October i8, 1906] 



NA TURE 



617 



anil proposes a number of new names, and he is of opinion 

 Ihat Ihe information he conveys witli regard to rare or 

 nominal species will be appreciated by naturalists. 



Museum technique is the leading feature of the five 

 articles (four of which were read at the recent Bristol 

 conference) in the September issue of the Museums Journal. 

 In the first, and perhaps most generally interesting, Dr. 

 Sorby discusses the mode of forming a collection to illus- 

 trate the origin and structure of rocks. The material of 

 rocks, such as sands and clays, should form the starting 

 point. This should be followed by illustrations of different 

 modes of deposition and sorting, while the consolidation of 

 deposits by infiltration, or by removal and replacement of 

 material, claims the next place. The formation of con- 

 ciclions, and various mechanical changes, culminating in 

 slatv-cleavage, complete the illustration of the genesis of 

 aqueous rocks, after which come illustrations of the form- 

 ation of the igneous series. The next three articles deal 

 rispectivcly with the exhibition of coins, models of 

 Protozoa, and the hanging and care of pictures. In the 

 fifth Dr. J. E. Duerden describes a new method of pre- 

 serving entire tortoises which deserves the best attention 

 of museum curators, the specimens treated by this method 

 having, it is stated, a remarkably life-like appearance. 



The report of the working of the Government Museum 

 at Madras for the past year is a record of steady progress. 

 The great collection of prehistoric antiquities recovered 

 from interments in the Nilgiri Hills by Mr. J. W. Breeks 

 and others has now been increased by a splendid series of 

 bronzes, iron weapons and implements, pottery, and human 

 linnes from the e.xcavations at Aditanallur, in the 

 'I'innevelly district, conducted by Mr. A. Rea, and these 

 have been arranged in a new gallery built for their re- 

 ception. Mr. Thurston, who usefully combines the duties 

 of curator with those of director of the Ethnographical 

 Survey, has made his usual tours among the jungle tribes, 

 and has collected many curious implements, skulls, and 

 other specimens. He has made a special anthropometric 

 survey of that little-known tribe, the Chenchus of the 

 Nallamalai Hills. His materials now enable him to 

 establish the correlation, so far as the type of head is 

 concerned, between the people of the Canarese, Maratha, 

 and Telugu area, that is to say, the north-west and north- 

 east of the province, as compared with the Malayalim and 

 Tamil dwellers in the south. This is interesting in con- 

 nection with Mr. Risley's speculations on the brachy- 

 ccphalic Marathas. During these expeditions he used for 

 Ihe first time an Edison's phonograph, by which he was 

 able to secure records of tribal songs and music. Dupli- 

 cates of these are to be sent to Mr. C. S. Myers for the 

 Museum of Comparative Music at Cambridge. Mr. 

 Thurston finds the phonograph an admirable means of 

 conciliating timid and suspicious jungle folk, who fear the 

 ordinary anthropometric methods. No travelling anthro- 

 pologist, he says, should be without it. 



A COLLECTION of diagnoses of new Philippine ferns, pre- 

 pared by Mr. E. B. Copeland, forms the second supple- 

 ment to vol. i. of the Philippine Journal of Science. The 

 most striking novelty is an epiphytic plant of the nature 

 of a Drynaria, receiving the name of Thayeria cornucopia, 

 that is said to have a unique humus-collecting structure ; 

 each leaf forms a complete receptacle, enclosing the humus 

 on all sides. New species are described for a number of 

 genera, including Alsophila, Cyathea, Trichomanes, Nephro- 

 lepis, Plagiogyria, &c. The writer revives the genus 

 Schizostege, assigned to Cheilanthes by Baker and to 

 Pteris by Christ and Diels, for two new species. 

 NO. 1929, VOL. 74] 



Owing to the want of knowledge of the complete life- 

 histories of many of the Uredinales, the classification of 

 the group is a matter of some difficulty. Prof. J. C. 

 Arthur presented an outline of a system of classification to 

 the International Scientific Congress of Botanists at Vienna 

 in 1905, that is published in their " Resultats Scientifiques." 

 Three orders, Coleosporiacese, UredinacejE, and /Ecidiaceie, 

 are defined according to the nature of the teleutospores and 

 their germination. Suborders are determined by the posi- 

 tion which the spores occupy in the tissues of the host 

 plant. Finally, the genera in each suborder are grouped 

 according to the development of one or more of the secidio-, 

 uredo-, and teleuto-spore stages. 



In the annual report for 1905-6 of tlie botanic station, 

 agricultural school and experiment plots in St. Lucia, 

 the superintendent, Mr. J. C. Moore, refers to tapping 

 trials made on trees of CasHlloa elastica that point to a 

 yield of 2 lb. of cured rubber for mature trees. The agri- 

 cultural instructor, Mr. G. S. Hudson, devotes a consider- 

 able portion of his report to the subject of cacao, detailing 

 the results obtained on experiment plots. A new hybrid 

 plant has been produced by crossing Theobrotna pentagoua 

 with Theobronia cacao. On the debated question of shade 

 or no shade for cacao, Mr. Hudson says that shade and 

 shelter are obviated partly in Grenada by close planting, 

 but he recommends for St. Lucia a light shade of Para 

 rubber trees or Erythrina indica, and wind belts of Inga 

 vera. 



We have received several of the recent issues of the 

 Boletin del Ministerio de Fomento of Peru, a well-edited 

 journal issued by the Department of Public Worlcs. It 

 contains much valuable information regarding the railways 

 of the Republic. 



An admirable coloured geological map of Queensland 

 fPublication No. 206), on a scale of forty miles to the 

 inch, has been received from the Geological Survey of 

 Queensland. It has been compiled under the supervision 

 of Mr. B. Dunstan, acting Government geologist, by Mr. 

 H. VV. Fox, and shows the mineral localities clearly marked 

 in red. 



The Transactions of the Institution of Engineers and 

 Shipbuilders in Scotland (vol. xlix., part vii.) contains a 

 valuable paper on equimomental systems and their use 

 in applied mechanics, by Mr. R. F. Muirhead. The value 

 of this principle has hitherto been regarded by engineers 

 as of academic interest, and in developing the principle 

 and in reducing the results to a form suitable for practical 

 application the author has done much to reduce the time 

 and labour of engineering calculators. 



The annual memorandum issued by the chief engineer of 

 the Manchester Steam Users' Association deals with several 

 subjects of importance to engineers, such as steam-pipe 

 explosions, the brittleness of steel plates, and boiler tests. 

 Many steam pipes are badly designed, and may explode at 

 any time. They could, however, be made safe without 

 much expense ; and in order to encourage those dealing 

 with these matters to study the subject, a sketch is given 

 of a glass model which clearly shows the hammering action 

 of water when confined in steam pipes. In the section 

 dealing with boiler tests, particular stress is laid on the 

 carrying out of gas analysis with the greatest possible 

 care. If this is done, it will be possible to utilise the gas 

 analysis for determining the chemical composition of the 

 fuel, and for ascertaining at any instant what is the 

 efficiencv of the heating surface. 



