Oct. 7, 1880] 



NATURE 



539 



revenue. At the plantations vegetation is so literally 

 swept away that only here and there can we see a standing 

 tree. There is not a leaf left on either the indigenous or 

 cinchona-trees. After a careful inspection we have esti- 

 mated that 20,000 cinchona-trees of all ages have been 

 uprooted or so severely damaged that they must be im- 

 mediately barked. Though we had given up barking 

 definitely till the return of dry weather next year, we are 

 now obliged to take it up with great energy and send the 

 bark down to be dried in the plains. We hope to get a 

 return of about 1,500/. to 1,800/. for "broken and twiggy" 

 bark, but this will be but a poor result considering the 

 sacrifice made to secure the bark at all hazards before it 

 has dried and hardened on the trees. 



Out of the small garden at Castleton, covering only 

 about five to six acres, I found fifty-five trees destroyed, 

 and ninety-eight severely injured. Out of the trees 

 severely injured, /.t". probably blown quite down and 

 put up again with trimmed limbs and supports, I found 

 the Para-rubber mangosteen, Tonquin-bean, cam-wood, 

 olive, cinnamon, nutmeg, East Indian mango, chocolate, 

 Liberian coffee, &c. Even if they live we shall get no 

 fruit from them during the next season, and we shall be 

 unable to supply plants in great demand for some time. 



I am glad to say that the superintendent did not suffer 

 personally, though the roof of the residence was partially 

 blown away, and the office canted almost on its side. 



The Parade Garden, Kingston, felt the hurricane 

 greatly, but as we had nothing there except ornamental 

 trees and shrubs we hope to recover our losses soon. 



The cocoanut plantation at the Palisadoes had sixty-one 

 bearing trees blown down, and forty-one rather young ones 

 just coming into bearing. This plantation is on a narrow 

 spit of sand running six miles out and inclosing Kingston 

 Harbour. The force of the wind being from the south 

 and against the plantation, the waves broke over it at 

 several places, and the harbour being consequently filled, 

 much damage was done to the wharves and shipping. 



You will, I am sure, be sorry to hear that the Old Bath 

 Garden has also shared in the general injury. The fine 

 old cinnamon-tree, the camphor-tree, and the pinus are 

 down. Till the place is cleared the keeper is unable to 

 give me fuller particulars. 



The King's House Gardens and grounds have fortu- 

 nately escaped much injury. D. MORRIS 



NOTES 



Messrs. Charles Griffin and Co. announce that they 

 have at last in the press the memorial volume to the late Prof. 

 Macquorn Rankine. It is entitled " A Selection from the Mis- 

 cellaneous Scientific Papers of W. J. Macquorn Rankine, C.E., 

 LL.D., F.R.S., late Regius Professor of Civil Engineering and 

 Mechanics in the University of Glasgow, from the Transac- 

 tions and Proceedings of the Royal and other Scientific and 

 Philosophical Societies, and the Scientific and Engineering 

 Journals, with an Introductory Memoir of the Author, by P. G. 

 Tait, M.A., Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University 

 of Edinburgh; edited by W. J. Millar, C. E., Secretary to the 

 Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland." The 

 volume will contain many papers of great weight and value, at 

 present to be found only in the Records of the various scientific 

 and philosophical societies, and in the scientific and engineering 

 journals, to which they were originally contributed, and there- 

 fore inaccessible to the majority of scientific workers. No 

 doubt the bringing-together in one volume of these successive 

 important contributions to science will be acceptable to all who 

 knew of Rankine's high position in science. A fine portrait on 

 steel will be prefixed to the volume. 



We have a few further details on the meeting of the German 

 Association at Danzig. Salzburg was unanimously chosen as 

 the town in which the next year's congress of the Association 



should be held. Dr. Wernicke of Berlin gave an address "O 1 

 the Scientific Standpoint in Psychiatry," and in the section for 

 physics and meteorology Dr. L. Weber read a paper U;ort 

 " Lightning Strokes in Schleswig-Holstein." In the section f ir 

 the superintendence of instruction in mathematics and natu al 

 science Dr. Feyrrabendt spoke with reference to mathematic d 

 school-books, which, as he showed, would bear much simpli'i- 

 cation and condensation. A point which he urged among others 

 was that the matter taught should be divided, not upon scientifi 

 principles, but with regard to its easy and ready comprehensi j ' 

 by the scholar. 



The death is announced, on August 22, of the Hon. John 

 Imray, M.D., of Dominica, West Indies. Dr. Imray had doni 

 much for the botany of his island, but is best known for his suc- 

 cessful efforts to introduce Liberian coffee and the cultivation of 

 limes into the West Indies. Another death is that of M. Edmond 

 Barbier, the translator into French of some of the works of Mr. 

 Herbert Spencer and Sir John Lubbock, at the age of forty-- ix 

 years. 



A LAUDABLE innovation has been made in the library of the 

 French Academy, which is not open to the public. Any ce 

 wishing to consult any of the rare and precious books in f-e 

 library has only to make an application to the librarian t ) 

 receive the required authority. 



Dr. Watt, of the Bengal Educational Department, who is 

 now engaged in the examination at Kew of his extensive colLc- 

 tions of Indian plants, has been deputed by the Government of 

 India to visit Manipur, on his return from furlough, for the pur- 

 pose of reporting on the forest and vegetable resources of that 

 territory. 



Science, the new American record of scientific progress, states 

 that the Rev. W.H. Dallinger has consented to become Govern r 

 and Professor of Natural Sciences of Wesley College, Sheffield, 

 U.S.A. 



Mr. James Blyth of Edinburgh has been elected to succeed 

 Prof. Forbes in the Chair of Natural Philosophy at Anderson's 

 College, Glasgow. 



Dr. J. Vosmcer of the Hague intends publishing a detailed 

 bibliography of the sponges, and it is to be hoped that all 

 authors of works or papers on this interesting group will se;,d 

 copies of their writings to him at 73, de Ruyter Straat, Haag, 

 Holland. 



The bureau of French meteorology has been revived for 

 1880-81, M. Herve Mangon being continued president. 



The recent change of Ministry in France has brought forward 

 fertile second time since 1870 the Minister of Public Instiuc 

 tion to the direction of the Cabinet. M. Barthelemy St. 

 Hilaire, the new head of the French Foreign Office, is 

 not only a member of the French Senate, but also of the 

 Academy of Moral and Political Sciences. He has pub- 

 lished a large number of works on philosophy, among which 

 the most considerable is a translation of the whole works nf 

 Aristotle, with a commentary. In order to be better able to 

 understand physics and mechanics he studied mathematics at 

 the age of forty-five under the direction of hi- friend Corioles, 

 then scientific director of the Polytechnic School. He was an 

 intimate friend of Leverrier. He was born in Paris in 1S09, 

 and has just completed his seventy-first year. 



The Birmingham Natural History Society, which has hither'o 

 met in the Midland Institute, has been provided with ample 

 accommodation in the Mason Science College. The Society, 

 which numbers 400 members, is making an effort to fit up the 

 rooms in an appropriate and comfortable manner. 



