i6 



NA TURE 



[May 3, 1906 



A SERIES of identifications of Philipoine plants is pub- 

 lished in Publication No. 35 of the Bureau of Government 

 Laboratories, Manila. Mr. H. N. Ridley has worked out 

 the ScitamineiE, describing three new species of Amomum ; 

 Mr. C. B. Clarke has named the Acanthacese ; Dr. E. 

 Hackel has identified a collection of grasses ; and Mr. 

 E. D. Merrill contributes some notes on Cuming's Philip- 

 pine plants, as well as the fourth series of diagnoses of 

 new or noteworthy plants. Among the latter are two new 

 species of Rhizophoracese, a Gynotrochea growing in forest 

 at an altitude of 4000 feet, and a Pellacalyx, also new 

 species of Eugenia and of Saurauia. 



The original habitat of the coconut palm has often been 

 the subject of speculation. In a paper read before the 

 Ceylon branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Mr. J. 

 Ferguson, tracing the early history of the cultivation of 

 the coconut palm in Ceylon, accepts the general dictum 

 that the plant is not indigenous, and attributes its origin 

 to nuts washed up by the sea. It is recorded that, at the 

 instigation of a Singhalese king, a plantation was formed 

 on the south coast as early as the middle of the first 

 century, and subsequently King Pr^krama Bdhu the Great 

 also interested himself in extending its cultivation. 



In the Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society (vol. 

 xxix., part iv.) Mr. E. S. Salmon describes a white mildew 

 disease that has been prevalent on shrubs of Euonymus 

 japonicus in the south of England. From the mycelium 

 on the surface of the leaf, hyphae are produced that pierce 

 the cuticle of the epidermis and form haustoria in the 

 epidermal cells, thus enabling the fungus to maintain its 

 parasitic life. The mycelium persists on the leaves through 

 the winter, so that perithecial resting spores are not re- 

 quired and are not formed. The disease can be checked 

 by collecting and burning in the winter all leaves that 

 bear the white patches of hibernating mycelium ; also 

 treatment with sulphur or other fungicides is recommended. 



The paper on ramie read by Mrs. E. Hart before the 

 Society of Arts, and printed in the Journal of the Societv 

 (.April 6), is interesting, not only as it indicates some of 

 the difiiculties that had to be overcome in spinning and 

 weaving, but also because it bears out the opinion that, 

 given cooperation between producer and manufacturer, the 

 cultivation, preparation, and weaving of ramie can be 

 profitably undertaken. In the matter of decortication, 

 Mrs. Hart advocates hand-stripping in preference to 

 machines wherever cheap labour can be obtained, and 

 recommends that the degumming process should be carried 

 out under expert supervision in the mills. The fabrics 

 that have been woven of pure ramie, warp and weft, vary 

 from the lightest gossamer to a heavy cloth. 



In Hawaii, root disease of the sugar-cane produced by 

 a species of the basidiomycetous fungus Marasmius — not 

 improbably Marasmius sacchari — is so prevalent that a 

 Bulletin (No. 2 of the Division of Pathology and Physi- 

 ology) has been issued to provide information on the sub- 

 ject. The writer, Mr. L. Lewton-Brain, traces the con- 

 nection between the fungus that attacks primarily the 

 growing point of the root and the symptoms, similar to 

 those caused by drought, of rolled-up leaves, matted leaf- 

 sheaths, and undeveloped roots ; also he indicates how the 

 plant can be strengthened by judicious irrigation and by 

 liming the soil. A variety possessed of a certain power of 

 resistance to the disease has been found in the Yellow 

 Caledonia, but a variety that is perfectly immune has yet 

 to be discovered. 



NO. 1905, VOL. 74] 



The Xaturwisst'iischaflUdic n'ocheiisclirift (vol. v.,. 

 No. S) contains a long paper by Dr. \V. R. Eckardt on 

 the climatic conditions of past geological times. The 

 author deals specially with the climate of the Carboniferous, 

 and Tertiary periods, and concludes that the explanation 

 of all changes of climate is to be sought in variations in 

 the distribution of land and sea. 



We have received a copy of the tide tables for Charlotte- 

 town, Picton, and St. Paul Island, C.B., for the year 

 1906, issued by the Department of Marine and Fisheries 

 of the Dominion of Canada. The tables are based on 

 direct observations made at eleven localities in the south- 

 western portion of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and in Cabot 

 Strait. It has been ascertained that the tides can best 

 be deduced from St. Paul Island, for which continuous- 

 records extending over four years are available. 



Dr. Walther von Knebel contributes a paper to the- 

 Naturwissenschaftliche Rtmdschau (vol. xxi.. No. 12) on 

 the hot-spring areas of Iceland. A careful comparison of 

 the conditions occurring in the regions of geysers and of 

 solfataras leads the author to the conclusion that only a 

 small part of the water ejected by the geysers is- 

 " juvenile," the bulk of it coming from the ordinary ground 

 water. Geysers occur, in effect, where ground water is- 

 abundant and volcanic action relatively feeble, and solfa- 

 taras where volcanic action is more vigorous and the 

 amount of ground water deficient. 



We have received a copy of the meteorological records- 

 for 1905, published in the second annual report of the 

 Agricultural Department of the British East .Africa Pro- 

 tectorate, which extends, roughly speaking, from 5° N. to 

 5° S. latitude, the sea coast north of the equator forming 

 part of the Italian Somaliland. The report contains rain- 

 fall oDservations at a large number of stations, and general' 

 observations at eight stations, several of which exceed 

 6000 feet in altitude. The work is a valuable contribution' 

 to meteorological knowledge, and will be found most useful 

 when arrangements can be made for dealing with the- 

 meteorology of all our colonies according to some regular 

 and properly organised plan. A good beginning was made 

 in this direction by the Meteorological Council in a work 

 entitled " Climatological Observations at Colonial and 

 Foreign Stations, I., Tropical Africa," published in 1904, 

 from tables prepared by Mr. E. G. Ravenstein. This- 

 work contained results from several of the stations included 

 in the report of the Nairobi Agricultural Department. 



In his last report as secretary of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution of Washington, the late Dr. S. P. Langley dealt 

 with the work of the Astrophysical Observatory for the- 

 year ending June 30, 1905. The evidence of solar variability 

 is not in the report considered as conclusive. However, 

 two lines of investigation have become very prominent in- 

 the work of the observatory, and these will almost certainly 

 lead to a conclusion regarding this important question. 

 The first of these is the almost daily bolometric examin- 

 ation of the large solar image formed by the great hori- 

 zontal telescope, for the purpose of detecting changes in 

 the transparency of the solar absorbing envelope. This- 

 work depends so little on the transparency of the earth's 

 atmosphere that it can be done almost as well in Washing- 

 ton as at a station more favoured as regards atmospheric 

 transparency. The year's work did not give evidence of 

 very marked variations either in the transparency of the 

 sun's envelope or in the supposedly dependent mean tem- 

 perature of the earth, but, on the contrary, the results of 



