i8o 



NA TURE 



[June 25, 1908 



bar-tailed godwits with thpir young, and the head of a 

 rorqual. 



The history of the Hancock Museum at Newcastle-on- 

 Tyne forms the subject of an article by the curator, issued 

 as an appendix to the Transactions of the well-known 

 northern natural history society. A feature of this 

 institution is that it is owned and maintained by the 

 society, and therefore costs nothing to the ratepayers. 

 The maintenance of such a large institution naturally 

 imposes a heavy burden on the society, the efforts of which 

 in other directions are in consequence somewhat crippled. 

 On the other hand, the society enjoys the advantage of 

 complete and unfettered control of a number of valuable 

 collections which have from time to time been consigned 

 to its custody. The article is illustrated with two views 

 of the museum, together with portraits of Joshua Alder, 

 Albany and John Hancock, and Thomas Atthey. 



We have been favoured with a copy of the first number 

 of the Annals of the Transvaal Museum, at Pretoria, 

 which contains an illustrated account of the origin, pro- 

 gress, and present condition of that institution, together 

 with several papers on the zoology and botany of the 

 Transvaal. The fauna of South .Africa is illustrated in a 

 series of saloons specially devoted to that purpose, while 

 other saloons contain the mammals, birds, fishes, &'c., of 

 other parts of Africa and the world generally. So far as 

 can be gleaned from the photographs, many of the larger 

 mammals appear to be well mounted, and it is satisfac- 

 tory to learn that the collection includes a fine example 

 of the white rhinoceros. The museum was founded in 

 1892, on the initiative of Dr. W. J. Leyds, and since that 

 date appears to have made remarkable progress, although 

 its development is hindered by lack of sufficient funds and 

 space. 



In the course of his presidential address to the South 

 London Entomological and Natural History Society, as 

 reported in the Proceedings of that body for 1907-8, 

 Mr. Robert Adkin directed attention to the advantage 

 accruing from federation among local scientific bodies. 

 The Yorkshire Naturalists' Union set the example of such 

 federation so long ago as 1862, with the result that while 

 numerous advantages were found to follow, no harm was 

 done to the local work of the various bodies which con- 

 stitute the union. In 1896, at the invitation of the Tun- 

 bridge Wells society, the South-eastern Union of Scientific 

 Societies was established, as the result of which it has been 

 found practicable to hold an annual congress at one of the 

 towns within the area covered by the union, to the great 

 advantage of the members. Nor was this all, for in the 

 shape of the Soiith-Eastcrn Naturalist the union publishes 

 a journal which deservedly occupies a high position among 

 literature of this class. The success of this southern 

 federation is indicated by a proposal that the local societies 

 of Esse.x and Hertfordshire should be eligible for admission 

 to the union. 



The eighth part of vol. iv. of the Annals of the South 

 .\frican Museum contains no less than five papers by Dr. 

 R. Broom on the Permo-Triassic tetrapodous vertebrates 

 of the country. In the first the genus Propappus, 

 originally named from a single limb bone, is stated to be 

 distinct from Pariasaurus, having, among other peculiari- 

 ties, a dermal armour on the spinal region. New generic 

 types of the carnivorous groups are also described, and it 

 is pointed out that the difference in the structure of the 

 palate between the Permian and the Triassic representatives 

 of these reptiles amply justifies their separation into distinct 



NO. 2017, VOL. 78] 



groups. While the latter, as typified by Galesaurus, have 

 a typically mammalian secondary palate, that region in 

 the former is a modification of the type obtaining in 

 rhynchocephalian reptiles. For these two groups Dr. 

 Broom employs the names Cynodontia ( = Theriodontia) 

 and Therocephalia. In the last of the series the author 

 assigns certain Cape labyrinthodonts (one of which had 

 been referred to the .American Eryops) to the new genus 

 Rhinesuchus, of which, however, the type is a German 

 species. 



Mr. T. Siiepp,\rd, curator of the Hull Museum, has 

 issued another of his useful penny booklets, in which he 

 discusses prehistoric remains from Lincolnshire, and fish 

 and other remains from the Chalk of Lincolnshire and 

 Yprkshire. These relics are mostly of the Bronze age ; a 

 few are Neolithic, but PaljEolithic man is apparently not , 

 represented in this part of the country. They include 

 some fine cinerary urns and an " incense cup " from a 

 tumulus at Kirton Lindsey ; and some stone implements, 

 such as a perforated adze axe-hammer, from the Drift. 

 One remarkable perforated adze is suspected to be the 

 handicraft of the notorious Flint Jack. From Burton-on- 

 Humber come a fine bronze palstave and two imperfect 

 axes, probably rejected failures from a founder's horde. 

 The fossils include those of ganoid- and teleostean fishes, 

 as well as selachians from the well-known chalk quarries 

 at Barton and .South Ferriby. Mr. Sheppard's careful 

 examination of these relics, of which his pamphlet con- 

 tains good illustrations, supplies an excellent example of 

 the class of work which a local museum under competent 

 management can usefully prosecute. 



Dr.. R. Semox contributes to the Biologischcs Ccntral- 

 hlall (.-April i) an article on the effects induced in plants 

 by alternations of light and darkness, and the question 

 originally investigated by him whether these effects are 

 transmitted to plants of a subsequent generation. He 

 directs particular attention to the facts that he experi- 

 mented with seedlings of Albizzia lophantha, and used a 

 very weak stimulus. 



.VrTEXTiON is directed in the report for 1906-7 on the 

 botanical and agricultural establishments of Antigua to 

 the advantages derived by the presidency from the work- 

 ing of the Imperial Department of Agriculture for the 

 West Indies. In addition to the re-establishment of an 

 efficient botanic station and a revival of the decndent 

 sugar industry, the Department has fostered agricultural 

 education and has developed an appreciable cotton trade. 

 In connection with sugar, it is noteworthy that two central 

 factories are in operation. Reference is made in the re- 

 port to the celebration of arbor day, when two hundred 

 trees, largely mahogany, were planted. It is noted that 

 for hedges Malpii;hia glabra and logwood, Haematoxylon 

 campechianum, have been found useful. 



It will probably be unknown, even to some bamboo 

 fanciers, that certain bamboos in Japan have a special 

 value because they are flecked or coloured. Where the 

 effect is a natural one, it is generally due to lines or stripes 

 of a colour differing from the general ground colour; in 

 other cases the figuring is produced by fungi. Instances 

 of the latter are furnished by a Chinese undetermined 

 species of Phyllostachys and the Japanese plant, Arundin- 

 aria Narahira. An account of the latter and the parasitic 

 fungus Miyoshia fiisipora is contributed by Mr. S. Kawa- 

 mura to the Journal (vol. xxiii., art. 2) of the Royal 

 College of Science in Tokio. .Artificial sowings on the 

 bamboos were not very successful, but conidia, perithecia, 



