Jan. 6, 1887] 



NA TURE 



227 



We cannot close these notes without saying a word in 

 commendation of the excellence of most of the catalogues, 

 especiallv those of Cevlon and the Cape of Good Hope. 

 John R. Jackson 



Museum, Royal Gardens, Kcw 



IPECACUANHA CULTIVATION IN INDIA 

 'pHE following note is from a letter which I have 

 J. received from Mr. Gammie, who has charge of the 

 cinchona plantations of the Bengal Government at Dar- 

 jeeling. The facts are of considerable biological interest, 

 as showing that amongst closely connected forms, which 

 can scarcely be distinguished by palpable morphological 

 differences, there may yet be unobvious constitutional 

 tlistinctions which in the struggle for existence may de- 

 termine the survival and ultimate dominance of some one 

 form in particular. 



The facts are also perhaps interesting in another way. 

 To any one who will be at the pains to turn up vol. vii. 

 of N.VTURE, p. 6, it will be amusing to see the sequel 

 which the chance of circumstance has brought to one 

 branch of a long-burnt-out contro\ersy. 



\V. T. Thiselton Dyer 



Royal Gardens, Kew, December 13 



" I don't think I ever told you the final results from 

 our ipecacuanha-growing experiments, but do so now. 



" Our original stock of plants came from Kew and 

 Edinburgh — the great majority from Edinburgh. The few 

 plants from Kew differed a good deal in appearance from 

 the Edinburgh lot, which, again, differed greatly from each 

 other. All the Kew plants were of one sort, which we 

 named, from the start, the Kesv variety. It was rougher 

 in the leaf than the Edinburgh sorts, and not so strong- 

 growing while under glass. 



"After we had satisfied ourselves that we could make 

 nothing of ipecacuanha, from a commercial point of view, 

 we put all the plants out in the open, under shade, and 

 let them take their chance. By this time we had all the 

 sorts mixed up together ; and as we had originally at least 

 ten Edinburgh plants for each one of the Kew sort, and 

 the Edinburgh lot had, besides, been much the stronger 

 growers under glass, the Kew plants formed less than 5 

 per cent, of the whole. But very soon the Edinburgh 

 sorts began to disappear, until, in the course of a year or 

 -two, there was not a single plant of one of the Edinburgh 

 varieties alive, whilst almost every plant of the Kew 

 variety lived. Of it, at the present moment, we have a 

 good stock, and in one place, at 1400 feet elevation, under 

 the shade of living trees, we have plants, which were put 

 out many years ago, in the most perfect health, but un- 

 fortunately their grov.-th has been so slow as to render 

 the prospect of any profitable return from them almost 

 hopeless. Still it strikes me that, in places geographically 

 better situated for ipecacuanha-growing than Sikkim, 

 this particular variety may succeed, although other sorts 

 may have failed. Probably our ipecacuanha experiments 

 may prove another instance of the folly of giving up the 

 cultivation of new crops as hopeless until the most 

 exhaustive experiments have been carried out. It may 

 be that there are even hardier varieties of ipecacuanha 

 than the ' Kew variety ' to be found." 



SUNSPOT OBSERVATIONS IN HUNGARY^ 



THE Observatory, of which the first volume of Publi- 

 cations is now before us, was founded by Cardinal 

 Haynald in 187S in connection with the archiepiscopal 

 gymnasium at Kalocsa in Hungary. Preliminary geodetic 

 operations, of special importance as supplying an inde- 



1 "Berichte von dem Erzbischuflich-Haynaldschen Observatoriuni zu 

 Kalocs.i in Ungarn." Von Carl Braun, S. J. (Munster i. W. : AschendorfT, 



pendently determined point of reference for the Hungarian 

 survey, with the examination and adaptation of instru- 

 ments, cost much time and labour ; so that only a frag- 

 mentary part of the energy of the establishment has 

 hitherto been available for purely astronomical work. 

 The Director, however. Dr. C. Braun, has wisely embraced 

 the rule of concentration which governs most successful 

 campaigns, and is hence enabled to present, in lieu of a 

 multitude of scattered and perhaps useless observations, 

 the connected results of four years' solar study, unpre- 

 tending in aim. but thoroughly well executed, and deve- 

 loped with much clearness and not a little originality. 

 The time, it is true, has somewhat gone by for visual 

 solar work of the kind here described ; and Dr. Braun, 

 like all other astronomers, is getting ready his camera. 

 Still, it is well worth while to consider what has been 

 learned— even at a somewhat disproportionate cost of 

 labour— by graphical delineation pursued through fifty 

 consecutive solar rotations. 



The instrument employed was the smaller of two excel- 

 lent Merz refractors possessed by the Kalocsa Observa- 

 tory. It is of four Paris inches aperture, is equatorially 

 mounted, and appears to possess uncommonly hne defini- 

 tion. To its eye-end was fitted an apparatus invented 

 and constructed' by Dr. Braun himself, by means of which 

 an image of the sun 22 centimetres in diameter was 

 projected, after total reflection fiom a right-angled prism, 

 upon a sheet of drawing-paper. In this way nearly 5000 

 drawings of spots were executed during the years 1S80 to 

 18S4. For their reduction two expeditious methods— one 

 graphical, the other computative— were devised ; and the 

 resulting heliographical latitudes are rendered strictly 

 comparable with those derived by English observers, 

 through the application of a small correction due to a 

 difference in the adopted elements of the solar rotation. 

 Now that sunspot observations have become cosmo- 

 politan, it seems indeed a pity that there should not be 

 unanimity on this point among astronomers. Dr. Braun 

 conforms, however, to the solar prime-mendian chosen at 

 Greenwich, so that the longitudes given in his maps 

 practically coincide with Greenwich longitude;. 



The highest grade of accuracy was not aimed at in 

 these observations. Their object was the collection of 

 materials for studying the processes of spot-formation 

 and the relation of spots to prominences, with side- 

 glances towards a possible, but every year less and less 

 probable, transit of "-Vulcan." The determination of the 

 solar rotational elements, or of the minute changes of 

 lititude of spots, was left to observers provided with the 

 means of executing refined micrometrical measurements. 

 Nor was the estimation of maculated area attempted. 

 Yet with all these limitations, much of interest remains 

 to be gathered from the paper before us. 



The results are portrayed in fifty maps, each represent- 

 ing the aspect of the sun's surface between the parallels 

 of 40' north and south, during one synodical rotation. 

 The indication of the solar meridians which on successive 

 days were central at mean mid-day (Kalocsa time) renders 

 it easy to trace the fluctuating appearance of the actual 

 visible disk throughout each period. The maps further 

 contain two long sinusoid cur\-es— one denoting the 

 heliographical latitude of that point on each meridian of 

 which the position-angle on the east limb was 90 , the 

 other showing the latitude of the points similarly situated 

 on the west limb. Hence the position-angle of any 

 given spot as it traversed either edge of the sun can at 

 once be deduced— a datum obviously much facilitating 

 inquiries into the connection of spots with prominences. 



To each map corresponds a table, in which, besides 

 the heliographical position of each spot, something of its 

 history and peculiarities is set forth— the number of times 

 it was' observed, the epochs of its appearance and disap- 

 pearance, with a general description of its size and shape. 

 Especial interest attaches to a table in which Dr. Braun 



