March i i, 1909] 



NA TURF 



49 



Mr. Shf.ppard, the energetic curator of the Hull 

 Museum, describes in his annual report for the past year 

 ■the steady increase of the collections under his charge. 

 Among recent additions in the department of antiquities 

 are a bronze sword, 22 inches in length, found at Leven, 

 near Hull, the largest implement of its class which up to 

 the present has been discovered in that vicinity, and a 

 fine collection of vases of the early English period from the 

 cemetery near South Cave. The order Arachnida has been 

 specially studied by local naturalists, and one of this class, 

 Erigone spinosa, from the east Humber bank, is new to 

 Britain. Gifts to the museum of an old pannier saddle 

 and various domestic appliances of the Stuart, Georgian, 

 and Early Victorian periods, now rapidly disappearing, 

 suggest that other provincial museums would be well 

 advised to imitate Hull in forming a special collection of 

 such objects. Mr. Jacobs, chief engineer of the Pennsyl- 

 vania Railway and Hudson Tunnels Co., New York, has 

 presented to the museum a valuable model, made to scale 

 in brass and steel, of the great tunnel shield used in the 

 excavations carried on under his control. This, in view 

 of a recent scheme for tunnelling the Humber, has proved 

 to be a most attractive exhibit. 



Mr. E. O. Greening discusses in " One and All Garden- 

 ing " annual for 1909 the problem of town gardens for 

 the poor, and describes the experience of the Vacant Lands 

 Association, formed with the object of acquiring waste 

 lands in the metropolis, if only temporarily, to turn into 

 allotments. Thus in Fulham a piece of land comprising 

 seven acres provided space for fifty-eight plots ; land was 

 also secured in East London and Balham. The annua! 

 also contains a pithy article, by Mr. R. L. Castle, on the 

 French system of intensive cultivation, with a description 

 and illustrations of the gardens worked by women 

 gardeners at Thatcham, in Berkshire. 



A SHORT part (vol. xii., part v.) of the Contributions 

 from the United States National Herbarium is assigned to 

 the descriptions, by Mr. H. Pittier, of some new plants 

 from Central America. The most interesting are three 

 new species of Carpotroche, a genus of the Flacourtiacea;, 

 from Costa Rica. The flowers are characterised by their 

 styles and a winged ovary, and the succulent fruit is pro- 

 duced by the development of pulp from an aril-like outer 

 layer of the seeds. The discovery of these species extends 

 the distribution of the genus, formerly known only from 

 Brazil. Another discovery of two new species of Phyllo- 

 Monia (Saxifragaceaj), also in Costa Rica, bridges a gap in 

 the distribution of that genus, which had previously been 

 collected in Peru, Columbia, and Mexico. 



In the Comptcs rendus de la Sociiti impcriale des 

 Naturalistes de St. Pitershourg (vol. xxxix., part i.) two 

 new epiphyllous lichens collected in the Caucasus are de- 

 scribed by Messrs. A. A. Elenkjn and N. N. Woronichin. 

 The phenomenon of lichens growing on leaves, except in the 

 tropics, is very rare ; a former instance from the Caucasus 

 was recorded by Mr. Elenkin .some years ago, and in all 

 three cases the lichens were taken on box leaves. Of the 

 two new species, one, in which gonidia of the Chloro- 

 coccus type were associated with apothecia, is assignecf to 

 the genus Sporopodium ; the other was indeterminable, as 

 only pycnidia of the fungus were obtained, and the alga, 

 which was intracellular, is doubtfully referred to Trcnte- 

 pohlia. 



Determinations of plants collected by Dr. .'\. Weber- 

 bauer in the Andes supply the main item in the first part 

 of vol. xlii. of Englcr's Botanische Jahrbucher. Numerous 

 NO. 2054, VOL. 80] 



additions are recorded for the genera Palaua and 

 Malvastrum (Malvaceae), Tibouchina and Miconia (Mela- 

 stomaceas), Schefflera (Araliace.-e), and Lantana (Ver- 

 benacea;). In connection with the recent discussion at the 

 Linnean Society, attention should be directed to the article 

 by Dr. H. Schenck on the phylogeny of the bryophytes and 

 ferns, in which he presents a carefully prepared argument 

 in favour of a descent from the brown algae, notably from 

 Dictyota. The antheridia and archegonia of these group; 

 are considered to be homologous with the plurilocular 

 gametangia, while the spore mother-cell is regarded as 

 homologous with the tetrasporangium of Dictyota. 



The Deutsche Seewarte (Hamburg), has published its 

 meteorological year-book for 1907, the thirtieth volume of 

 the series, containing observations and results at ten 

 stations of the second order, and hourly readings at four 

 normal observatories. These carefully prepared tables 

 follow the usual form adopted by all the German States, 

 based upon the international scheme, and we note that the 

 gravity correction is now applied to the barometrical 

 observations. As in former years, statistics relating to all 

 storms which have affected a considerable area of the 

 German coasts are given ; these are prepared from observa- 

 tions at fifty-seven storm-signal stations, and furnish very 

 useful data for reference ; October was the only month in 

 which no storms were recorded. .An appendix gives a 

 summary of the contents of all the German meteorological 

 year-books for the year 1907. 



The meteorological statistics of the Colorado College 

 Observatory for 1907, compiled by Mr. F. H. Loud, have 

 been received. This institution has an exceptionally good 

 supply of self-recording and other instruments, many of 

 which were presented by General W. J. Palmer, who has 

 for some years provided for the expense of reducing and 

 publishing the observations. The tabular results are pre- 

 pared with great care ; e.g. the daily means of tempera- 

 ture are obtained from hourly tabulations of a Richard 

 thermograph, and the extremes shown by the maximum 

 and minimum thermometers are checked by the same 

 thermograph. The wind is resolved into four component 

 parts (instead of two), as recommended by Prof. .A. 

 von Oettingen, of Yuricv, and others. The mean tempera- 

 ture of the year was 48°-2, no reading being below zero 

 (F.), whereas in 1905 the minimum was —22°. The 

 monthly range was not less than 63° in each of the months 

 February-May ; the spring is always a very critical time 

 for cultivation. The rainfall was under 10 inches, little 

 more than two-thirds of the ordinary fall. 



.An elaborate series of experiments has been undertaken 

 at the Physikalisch-technische Reichsanstalt, Charlotten- 

 burg, the results of which appear in the Deutsche 

 Jdechaniker-Zeituiig for February i. Altogether 454 single 

 sensitivity tests were made — ninety-six in a water bath at 

 40° C, 222 in the mouth, and 136 in the arm-pit. By 

 sensitivity is understood the time taken by the thermo- 

 meters in assuming the constant temperature of the water 

 bath or of the human body. .According to the author, 

 Mr. H. F. Wiebe, it would appear possible to increase the 

 sensitivity of clinical thermometers in general, and to manu- 

 facture actual minute thermometers to indicate correctly 

 by measurements in the mouth in one or even in half a 

 minute. It seems improbable to make minute thermo- 

 meters for use in the arm-pit which will take up the 

 temperature of the body in one minute, at least so far as 

 glass thermometers are concerned. In order to obviate 

 errors in this connection, when using clinical thermometers 

 it would be desirable to sup^y instructions for their use. 



