622 



NA TURE 



[October i8, 1906 



pared a comparative report embodying the rules governing 

 seed-testing in Germany, Russia, Scandinavia, and the 

 United States of America. Surprise was expressed that 

 there was only one Government seed station in the United 

 Kingdom — that in the present writer's charge in Dublin, 

 where during the past year 1476 samples were examined. 



A paper which aroused considerable interest was that 

 by Prof. Warburg urging the claims of tropical agriculture 

 on behalf of the German colonies, and the conference 

 adopted resolutions urging the necessity of: — (i) The erec- 

 tion of a central imperial institute in connection with the 

 Biological Institute at Dahlem, for the study of tropical 

 agriculture and forestry. (2) Conversion of the botanical 

 garden in Victoria, in the Cameroons, into an agricultural 

 institute of the first order. (3) Foundation of similar insti- 

 tutes in Togo and the South Sea Islands. Prof. Warburg 

 thought that a banana trade in German West Africa could 

 be developed, that rubber could be made available in in- 

 creasing quantities by cultivation of rubber trees, and that 

 mistakes had been made by attempts to apply to tropical 

 countries the crops and methods of cultivation found to 

 succeed in Germany. 



Many important papers on other subjects by Profs. 

 Drude, Zacharias, Aderhold, .^ppel, V'aiiha, &c., were read, 

 but limitations of space prevent further mention here. A 

 detailed official report is in course of preparation. The 

 systematists, with Dr. Engler as president, devoted one 

 day to the Heide near Wintermoor, where, under Dr. 

 Graebner's guidance, fine specimens of native Juniperus, 

 and many other features, wild and cultivated, of the moor, 

 which is of enormous extent, were seen. While attempts 

 are being made to restore to profitable cultivation 

 land which is now in possession of heather, and was 

 formerly covered with oak and beech, one portion, some 

 fifty acres in extent, near Totengrund, has been bought 

 by Prof. Thomsen, of Miinster, and presented by him to 

 the nation as a permanent " nature memorial." 



T. J. 



METEOROLOGICAL OBSER VATIOXS. 

 J^ERRESTRLiL Physics in Messina.— The Anniiario of 

 the Messina Observatory for the year 1905 shows 

 that Prof. G. B. Rizzo has made a good beginning in 

 the important task recently imposed upon him by the 

 faculty of the university. The climate of Sicily is 

 fairly well known so far as the principal towns are 

 concerned, thanks to the efforts of the directors of the 

 large observatories of Palermo and Catania and others, 

 but, as Prof. Rizzo points out, little or nothing is known 

 about the conditions of the other parts of the island. To 

 remedy this want a number of rainfall and temperature 

 stations have been established during the last year in the 

 province of Messina, and have recorded observations from 

 the beginning of 1906. On the initiative of the Inter- 

 national Meteorological Committee, the Solar Committee 

 of which Sir Norman Lockyer is president is carrying out 

 an important study of the connection of solar and terres- 

 trial phenomena ; for Italy, Prof. Ricco at Catania and 

 Prof. Rizzo at Messina are actively engaged in the investi- 

 gation on the general plan laid down by the committee. 

 For the study of earthquake phenomena one of Vicentini's 

 microseismographs has been erecteid ; in connection with 

 this subject Prof. Rizzo is investigating the facts relating 

 to the terrible Italian earthquake of September, 1905, with 

 the cooperation of more than eighty observatories in 

 various parts of the w^orld. The seismograms show that 

 the disturbance was felt from Norway to the Cape of Good 

 Hope, and from California to New Zealand. The complete 

 results will shortly be published. 



Meteorology in the United States. — The report of the 

 U.S. Weather Bureau for the fiscal year 1904-5 (pp. xxiv-|- 

 384) gives a brief survey of the development of the weather 

 service during ten years' administration of the present 

 chief (Prof. W. L. Moore). The magnitude of the work 

 now performed by it is almost astounding; indeed. Prof. 

