12 



NATURE 



[March 6, 1913 



Kababish called them to the writer) are the sur- 

 viving representatives of the old Nuba population 

 of the hills of northern Kordofan, the remains 

 of whose houses can be seen on so many hills. 

 In spite of the contemptuous tone taken by the 

 nomad Arabs when speaking' of these folk, they 

 are bold raiders, and do not hesitate to cross the 

 border to lift the cattle and camels of even 

 the strongest tribes, the herdsmen of which they 

 kill or enslave as opportunity offers. 



The Zaghawa are Hamiticised negroids who 

 about the end of the eighteenth century emerged 

 as a vassal State in northern Darfur under prac- 

 tically independent rulers. It was probably about 

 this time, or a little earlier, that a party of 

 Zaghawa migrated eastwards and seized the hills 

 in the neighbourhood of Jebel Kagmar in northern 

 Kordofan, where they settled and which their 

 descendants still occupy, though none of these can 

 speak a word of any language but Arabic, and 

 have adopted a pedigree dating back nineteen 

 generations to Khalid el Guhani, the brother of 

 Abdulla el Guhani, to whom the usual faked nisba 

 of the tribes of the northern Sudan goes back. 



The mere mention of these two matters will 

 serve to give some idea of the value and scope of 

 the book. 



A MEMORIAL TO SIR JOSEPH HOOKER. 



A MEMORIAL to the late Sir J. D. Hooker, 

 1 *- which has been placed in the Parish Church 

 at Kew, near the similar memorial to his father, 

 Sir W. J. Hooker, was unveiled by Lady Hooker 

 in the presence of members of the Hooker family 

 on Saturday, February 22. The memorial con- 

 sists of a mural tablet of coloured marble bearing 

 the following inscription : — 



1817-I9II JOSEPH DALTON HOOKER, O.M. G. C.S.I. 

 C.B. M.D. D.C.L. LL.D., ASSOCIE ETRANGER OF THE 

 INSTITUTE OF FRANCE, KNIGHT OF THE PRUSSIAN 

 ORDER "POUR LE MERITE," SOMETIME PRESIDENT 

 OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY, FOR XX YEARS DIRECTOR 

 OF THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS KEW. BORN AT 

 HALESWORTH 3OTH JUNE 1817, DIED AT WINDLESHAM 

 IOTH DEC. igil. THE WORKS OF THE LORD ARE 

 GREAT SOUGHT OUT OF ALL THEM THAT HAVE 

 PLEASURE THEREIN. 



Below this inscription is a Wedgwood medallion 

 portrait of Sir Joseph, flanked and supported by 

 five panels containing Wedgwood figures of 

 plants with which, in the course of his long career, 

 there had grown up some especial association. 

 In the upper and corner panels, left and right, 

 these plants are an Aristolochia, commemorating 

 his connection with African fioristic work and 

 travel, and a Nepenthes, recalling a notable con- 

 tribution to our knowledge of vegetable morpho- 

 logy and physiology. The left lower corner 

 panel contains a Cinchona, commemorating 

 Hooker's connection with one of the most humane 

 episodes in economic botany during his lifetime — 

 the introduction to south-eastern Asia of the medi- 

 cinal Cinchonas of South America. The panel 

 which balances this on the right contains a 

 NO. 2262, VOL. 91] 



Rhododendron, commemorative of Hooker's great 

 Himalayan journey. 



In a smaller central panel between the lower 

 corner ones is a Celmisia, recalling the southern 

 voyage with Ross and the labour bestowed on 

 the flora of New Zealand. At foot are the family 

 arms with the family motto and the motto of the 

 Most Exalted Order of the Indian Empire, of 

 which Hooker was a member in the highest grade. 

 The portrait, a head profile to left, is the work 

 of Mr. Frank Bowcher, and is an excellent like- 

 ness, recalling the same artist's treatment of his 

 subject in the medallion executed in 1898 at the 

 instance of the President and Council of the 

 Linnean Society to record the completion of 

 Hooker's " Flora of British India" and his sixty 

 years' services to science. 



SIR WILLIAM HENRY WHITE, K.C.B., 

 F.R.S. 



BY the sudden death of Sir William White on 

 February 27, at sixty-eight years of age, the 

 country has lost one of her best sons and engineer- 

 ing science one of its leading authorities. Sir 

 \\ llliam White was born at Uevonport in 1845, 

 and started his professional life by leaving a 

 private school in the town, in which he was at the 

 lime "head boy," and becoming a shipwright's 

 apprentice in Devonport Dockyard. 



In the fullest sense of the term the boy was 

 "father to the man," as on entering the dockyard 

 he occupied the highest position among those 

 entering with him, a position which he not only 

 maintained but improved upon by rapidly becom- 

 ing higher than apprentices who had been entered 

 before him and had had longer practical training 

 and longer education in the dockyard school. 



In 1864 a Royal School of Naval Architecture 

 and Marine Engineering was founded at South 

 Kensington, and to this eight shipwright appren- 

 tices were appointed, of whom Sir William was 

 the first in order of merit. Of these only one, 

 viz. Mr. H. E. Deadman, C.B., who was principal 

 assistant to Sir William on his retirement from 

 Admiralty service, now survives. 



During his study at South Kensington Sir 

 William uniformly kept highest in order of merit, 

 and although some of his college mates, notably 

 the late Dr. F. Elgar, formerly Director of dock- 

 vard work at the Admiralty, Mr. W. John, of 

 Lloyd's Register, Mr. W. J. Bone, of Newcastle, 

 and Mr. H. E. Deadman, mentioned above, 

 achieved great distinction, it fell to the lot of Sir 

 William to be called upon to undertake still 

 higher work, and this work he carried out most 

 successfully under trying conditions, often involv- 

 ing shortness of Admiralty staff and inadequacy 

 of office accommodation. 



On completing, in 1867, his training at South 

 Kensington, Sir William joined the Admiralty 

 Constructive Staff, under the headship of Sir 

 Edward Reed, K.C.B., and at once threw himself 

 with his characteristic zeal into all of the many 

 difficult matters existing at that time of changing 



