4iS 



NATURE 



[December 12, 1912 



soil at the depth of one foot was very generally above 

 the normal, and it was also generally high at the 

 depth of 4 ft. The mean temperature of the sea for the 

 closing w-eek w-as mostly above the average, and was, 

 in general, warmer than in the corresponding period 

 of last vear. For the neighbourhood of London the 

 tireenwich observations show that the mean tempera- 

 ture for the autumn was 48'6°, which is 2"i° below 

 the normal ; the mean for September was 4' 4° below 

 the average, and in October the deficiency was 2'2°, 

 whilst in November there was an excess of o'3°. The 

 highest shade temperature during the autumn was 

 (19° and the lowest 29°, the latter observed in both 

 October and November. In September there were 

 only four days with the temperature in excess of the 

 average. The aggregate autumn rainfall was 5*49 in., 

 and the rainfall was deficient in each of the three 

 months, being in the aggregate i'73 in. less than the 

 normal. In all rain fell on thirty-five days. The 

 duration of bright sunshine was 265 hours, which is 

 two hours in excess of the average for the last thirty 

 years. 



The October number of The National Geographic 

 Magazine is devoted to China, and contains, as usual, 

 a splendid collection of illustrations. Canal life is 

 described by Mr. F. H. King, and Lhasa, "the most 

 extraordinary city in the world," by Dr. Shaoching 

 H. Chuan. Of special interest is the article on 

 China's Treasures, by Mr. F. McCormick, in which he 

 deals with the famous Rock Temples. Of these the 

 most remarkable are the series of Buddhist shrines at 

 Lung Men, in the province of Honan, where the sides 

 of a gorge have been excavated and the walls of the 

 caves ornamented with thousands of figures. The dis- 

 trict of Shensi contains the colossus of Buddha, 56 ft. 

 high. The buried monumental remains throughout 

 the country are of enormous extent. Of these little 

 has been examined, but their importance is illustrated 

 by the remarkable bricks recently found at Peking, 

 and the bells 2000 years old unearthed at Kiangsi, and 

 now said to be in the Forbidden City. 



To The Field of November 23 Mr. Pocock contri- 

 butes an important summary of statements as to the 

 obliterative elTect of the colouring of zebras, the earliest 

 of these being by Sir Francis Galton (1853). It is 

 pointed out that the passages quoted indicate that 

 independent observers have noticed the obliterative 

 nature of the colouring in five distinct members of the 

 group, and it is urged that the same credence must 

 be assigned to these statements as to those of observers 

 who take an opposite view. 



Evidence is gradually accumulating that the South 

 .American family Iniidas, now represented by the fresh- 

 water dolphins of the genera Inia and Pontoporia (to 

 retain a well-known name), was abundant in America 

 during Tertiary times. The latest addition to the list 

 is the new genus and species, Hesperocctus cali- 

 jornicus, established by Prof. True (Smithson. Misc. 

 Collect., vol. Ix., No. 11) on the evidence of an imper- 

 fect lower jaw, with teeth, from the Californian Ter- 

 tiaries. The genus, which is provisionally referred to 

 iho Iniidae, is remarkable for the length of the sym- 

 physis of the lower jaw and the large -size of the 

 NO. 2250, VOL. 90] 



teeth, which recall those of the extinct Delphinodon, 

 classed by the author with the Delphinida. Other 

 extinct lniid;e are Saurodelphis, Pontoplanodes, and 

 Ischyrorhynchus. 



The Codling moth (Carpocapsa /)oiiio)!e//a) has lately 

 been the subject of much careful research in the 

 United States. In his admirable memoir on the insect 

 published in 1903 (U.S. Dept. Agric, Bull. Entom., 

 No. 41) Mr. C. B. Simpson referred doubtfully to the 

 possible occurrence of a third brood of the insect in 

 certain American localities. We have now received 

 A. G. Hammar's " Life-history Studies on the Cod- 

 ling Moth in Michigan" {ibid., No. 115., part i, 1912). 

 Statistical studies of the generations during the three 

 years 1909, 1910, and 191 1 are illustrated by many 

 elaborate tables and curves, derived from observations 

 at various localities in the State. It appears that 

 some of the caterpillars hatched in the spring of one 

 year hibernate and pupate the next spring, as in the 

 usual life-cycle of the insect in our islands. Others 

 pupate in summer, and from the pups some moths 

 emerge quickly to lay the eggs of the second brood, 

 while others do not emerge until the next spring. 

 Most of the caterpillars of the second brood hibernate, 

 but a few pupate in autumn, and from a small pro- 

 portion of these pupje moths emerge, to become the 

 parents of a third brood of larvje, all of which must 

 hibernate. Thus it follows that "The wintering 

 larvcE may include larvae of the first, second, and third 

 broods. The spring brood of pupae may include pupae 

 of the first, second, and third broods. The spring 

 brood of moths may include moths of the first, second, 

 and third broods " — a somewhat surprising result. 



Dr. F. Tobler has published an important mono- 

 graph of the genus Hedera ("Die Gattung Hedera," 

 Gustav Fischer, Jena, price 6.50 marks). The author 

 describes two new species of ivv (Hedera himalaica 

 and H. japoiiica), making six species in all, which are 

 well illustrated by reproductions from photographs. 

 Besides detailed descriptions of the morphology of the 

 genus, the work includes an interesting chapter on 

 the biology and physiology of the ivy, followed by 

 chapters on the history of the genus and its culture 

 as a garden plant ; it is to be wished, however, that 

 for the sake of completeness, the author had dealt 

 with the comparative anatomy of the genus — apart 

 from the characteristic star-shaped hairs of the ivy 

 leaf, no microscopic descriptions or figures are given. 



From Dr. C. J. Chamberlain, of Chicago Univer- 

 sity, we have received reprints of tw-o recent papers 

 on the Cycadaceae, continuing his previous studies on 

 this important group of plants, and, like them, pub- 

 lished in The Botanical Gazette. In a paper on the 

 adult cycad trunk, the author describes the structure 

 of the mature stem in species of Zamia, Dioon, and 

 Ceratozamia, and with excellent material at his dis- 

 posal has considerably supplemented the descriptions 

 of earlier writers. The two species of Dioon studied 

 I show growth zones which may or may not correspond to 

 the periods of activity resulting in the formation of the 

 crowns of leaves ; one of the species shows a remark- 

 able resemblance in details of stem structure to the 



