October 28, 1922] 



NA TURE 



585 



Research Items. 



Earthworks in America. — The Peabody Museum 

 of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard 

 University (vol. viii. No. 3), has issued a monograph 

 by Mr. C. C. Willoughby on the Turner group of 

 earthworks in Hamilton County, Ohio, with notes 

 on the skeletal remains by Mr. E. A. Hooton. The 

 book, admirably illustrated by sketches and photo- 

 graphs, gives a full account of these interesting 

 structures. Mr. Willoughby remarks that the builders 

 attained a degree of excellence in art design prob- 

 ably unsurpassed north of Mexico. It is import- 

 ant to note that they show no affinity with the 

 people of the Madisonville site, beyond those which 

 are common to all Indians. Their affinities are 

 rather with the Eastern dolichocephals, although 

 there is present a brachycephalic element such as is 

 often found among the Eastern Indians. 



Long Barrows in the Cotswolds and Welsh 

 Marches. — Under the title of " Notes on the Archaeo- 

 logical Information incorporated in the Ordnance 

 Survey Maps," Mr. O. G. S. Crawford, Archaeology 

 Officer, Ordnance Survey, has published a useful 

 pamphlet with a map snowing the position of the 

 Long Barrows and Stone Circles in the Cotswolds 

 and the Welsh Marches. He remarks that the fact 

 that the Cotswold limestone area is a region of rela- 

 tively high elevation has led some to suppose that 

 this accounts for the abundance of long barrows in 

 this district. But the factors which influenced pre- 

 historic man in the choice of a settlement were not 

 elevation but vegetation and water supply. Pre- 

 historic man selected these limestone areas when 

 the soil favoured an open growth of vegetation, 

 because many regions of high elevation, such as 

 the Black Mountains, are entirely devoid of long 

 barrows. He chose sites where the streams are 

 more numerous, and in Monmouthshire the position 

 of two out of the three long barrows shows that 

 Neolithic man did not shun the lowlands when they 

 served his purpose. Mr. Crawford's introductory 

 essay is interesting and suggestive, and it may be 

 hoped that archaeologists will soon be in possession 

 of similar maps indicating the position of pre- 

 historic remains in other districts. 



The Painted Glass of Gloucester Cathedral. 

 — In that gem of ecclesiastical architecture, the Lady 

 Chapel of the Abbey, Gloucester, the east window, 

 a work dating from the end of the 15th century, 

 at once attracts attention. But the glass is in such 

 a confused and disordered state that the ordinary 

 spectator is scarce able to distinguish any definite 

 subject, and carries away the impression of a mere 

 mass of richly toned fragments, with here and there a 

 face or a form dimly visible. The scheme of the 

 window was obviously to illustrate miraculous 

 stories about the Virgin, but hitherto little has been 

 done to arrange the fragments in a definite way. 

 In the Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucester- 

 shire Archaeological Societv for 1921 (vol. xliii.) Mr. 

 G. M'N. Rushforth, working on a catalogue prepared 

 in 1915 by Mr. J. D. Le Couteur, a well-known 

 authority on medieval glass, publishes an exhaustive 

 paper, supplied with good photographs. Many of 

 the figures and incidents have now been satisfactorily 

 identified, and much new light is thrown on an im- 

 portant collection of 15th century painted glass. 



Germination of Indian Barley. — Experiments 

 on the influence of atmospheric conditions on the 

 germination of Indian barley have been carried 

 out by Mr. W. Youngman, Government economic 

 botanist, United Provinces, and the results, which 

 have been published as a memoir of the Indian 



NO. 2765, VOL. I io] 



Department of Agriculture, are summarised in the 

 Bulletin of the Imperial Institute (vol. 20, No. 2). 

 It was found that if barley is exposed to an 

 atmosphere containing a large amount of moisture, 

 its germinating capacity is seriously reduced and may 

 even be destroyed entirely. Such' a condition of the 

 atmosphere exists in North-eastern India during the 

 period of the monsoon, i.e. after May, and conse- 

 quently the germinating power of barley shipped from 

 Calcutta after May is liable to be low. Barley pro- 

 duced in North-western and Central India would not 

 meet with adverse conditions at any time, and 

 although the humidity of the atmosphere along the 

 sea-board area from Karachi to Bombay is high 

 after May, barley exported at that period from these 

 ports would not suffer appreciably if it were not 

 delayed long in the sea-board area. In 191 2-1 3 

 nearly 300,000 tons of barley, of a total value of 

 about if million pounds sterling, were shipped from 

 the various ports ; about two-thirds from Karachi, 

 slightly less than one-third from Calcutta, and a small 

 quantity from Bombay. No barley has been ex- 

 ported to this country from India during the last three 

 or four years, but when shipments are again made, 

 the results of this work should be borne in mind. 



Paleobotany and Earth-history. — The im- 

 portance of the correct determination of fossil plants 

 from the point of view of stratigraphers is well brought 

 out in two short papers by Prof. A. C. Seward in the 

 Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, 

 vol. 78, part 3, Sept. 1922. In one, the first fossil 

 plants recorded from Ceylon are described, from 

 specimens collected in dense jungle by Mr. E. J. 

 Wayland. They prove the existence of Middle 

 Jurassic strata, comparable with those of Madras. 

 The second paper deals with Carboniferous plants 

 collected by Mr. J. A. Douglas on the west coast of 

 Peru. Dr. F. Fuchs recorded plants from this locality 

 as Carboniferous in 1900, but he included two Wealden 

 species, which Prof. Seward is inclined to reject in the 

 absence of further evidence. If the list now given 

 could be regarded as representing a flora of Upper 

 Carboniferous age, its north-European affinities and 

 the absence of any member of the Glossopteris flora 

 would give it special significance. Prof. Seward, how- 

 ever, states that it may be Lower Carboniferous. Mr. 

 J. A. Douglas, in the discussion on the paper, suggested 

 that a chain comparable in height with that of the 

 existing Andes may have formed an effectual snow- 

 clad barrier between the region supporting the 

 Gondwanaland flora and that yielding a more normal 

 Carboniferous type farther to the west. 



American Vertebrate Paleontology. — A 

 number of short " Contributions from the Paleonto- 

 logical Laboratory " of the Peabody Museum, Yale 

 University, have of late been appearing in the 

 American Journal of Science (vols. ii. to iv.). E. L. 

 Troxell, from " A Study of Diceratherium and the 

 Diceratheres," is led to divide the true Diceratherium, 

 Marsh, of the Great Basin of Oregon, from those of 

 the Great Plains of Nebraska and Wyoming, which 

 he refers to a new genus Menoceras, and further to 

 separate both from Aceratherium, Kaup. The same 

 author, treating of " Oligocene Rodents of the genus 

 Ischyromys," hazards the suggestion that this genus 

 developed into the modern prairie-dog, Cynomys. 

 Mr. Troxell has also investigated " the genus 

 Hyrachyus," which he considers divisible into three 

 groups. R. S. Lull supplies a " Restoration of 

 Blastomeryx marshi " and discourses on the " Primi- 

 tive Pecora in the Yale Museum," among which with 

 other novelties is described Nanotragulus loomisi, gen. 



