A RECENT issue of the yapati Weekly Mail contains a report 

 of the Japan Educational Society, an association founded to 

 bring together persons interested in education, to assist in its 

 diffusion, and to improve and advance education in the country. 

 Besides general and ordinary meetings in furtherance of the 

 objects of the Society, members are frequently sent to various 

 localities at the request of local educational institutes for the 

 purpose of delivering addresses or lectures. Thirty-three num- 

 bers of the memoirs have been published, the total number 

 printed being 100,000. In addition, books under the title 

 " Hints to Educators " were published, and 7000 copies printed. 

 The number of members is 3000, and a prince of the Imperial 

 House is President. 



