20 



NATURE 



\_Nov. 4, 1880 



the Scotch fir. Ca;sar ("De Bello Gallico," v. 12) says of 

 Britain, " Materia cujusque generis, ut in Gallia, est pnTtcr 

 faguin atqtie nl>ietcv?i," which words have been generally taken to 

 mean, " There is wood of all kinds to be found in Britain, as in 

 Gaul, except the beech and the fir.'" The word pnctcr however 

 does not always mean "except," but sometimes "besides," as 

 quotations from Cicero and Plautiis aptly illustrate. Prof. 

 Rolleston further remarks that "an historian who was or 

 was not a professed botanist, might w ithout any sensible man 

 blaming him, speak nowadays of all the common pines 'Scotch,' 

 'umbrella,' 'cluster,' &c., as 'pines'; my present belief is that 

 Julius would similarly have spoken of them all as abieles, and 

 would probably have included the ' firs ' proper under the same 

 name as these ' pines.' " 



At the last meeting of the Epping Forest and County of 

 Essex Naturalists' Field Club, held Saturday, October 30, it 

 was announced that II.U.II. tlie Duke of Connaught, Ranger, 

 had consented to become the Patron of the Club. Arrangements 

 are being made to get up a course of winter science lectures in 

 connection with the Club, the first of these being fixed for 

 November 10, by Mr. J. E. Harting, who will lecture on 

 " Forest Animals." It was further announced that a lecture 

 had been promised during the session by Mr. A. R. Wallace. 



Prof. Boyd Dawkixs has lately shown in his " Early Man 

 in Britain " that "although the Neolithic men were immeasur- 

 ably above the Cave men in culture, tliey were far below them 

 in the arts of design;" and fnrlher that the Cave-man "pos- 

 sessed a singular talent for representing the animals he hunted, 

 and his sketches reveal to us that he had a capacity for seeing 

 the beauty and grace of natural form not much inferior to that 

 w'hich is the result of long-continued civilisation in ourselves, and 

 very much higher than that of his successors in Europe in the 

 Neolithic age." That this (acuity of design or artistic aptitude 

 is still independent of advanced or advancing civilisation is 

 shown by Dr. Plolub in a paper " On the Central South African 

 Tribes," just published in the yoiinial of the Anthropological 

 Institute. Mr. Holub remarks in connection \vith the Bushmen, 

 that these people "regarded as the lowest types of Africans, in 

 one thing excel all the other South African tribes whose acquaint 

 ance I made between the Fouth coast and 10° fouth latitude. I 

 have in my possession about 200 sketches on wood and stone 

 and ostrich shells, by various tribes, but everyone who knows 

 anything abotit drawing must acknowledge that those which were 

 done by Bushmen are superior to any of the others." 



It is stated that some sample? of a new seed and also of the 

 native cucumber, collected in Central Australia by Mr. Vesey 

 Brown, have been received at the Sydney Botanical Gardens. The 

 former is a small black pea, which grows in pods similar to 

 those of the ordinary pea ; it ii supposed to be edible, and 

 resembles the nardoo. The encumbers are about the size of 

 walnuts, and are said to make an excellent pickle. 



A RECENT report to the Foreign Office by Mr. Consul 

 Crawford at Oporto on matters connected with the wine trade 

 contains observations on the ravages of the parasitic insect, 

 Phylloxera vastatrix, in the port wine district, and the means 

 taken to avert them, and is illustrated by a sketch map of 

 Northern Portugal, showing the progress of the disease. 



At the opening meeting of the Eastbourne Natural History 

 Society on October 15, Mr. F. C. S. Roper read a paper on the 

 additions to the fauna and flora of the Cuckmere district during 

 the past year. 



In the Fourteenth Annual Report of the Aeronautical Society 

 of Great Britain are papers on Aeronautics, by Mr. T. Moy, the 

 "Mechanical Action of the Air," by Mr. Phillips; "Artificial 



■ Aerial Propellers," by Mr. 



