September 12, 191 2] 



NATURE 



59 



line " development, that is to say, a line formed by 

 the descendants of a single " homozygotic " organism 

 propagating by self-fertilisation. 



The annual report of the Marine Biological Associa- 

 tion of the West of Scotland for igii shows that the 

 marine station at Millport is being more largely used 

 by competent investigators, and the amount of first- 

 class scientific work which is being carried out is 

 highly creditable to those who have charge of its 

 organisation. The report contains summaries of the 

 work of Dr. J. F. Gemmill on the anatomy and 

 development of starfishes, of Prof. MacBride's re- 

 searches on Echinus and Echinocardium and their 

 hybrids, and of Dr. Valentin Dogiel's studies on the 

 development of Pycnogonida. The most unsatisfac- 

 tory feature of the report is the statement that the 

 steam yacht Mermaid has been laid up from want of 

 funds to run her. The use of an adequate steamboat 

 for collecting work is a matter of vital importance to 

 every marine station, and it is to be hoped that in 

 such a wealthy district as that in which the station 

 is situated this defect may soon be remedied by local 

 enterprise. 



To the NaturwissenschaftUche Wochenschrijt of 

 -August 18, 1912, Dr. O. Antonius contributes an 

 article on the tarpan of eastern Europe and its rela- 

 tionship to the wild Mongolian horse. The wild 

 horses seen by Pallas in some part of Mongolia are 

 considered to represent a race of the latter ; the name 

 Equus ferus, Pallas (shown by Mr. Lydekker to be 

 invalid), being adopted for the Mongolian horse, 

 which Hamilton Smith identified years ago as the 

 true tarpan, although this is not referred to by the 

 author. On the other hand, the Russian tarpans 

 obtained in 1853, 1862, and 1866, and described by 

 Schatilow and Radde, are regarded as a truly wild and 

 distinct species, for which the name E. gmclini is 

 proposed. The third of these, which was gelded 

 soon after its capture, was acquired in 1884 by the 

 Zoological Gardens at Moscow, where it died a few 

 years later, and was the last representative of its 

 kind. It may be added that these Russian tarpans are 

 generally regarded as half-breds, to which category 

 belongs the animal figured by the author as 

 Przewalski's horse of Mongolia. The domesticated 

 ponies of Bosnia are considered to represent the 

 tarpan type. 



The fifth volume of Notes from the Royal Botanic 

 Garden, Edinburgh, has just been completed by the 

 issue of part xxv., containing an index to the volume 

 and various items of information concerning the 

 garden, together with a somewhat bald key-plan — • 

 plenty of blank space is left which might with advan- 

 tage be utilised in indicating the outdoor plants grown 

 in the garden, as is done in the case of Kew. The 

 most important contents of the present volume are 

 the articles dealing with the plants, including many 

 new species, collected by George Forrest in Yunnan 

 and Eastern Tibet, and described by various distin- 

 guished systematists. 



The seismological observatory of Rocca di P.ipa, 

 near Rome, is one of the oldest in Italy. That it is 

 NO. 2237, VOL. 90] 



also one of the most efficient is shown by the sum- 

 mary of the records of the last twelve years recently 

 issued by the director, Dr. G. Agamennone, and his 

 assistant, Mr. A. Cavasino. From this it appears 

 that the average yearly number of earthquakes re- 

 corded is 186. Of these, 44, or one-quarter of the 

 total number, originated at distances of less than 

 100 km., the extinct Latial volcanoes being the seat 

 of a considerable number ; while 85 originated at dis- 

 tances greater than 5000 km. 



The report on rainfall registration in Mysore for 

 the year 1910, which has recently reached us, shows 

 that the number of official stations was then 227, in 

 addition to which a few coffee-planters maintain private 

 stations on their estates. Compared with the district 

 averages for the forty years, 1S70-1909, the rainfall 

 was in excess by about 8 inches, or 22 per cent. Some 

 heavy falls in twenty-four hours were recorded in each 

 of the eight districts into which the province is 

 divided, the heaviest being io'8 inches at Nagar and 

 10-5 inches at Aralagode in the Shimoga district early 

 in July. 



The first report of the Meteorological Observatory 

 in connection with the College of Nuestra Sefiora de 

 Montserrat, Cienfuegos, Cuba, has just been issued. 

 The volume has been prepared by the Rev. Simon 

 Sarasola, S.J., director, and contains details of the 

 establishment of the observatory, together with notes 

 upon the meteorological observations taken at the 

 college from 1886, and upon cyclones and their 

 prognostication. The position of the observatory is 

 an important one, especially with regard to the 

 Panama Canal, and the results obtained will probably 

 prove of great interest. The instrumental equipment is 

 excellent, including nine self-recording instruments. 

 The tables for 191 1, printed in the report, include 

 observations made every two hours, from 6 a.m. to 

 8 p.m., of barometer, temperature, vapour tension, 

 relative humidity, and direction and force of wind, 

 with cloud observations four times daily and notes on 

 the weather. The tables are not arranged on the 

 international system, although the international 

 symbols are used in the weather columns. It is a 

 matter for regret that the daily maxima and minima 

 of temperature are not printed instead of the highest 

 and lowest of the bi-hourly readings. The absolute 

 extremes of temperature of each month are, however, 

 given in one of the yearly tables. 



The Meteorological Office has commenced the issue 

 of a series of geophysical memoirs, the first of which 

 is by Commander Hepworth, and deals with the effect 

 of the Labrador current on the surface temperature of 

 the North Atlantic, and of the latter on the air tem- 

 perature and pressure over the British Isles. The 

 author shows from the records of the last eight years 

 that abnormally low temperatures in the North 

 Atlantic are due to the current of cold water from the 

 coast of Labrador and not to the ice which that 

 current brings with it. The low temperature of the 

 water lowers the temperature of the air over these 

 islands by cooling the winds from seawards, by 

 influencing the paths of depressions, and by diminish- 

 ing cloudiness. When the north-eastern arm of the 



