November 25, 1909] 



NA TURE 



\o- 



The underground hibernation provides an opportunity for 

 killing the larvae by ploughing ; also the insect has various 

 natural enemies in the shape of spiders, mites, and an 

 unidentified fungus. 



An article on Coriius macrophylla and other species of 

 the genus is communicated by Mr. B. Hemsley to the Ke-M 

 Bulletin (No. 8). He points out that two evidently different 

 species are passing under the name of Cornus macrophylla, 

 the one with opposite leaves, correctly named, the other 

 with alternate leaves, for which he proposes the name 

 Cornus controversa. He also describes three new .Asiatic 

 species, and disc lises the nomenclature of some recent 

 determinations. .\ short note that deserves mention, partly 

 with the view of eliciting more information, refers to the 

 reported use of plant extracts in Siam as remedies for 

 snake-bite. The evidence depends upon the testimony of 

 natives, who supplied specimens of the plants, which have 

 been identified as Barleria hipulina and Justicia Gendarussa, 

 both members of the .^canthacese. The extract gave 

 characteristic alkaloidal reactions, and contained a quantity 

 of calcium and potassium ; these properties are possessed 

 by several plants of this family. 



The Journal, formerly called the Bulletin, of the Tokyo 

 College of Agriculture, recently received, contains several 

 papers on the availability of various phosphatic manures 

 and on the influence on crop-yields of different ratios of 

 lime to magnesia in the soil, a subject to which consider- 

 able attention has been paid in Japan. One of the most 

 striking results obtained was that the manurial value of 

 lecithin is about equal to that of sodium phosphate, whilst 

 phytin is nearly equivalent to ferric or aluminium phos- 

 phate ; nuclein possesses very little manurial value. The 

 experiments were made in soil culture, but similar results 

 are said to be obtained in sand culture also. Of these 

 three compounds, phytin occurs most commonly in plants, 

 and the other two in much smaller quantities. The experi- 

 ments were devised to throw light on the changes taking 

 place when vegetable matter is dug into the ground, and 

 to explain the beneficial effect on the succeeding crop. 



The Department of Agriculture, Madras, has issued a 

 bulletin describing improvements in paddy cultivation on 

 a farm under the management of the Court of Wards. 

 The best and cheapest fertiliser was found to be farm- 

 yard manure, but a sufficient quantity is not available, 

 and recourse is therefore had to other fertilising materials. 

 Certain plant residues, leaves, poonacs, &c., may be used, 

 but they are too expensive if they have to be brought 

 from any distance. The most successful plan has been to 

 cultivate leguminous crops on the wet land itself during 

 the dry season and in the season in which there are only 

 occasional showers of rain, then to pull up and trample 

 in the crop after ploughing the land. 



The Bulletin of .'\gricultural Information of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, Trinidad, contains numerous notes 

 on cacao. The maintenance of the fertility of the soil is 

 likely to become an important problem before long ; at 

 present it is not unusual for a few acres of land to be 

 rented, and when they cease to be remunerative for the 

 tenant to go elsewhere. The land is then abandoned for 

 a few years, covers itself with bush, which is subsequently 

 cleared and burnt, cropped for a short time, and again 

 abandoned. Another source of loss is found in the heavy 

 tropical rain, which washes away finer soil particles as 

 well as some of the plant food. This and other local 

 problems are dealt with at some length. 



The geological age of Homo heidelbergensis is discussed 

 by Dr. Emil Werth in Globus (xcvi., p. 229); Schoetensack 

 NO. 2091, VOL. 82] 



allocates this find to the earliest Diluvium (Nature, 

 July 29, p. 132), but Werth, arguing from the associated 

 remains, attributes it to the last but one inter-Glacial age, 

 the Mindel-Riss-Interglazial of Penck. To this period 

 belong the Mauer sand and the high terrace of the Rhine, 

 since both lie below the later loess of the last (Wiirm) Ice 

 age and the older loess of the last but one (Riss) Ice 

 age. The Gravel of Siissenborn belongs to the same 

 period, as it yields Rhinoceros etruscus, Elephas trogon- 

 therii (like the high terrace of the Rhine and the Norfolk 

 bed), Elephas fneridionalis (as found in Mindel-Riss-Inter- 

 glazial stratum on the south side of the .Alps), and also 

 a horse allied to Equus stenonis of the Mauer sand. At 

 St. Acheul, as at Mauer, there are three terraces, the 

 middle one corresponding to the middle one on the Neckar, 

 as it is covered by both sorts of loess. In the lower sand 

 and gravel of this terrace of St. Acheul is human handi- 

 work of characteristic Chellian form, which, according to 

 Penck, belongs to the Mindel-Riss-Interglazial time. 

 Homo heidelbergensis then lived exactly in the middle of 

 the Ice-age period ; the end of the Tertiary age was as 

 remotely behind him as the old Palaeolithic Chellian culture 

 of his times is behind us. He does not represent the old 

 diluvial Eolithic age, still less is he a type of Tertiary 

 man. Werth considers that this conclusion modifies the 

 arguments which have been based upon the character of 

 the jaw, and he disputes Schoetensack's view that it is 

 of a type prior to that of the anthropoids. He attributes 

 the powerful development of the jaw to have arisen in 

 response to an earlier stronger dentition, and accounts for 

 the deterioration of the teeth by the discovery of fire to 

 soften the food and the employment of stone implements, 

 which did the work for which teeth were previously used. 



The first section of an important paper by Prof. C. F. 

 Marvin, on methods and apparatus for the observation 

 and study of evaporation, appears in the U.S. Monthly 

 Weather Review for .April. The author points out that 

 while, instrumentally, it is very easy to measure evapora- 

 tion under certain conditions, it is very difficult to corre- 

 late the results obtained by different observers, not that 

 the contributions are necessarily inaccurate, but because 

 they are solutions of a complex problem not yet fully 

 understood. In this section Prof. Marvin deals with the 

 customary methods and their failings, and with the various 

 equations, which he separates into two classes — (i) those 

 developed from mathematical equations representing the 

 phenomena of pure diffusion, and (2) partly rational and 

 partly empirical equations intended to express the relation 

 between evaporation and the meteorological conditions by 

 which it is influenced. Section ii., which will be pub- 

 lished subsequently, will deal with apparatus ; the author 

 will then describe a special instrument, devised by him- 

 self, which records simultaneously on the same sheet the 

 wind, evaporation, and rainfall (if the evaporation pan is 

 not sheltered from precipitation). 



In the Revue generale des Sciences of October 30, M. L. 

 Teisserenc de Bort gives an interesting account of an in- 

 vestigation of the meteorology of the tropics, based chiefly 

 on observations with kites and registering balloons in the 

 -Atlantic between 35° N. and 8° S., and between the coast 

 of Europe and 47° VV. longitude. The author goes at some 

 length into the history of the subject and the methods of 

 launching and recovering the balloons, but we can here 

 only briefly refer to the general results obtained. The 

 N.E. trade wind was found to extend, on an average, to 

 about a height of 1000 metres, then a zone was met with 

 in which the winds came generally from N.W. These 

 N.W. winds appeared to cease at about 10° from the 