Flight," by Mr. F. W. Brearey ; 

 R. C. Jay. 



Valparaiso advices to August 21 give particulars of the 

 earthquake of August 14. The Chilian Times says: — "The 

 duration of the shock was nearly ninety seconds. No serious 

 damage was done to buildings in Valparaiso. At Vina del Mar, 

 one of the tow-ers of the church fell and another was shaken out 

 of its level, and will probably have to be pulled down. Tlie 

 roof of the Quillota parish church fell in. At Llaillai eighteen or 

 twenty houses were destroyed. lUapel suffered very severely. 

 One strange item reported is the occurrence of ' huracane de 

 agua,' whatever they may be. The' Governor of lUapel in his 

 first telegram stated that three of these had burst in the Cor- 

 dillera. Now it is stated that there were thirty observed. One 

 paper spoke of them as 'water volcanoes.' From Coquimbo it 

 is reported that high columns of water were thrown up from the 

 bay. An employe of the Transandine Telegraph Company felt 

 the shock while crossing the highest parts of the Andes. He 

 states that it was the strongest earthquake he has ever felt." 



A Naples telegram of November 2 states that Vesuvius is 

 now very active ; lava continues to flow from the crater, and 

 present indications point to the probability of increased eruptive 

 energy. 



The first meeting of the .Society of Arts is announced for 

 November 17, when the opening address will be delivered by 

 F. J. Bramwell, F. R.S., Chairman of the Councih Before 

 Christmas the following papers will be read : — November 24 — 

 " Barry's Influence on Engli-li Art," by J. Comyns Carr. De- 

 cember I — "ThePhotophone," by W. H. Preece. December S 

 — "London Fogs," by Dr. A. Carpenter. December 15 — 

 " The Use of Sound for Signals," by E. Price Edwards. The 

 following papers ai-e down on the list for reading after Christ- 

 mas : — "Buying and Selling: its Nature and its Tools," by 

 Prof. Bonamy Price. " The Participation of Labour in the 

 Profits of Enterprise," by Sedley Taylor, M.A., late Fellow of 

 Trinity College, Cambridge. "The Gold Fields of India," by 

 Ilyde Clarke. "Flashing Signals for Lighthouses," by Sir 

 William Thomson, F.R.S. "The Present Condition of the 

 Art of Wood-carving ii England," by J. Hungerford Pollen, 

 "Ten Years' Experience of the Working of the Trade Mar'.c 

 Act," by E. C. Johnson. "Trade Prospects," by Stephen 

 Bourne. "The Manufacture of Aerated Waters," by T. B. Bruce 

 Warren. " The Compound Air Engine," by Col. F. Beau- 

 mont, R.E. "Improvements in the Treatment of Esparto 

 for the Manufacture of Paper," by William Arnot, F.C.S. 

 " Deep Sea Investigation, and the Apparatus used in it," by J. 

 Y. Buchanan. "The Discrimination and Artistic Use of 

 Precious Stones," by Prof. A. II. Church. " Indian Agricul- 

 ture," by \V. R. Robertson. Five courses of lectures are an- 

 nounced under the Cantor bequest : First course — Five lecture? 

 on " Some Points of Contact between the Scientific and Artistic 

 Aspects of Pottery and Porcelain," by Prof. A. C. Church. 

 Second Course — Three lectures on " Watchmaking," by Edward 

 Rigg, M. A. Third course-=-Four lectures on "The Scientific 

 Principles involved in Electric Lighting," by Prof. W. G' 

 Adams, F.R.S. Fourth course — Three lectures on " The Art 

 of Lace-making," by Alan S. Cole. Fifth course — Three lec- 

 tures on "Colour Blindness and its Influence upon Various 

 Industries," by R. Brudenell Carter. The two Juvenile Lectures, 

 for children of Members, during the Christmas holidays, will be 

 by G. J. Romanes, F.R S., on "Animal Intelligence." The 

 arrangements for the " Indian," "F'oreign and Colonial," and 

 "Chemical and Physical" Sections will be announced after 

 Christma<:. 



The following is the title of the essay to which the " Howard 

 Medal" of the Stati-tical Society will l)e awarded in November, 



