May 13, 1909] 



NA TURE 



317 



ivould not agree to the dispersion of the collection, and 

 would consider favourably some scheme by which it would 

 be given a permanent and suitable house as a whole. In 

 his reply, Mr. Runciman did not commit himself to either 

 proposition, though he said, " I do not wish to leave the 

 present collection in the present bad building, and I do 

 not intend to scatter it in the sense which was at first 

 proposed." The whole matter is to be given full con- 

 sideration again before any action is taken. The situa- 

 tion provides another instance of difficulties arising owing 

 to the want of scientific system in the organisation and 

 I administration of our national museums, upon which we 



I commented on .April 29. Thirty years ago, the original 



collection was broken up, the geological and mineralogical 

 products being sent to Jermyn Street, the vegetable pro- 

 ducts to Kew, some of the antiquities to the British 

 Museum, and others to South Kensington. Now it is 

 urged that this distribution was a mistake, and that all 

 the collections should be brought together under one roof. 

 We express no opinion upon these plans of aggregation 

 and segregation, but we do say that if our national 

 museums w'ere controlled by men of knowledge and 



(authority a definite and continuous policy would be the 

 result, and the demand for re-consideration which now 

 arises when any change is proposed would rarely arise. 



To the May number of the Century Illustrated Magazine 

 Mr. E. B. Bronson communicates an article on big game 

 in East .'\frica, with special reference to the conditions 

 and incidents attending lion-hunting and the pursuit of 

 other dangerous animals. The author, who was for a 

 year the guest of Mr. McMillan at Julia Farm, near 

 Nairobi, from which he made excursions to the game- 

 country, has had thirty years' experience of big-game 

 shooting in America, and his views in regard to African 

 sport of this nature accordingly possess a more than 

 ordinary value and interest. Mr. Bronson was much struck 

 with the extraordinary abundance of game on both sides 

 of the railway between N'oi and Nairobi, where the 

 passengers are seldom out of sight of some kind of game- 

 animals during the daytime. Special reference is made to 

 the dangers connected with the pursuit of buffalo and 

 rhinoceros, the author appearing to endorse the general 

 opinion as to the excessive risks attendant on buffalo- 

 shooting. 



Ix the April number of Das Blaubuch Dr. T. Zell dis- 

 cusses the question whether animals take advantage of 

 experience and become cleverer than their parents, the 

 question being answered in the affirmative. Among 

 numerous other instances mentioned by the author, refer- 

 ence may be made to the following. From early times it 

 has been noticed that vultures have learnt to accompany 

 armies in the field, for the sake of the prospective feast 

 after a battle. Killer-whales accompany whaling-vessels, 

 and gulls do the same. Crows in like manner learn to 

 accompany the chamois-hunter as soon as they have seen 

 the first victim fall to the rifle, and rough-legged buzzards 

 follow the sportsman in pursuit of winged game. Birds 

 and quadrupeds have learnt to take no notice of railway 

 trains, as have horses of motors, and nowadays many 

 fewer birds immolate themselves by fiying against tele- 

 graph-wires than was formerly the case. Game animals 

 of all kinds have learnt to know the range of modern 

 rifles, while greyhounds have learnt to leave rabbits alone, 

 just as foxhounds, if properly trained, take no notice of 

 either hares or rabbits. Sheep-dogs, again, know by 

 experience that it is only the members of their masters' 

 flocks that it is their business to collect. 

 NO. 2063, VOL. 80] 



The sixty-seventh volume of the Journal of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society, for 1908, opens with a portrait and 

 biography of the late Sir Nigel Kingscote, and contains a 

 number of papers on agricultural subjects and fruit-grow- 

 ing. .Among these is one by Mr. H. Rigden on Sussex 

 cattle, which are stated to be nearly allied to the Devon, 

 but larger, bigger-boned, and more hardy in constitution, 

 both breeds being probably derived from old medium-horned 

 red cattle of the south and south-western counties. In 

 colour, Sussex cattle, which are still mainly confined to 

 the home counties, should be wholly red, with white tail- 

 tufts, but white flecks may appear on the body, and the 

 muzzles of the bulls must be white. A century and a half 

 ago it was noted that Sussex cattle, like the pigs of the 

 same county, were unusually long-legged, and it was sug- 

 gested that this feature was due to the bad state of the 

 roads. Be this as it may, when the Weald district was 

 the centre of a great iron-producing industry the strong- 

 limbed Sussex steers were specially well adapted for haul- 

 ing timber through the heavy undrained tracks of the 

 partially cleared forest. The Lyne herd, dispersed in 

 1903, were descended from the old working breed, and 

 were probably the oldest in Sussex. 



Dr. A. S. Hitchcock has prepared a catalogue, with 

 analytical key, of the grasses of Cuba, that is published 

 as the sixth part of vol. xii. of the Contributions from 

 the United States National Herbarium. It is based largely 

 on the specimens collected by Charles Wright, and named 

 by Grisebach, Wright, and Sauvalle about 1870, and on 

 recent collections made by members of the herbarium 

 staff. There is a tendency to split the genera, as in the 

 segregation of Syntherisma and Alloteropsis from Panicum. 

 There is one genus of the tribe Bambuseae, Arthrosty- 

 lidium', with seven species. The new plants named by the 

 author, which are enumerated in a separate list, include 

 one new genus, Reimarochloa. 



A FOREST pamphlet (No. 5) has been issued by the 

 Government of India, in which Mr. A. L. Mclntire deals 

 with the production of " sal," Shorea robusta, in Bengal. 

 Certain data are given for growth which indicate how 

 greatly the figures vary according to the locality. In the 

 Terai, saplings may grow 8 feet to 10 feet in as 

 many years, but in dry districts the period would be 

 thirty years or more. Natural reproduction from seed is 

 difficult, as the seedlings are checked by faster growing 

 species and creepers. A method of artificial reproduction 

 consists in placing baskets of soil under seed-laden trees 

 into which the seed falls and germinates ; the baskets are 

 then planted out where required. 



In the latest number of the Journal of the Royal Horti- 

 cultural Society (vol. xxxiv., part iii.) there will be found 

 the proceedings of the conference held last October on 

 the spraying of fruit trees. The four papers read at the 

 conference contain a considerable amount of negative 

 expression of opinion, but there are many useful sugges- 

 tions regarding the composition and value of different 

 fungicide* and insecticides, more especially in Prof. 

 Theobald's paper and the appendices giving the proportions 

 for various washes. Mr. G. Massee generally advocated 

 winter spraying to combat fungus diseases, while Prof. 

 Theobald pointed out that, as a remedy against insects, 

 spraying must be applied at a time when the insect can 

 be reached by the wash. The eflScacy of tobacco washes 

 was generally conceded, the one drawback to them being 

 the expense. 



An important contribution to the cryptogamic flora of 

 Leicestershire is made by Mr. A. R. Horwood in a paper 



