642 
WAT Cis 
[AUGUST 22, 1912 
Angiosperms, in which she describes and figures 
three new species of fossil Angiosperms, founded on 
specimens of petrified wood from the English Lower 
Greensand. The author shows commendable caution in 
giving these specimens non-committal generic names, 
as well as in her admirable discussion of the possible 
affinities of each genus. The histology of these 
beautifully preserved specimens suggests comparison 
with a number of recent genera of Dicotyledons, but 
only in one case is the resemblance really close—the 
fossil Woburnia porosa agrees closely with the wood 
of some members of the recent family Diptero- 
carpaceze. However, the important fact established 
by Dr. Stopes is the existence of Angiosperms in 
England at a period (Aptian) when they were sup- 
posed not to exist in northern Europe, the three 
genera she describes being, moreover, the oldest 
Angiosperms of which the anatomy is preserved. 
This important paper is of special interest, since, as 
the author justly remarks, ‘‘except the origin of Man 
himself there are probably no problems in palzeonto- 
logy of greater interest and importance, and of which 
less is known, than those which centre round the 
origin of Angiosperms, and the early history of that 
group.” 
Tue half-yearly reviews of mining operations in 
South Australia, Nos. 14 and 15, describe the mineral 
developments of that State during the year igit. 
They report the retirement of Mr. H. Y. L. Brown 
from the post of Government geologist, which he has 
held for more than thirty years. Mr. Brown’s 
journeys in Central Australia during that time have 
not been equalled in extent by those of any other 
Australian traveller. Mr. Brown’s intimate know- 
ledge of the country will remain at its disposal, as he 
has accepted the post of honorary consulting geologist 
for the State. Mr. L. K. Ward, late of the Mines 
Department of Tasmania, has been appointed as Mr. 
Brown’s successor, and Mr. R. L. Jack, son of Dr. 
Logan Jack, as senior assistant. The mining opera- 
tions during the past year include the further 
development of the Radium Hill mines and the rais- 
ing of a considerable quantity of ore, from which the 
radium is to be extracted at new works at Bairnsdale, 
in Victoria. Other radio-active deposits have been 
found near Mount Painter, and five tons of the ore 
have been sent to Europe for examination. An addi- 
tional boring has been made in the Leigh Creel coal- 
field; it passed through the whole of the coal-bearing 
deposits, and reached bed rock at a depth of 1079 ft. 
Mr. Brown reports the progress of the attempt to 
drain an area known as the ‘‘Dismal Swamp ”’ by 
boring holes through the floor of the swamp into the 
porous beds beneath; and though the bores that have 
been put down are small, and it has been found diffi- 
cult to keep them clear of sand, Mr. Brown is of the 
opinion that the progress made shows that the swamps 
may be reclaimed by this ingenious application of 
percolation wells. 
Tue twentieth volume of the German oversea 
meteorological observations has been. issued by the 
Deutsche Seewarte, with the aid of the Imperial 
Colonial Office. This useful publication (for the vear 
NO, 2234, VOL. 89] 
1910) is divided into three parts :—(1) Monthly and 
yearly means of observations made at certain hours 
at stations maintained by the Seewarte in various 
parts of the world, but not necessarily in countries 
or localities under the control of Germany. (2) Actual 
observations and means at certain hours from selected 
stations, with five-day and ten-day means at all 
stations in the colony of Togo. At these stations the 
wet-bulb thermometers are provided with an Assmann 
aspirator. (3) Similar observations and means, with 
additional data, for stations in German and one in 
Portuguese East Africa. Summaries of observations 
under (2) and (3) are also prepared for publication in 
the colonial Mitteilungen aus den deutschen Schutzs- 
gebieten, 
From the Annuwairio of the Messina Observatory for 
1909 we are glad to learn that meteorological 
observations were recommenced on March 1 of that 
year. Since the most disastrous earthquake of 
December 28, 1908, the conditions under which the 
work has been carried on have been, and are still, 
very difficult. Owing to the general ruin, everything 
had to be done again, and access to the instrumental 
rooms could only be obtained after removal of large 
masses of débris which choked the passages leading 
to them. Some of the instruments and the books 
were eventually removed to vaults which had escaped 
injury, but after a time they had to be transferred to 
an adjacent building, owing to the injurious effects 
of dampness. A classified list of earthquake shocks 
is given for the whole year; these number no fewer 
than 1083. Shocks have continued down to the pre- 
sent time, but with decreasing intensity and 
frequency. 
In the Atti dei Lincet, xxi. (1), 10, Dr. Giovanni 
Giorgi discusses the conditions under which, in a 
finite field, the limit of an integral of a function, taken 
between fixed limits, is equal to the integral of the 
limit of the function, when the parameter of the 
function becomes infinite. 
A BACTERIAL disease has been found to infect the 
leaves of the well-known Aster chinensis of our gar- 
dens, and a short description of this disease is given 
by Dr. G. L. Pavarino in the Atti det Lincet, xxi. (1), 
, 8. The infection appears at first in the form of small 
spots on the underside of the leaves, and these spread 
rapidly, causing the leaves to wither and dry up. 
From the diseased leaves, the author has succeeded 
in making cultures in the usual media, and has thus 
isolated a micro-organism which he now describes as 
a new species under the name of Bacillus asteracearum. 
In the Miilley Breslau Festschrift for 1912 Dr. H. 
Reissner contributes a paper on stresses in spherical 
shells, with special reference to domes and similar 
structures loaded symmetrically or unsymmetrically. 
Several cases are considered, namely that of a dome in 
which the potential energy of bending is negligible 
compared with that of stretching, that in which the 
resistance to bending is important and the edges are 
free, and that in which the edges of the dome are 
fixed. These are all applications of well-known 
analytical formule, but the cases in question do not 
appear hitherto to have received much attention. 
es 84) 