 Moore claims that in the results accomplished for the 

 benefit of the farmer, the sailor, the seeker after health 

 or pleasure, and others, there is no weather service in the 

 world comparable with it. The estimated amount of the 



NO. 1929, VOL. 74] 



expenditure for the year exceeded 278,000!., and the 

 appropriation for the following year, including the support 

 of Mount Weather Observatory (Virginia), an institution 

 devoted purely to meteorological research, exceeded 

 290,000/. The supervising director of that observatory is 

 Dr. W. J. Humphreys, late professor of physics in the 

 University of Virginia, and Prof. Moore states that Mount 

 Weather may be expected to do as much for the science 

 of meteorology as the service has already done for the 

 material interests of the United States. It is stated that 

 the daily distribution of weather forecasts and charts has 

 increased to nearly 623,000, of which 158,000 represent 

 printed reports. Weather maps are printed at nearly lOO 

 local stations, and daily telegraphic reports are received 

 from the Azores and west coasts of Europe, and the Bureau 

 has developed one of the best wireless systems now in use. 

 The Navy Department has instructed its wireless stations 

 to receive and promptly transmit to the ocean or other 

 places where the information can be made useful the storm 

 warnings of the Weather Bureau, and has requested vessels 

 having the use of its wireless stations to take observ- 

 ations and to transmit them to the Bureau, without 

 charge against the Department of .'Igricidture. With a 

 further extension of wireless telegraphy, it is thought that 

 the reports will render possible a storm-warning service 

 for the western coasts of Europe and for vessels in mid- 

 ocean. Arrangements have been made for aerial research 

 by liberating unmanned balloons from many stations, in 

 cooperation with those at Mount Weather. 



The last semi-annual Bulletin of the Colorado College 

 Observatory contains the annual meteorological summary 

 for 1905. The present observatory, erected in 1894, '^ 

 about 6040 feet above sea-level, and was the gift of Mr. 

 H. R. Wolcott, of Denver; the director is Dr. F. H. Loud. 

 It is well equipped with astronomical and self-recording 

 meteorological instruments ; the college became a voluntary 

 station of the U.S. Signal Service in 1878. The mean 

 temperature of the year 1905 was 46°'i, mean maximum 

 58°S, minimum 335, absolute maximum 91°, in June and 

 .August, minimum —22°, in February. The yearly rainfall 

 was 15-9 inches, number of rain-days 70. The Bulletin 

 also contains monthly summaries of weather records at 

 Colorado Springs between 1872 and 1903, which have been 

 collected from various sources with considerable labour by 

 Mr. C. M. .\ngeli, and prepared for press by Mr. C. D. 

 Child ; their present publication is merely preliminary, in 

 view of numerous demands for historical information, and 

 is subject to later revision. 



Observations in Mauritius. — The annual report of the 

 director of the Royal Alfred Observatory, Mauritius, 

 for 1905, shows that the rainfall there was much 

 above the average of the last thirty years, viz. 67-90 

 inches as compared with 48-27 inches ; in January the 

 fall was 21.16 inches, or 12-77 inches above the normal, 

 and is the greatest on record. The maximum shade 

 temperature was 89°-o, in November, and the minimum 

 52^-3, in August; the highest temperature in the sun's rays 

 was i56°-4. in January, the highest on record being 165^-5, 

 in February, 1898. From observations obtained from ships' 

 logs, the tracks of seven cyclones in the Indian Ocean were 

 laid down ; 474 photographs of the sun were sent during 

 the vear to the Solar Physics Committee. Fifty-three 

 earthquakes were recorded. The registered velocity of the 

 wind was below the average in every month e.xcept ,\pril ; 

 Mr. Claxton remarks that a comparison of the records of 

 the Robinson and Dines anemometers in use at the observ- 

 atory in the years 1904-5 indicates that one or both are 

 untrustworthy as standard instruments. 



Rainfall iii German South-West Africa in 1904-5. — Not- 

 withstanding the considerable damage and loss of records 

 due to the rebellion of several tribes, complete results from 

 twenty-eight stations are published in Wissenschaftliche 

 Beihefte sum deutschen Kolonialblatte, Band xix., 2 Heft. 

 The total number of stations which have suffered during 

 the last two years amounts to forty, but steps are being 

 taken to replace the instruments as soon as practicable. 

 The rainfall of the year in question was, on the average, 

 only about three-fourths of that in the previous year — in 

 the central and southern parts only about one-half. The 

 principal rains fall between January and March ; the greater 



