536 



NA TURE 



[Septembe'^ 24, ig> 8 



panied the second mission to Yarkand. The present paper 

 forms the introduction to a memoir on the birds of Centra! 

 Asia which is, in a manner, a supplement to Dr. Scully's 

 list. The British Museum possesses a very valuable MS. 

 in many volumes containing an exhaustive vocabulary in 

 iive languages, viz. Manchu, Mongolian, Tibetan, Turki, 

 and Chinese, on every conceivable topic. The memoir, to 

 which the present paper is an introduction, cont.iins a tran- 

 script of the section on birds, omittinEf the Mongolian and 

 Tibetan versions. Three hundred and fifty birds are 

 enumerated. With the object of adding to the knowledge 

 of the Turki language, and with the view of collecting 

 and identifying as many Turki birds as possible, the 

 writer has prepared an inde.x containing not only all the 

 Ijird names mentioned in the polyglot list and by Scully, 

 ■but which further comprises all the bird names he has 

 been able to find in Turki dictionaries and other worlds. 

 The index contains 650 bird names, of which more than 

 ■half have been more or less identified. — The retardation 

 and acceleration in the dissolution of mercury in nitric acid, 

 in the presence of minute traces of ferric nitrate and 

 •manganous nitrate : Prof. P. C. Ray. 



Cape Town. 

 Royal Society of South A'rica, Auiji'-' 19— Mr S. 

 Hough, F.R.S., president, in the chair. — The application 

 of Doppler's principle to astrophysical problems : Dr. J. K. 

 Halm. The importance of this principle in determining 

 the motions of the celestial bodies in the line of sight by 

 means of the displacements of the lines of their spectra 

 •from their normal positions was dealt with, and its applica- 

 tion was illustrated by such examples as binary stars, 

 Saturn's rings, the rotation of the sun, and the motion of 

 the earth in its orbit round the sun. 



New South W.ales. 



Royal Society, July i. — Mr. \V. ^^. Hamlet, presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — Records of Australian botanists : 

 (a) general, '(h) New South Wales : J. H. Maiden. 

 The author is endeavouring to do for Australian 

 botanists what Britten and Boulger have done for 

 British ones, and publishes many details concerning 

 'them for the first time. He omits references to 

 living men, and also to the French botanists who did 

 so much for Australia in the early years of settlement ; 

 •he proposes to deal separately with these on some future 

 occasion. The term " general " has been taken to include 

 those botanists who have dealt with the plants of all the 

 States or in more than one of them ; the present paper 

 gives a separate account of New South Wales botanists, 

 and the author is malting arrangements for the publication 

 of the records of the botanists of the other States in those 

 States. — The elastic substance occurring on the shoots and 

 young leaves of Eucalyptus corymhosa and some species 

 of Angophora ; Henry G. Smith. The author records the 

 results of a chemical investigation of this elastic substance, 

 which is formed at the time the shoots are developed. As 

 the buds expand, and the individual leaves are formed, the 

 elastic coating stretches and expands with them. Changes 

 then rapidly talve place as the need of the protective coat- 

 ing is removed, and by light and oxidation a white 

 powdery substance is formed, which remains on the surface 

 of the leaves, and although no white coating can be 

 ■detected upon the mature dull green leaves of this group 

 of Eucalypts, yet it can readily be removed by ether with 

 only five minutes' contact. A small quantity of a vegetable 

 wax is formed at the same time, and this can be removed 

 from the powdery substance by solution in boiling petro- 

 leum ether, and purified from boiling alcohol. As the 

 genus Eucalyptus descends, and that group having white 

 pulverulent young growth is reached, including such species 

 as E. cinerea, E. puherulenla, E. globulus. Sec, then it 

 is found that the wax has increased considerably in amount, 

 and that the white appearance of these young leaves is 

 due to the presence of a comparatively large amount of 

 this wax, together with the white substance found on the 

 leaves of the earlier members of the genus. The reason 

 why the leaves of the " bloodwoods " (to which group 

 K. corymhosa belongs) are not pulverulent is that there is 



NO. 20,^0, VOL. 78] 



a deficiency of the wax. In those species where the wax 

 predominates, the elastic substance does not occur, the 

 corresponding protective medium being supplied by the 

 wax. The amount of material removed from the fresh 

 young leaves of E. corymhosa by ether was equal to 

 0.84 per cent., of which 00224 P^"" cent, was wax. From 

 the fresh young leaves of E. cinerea the total removed was 

 I per cent., of which 0-355 P^"" cent, was wax. The 

 elastic substance was found to be a very good form of 

 caoutchouc, thus bringing the Myrtaceje into those families 

 of plants yielding this substance, and showing that both 

 Eucalyptus and Angophora are " india-rubber " bearing 

 plants. The best solvent was found to be chloroform, as 

 the other usual solvents acted but little upon it. The 

 sheet rubber obtained by the evaporation of the chloro- 

 form had great elasticity, did not melt below 250° C, and 

 quickly regained its elasticity on cooling. In every other 

 respect it acted as did crude commercial "rubbers." The 

 rubber was also obtained from the plant by destroying the 

 leaf substance by allowing the material to remain for five 

 days in a 5 per cent, solution of potash, and removing the 

 " rubber " by mechanical means. When heated in melted 

 sulphur it vulcanised very well. If Eucalyptus " rubber " 

 was obtained in quantity it would have considerable com- 

 mercial value. This, however, from the natural plant is 

 not possible, as the collection would be too costly, without 

 considering the rapid alteration it undergoes on the leaf. 



CONTENTS. PAGE 



Radio-Telegraphy. By C. C. G 505 



The Senses of Insects. By Dr. C. Gordon Hewitt . 501 



Foreshore Protection 506 



Our Book Shelf:— 



Roih : " The Discovery and Settlement of Port 



Mackay, Queensland." — J. W. G 507 



Macpherson : "Through the Depths of Space." — 



W. E. Rolston 507 



Letters to the Editor: — 



Large Magnetic Storm. (Jl'ith Diai^raiii.) — Dr. C. 



Chree, F.R.S 50S 



Bouvet Island and the Solar Eclipse of 190S December 



22-23.— Dr. A. M. W. Downing, F.R.S. . . 50S 

 Ruthless Extermination. — Ralph de Tunstall 



Sneyd 508 



Instincts that are not Inheiited Memories. — A. Bacot 509 

 Meteors and the Comet. — W. F. Denning .... 509 



Meteors. — W. F. Denning 509 



Surveying for Archaeologists. III. {llluslraled,) 



By Sir Norman Lockyer, K.C.B., F.R.S 509 



The Royal Commission on Welsh Monuments. By 



Rev. John Griffith . . . 512 



Dr. Sven Hedin's Latest Explorations 512 



Notes. (Illustrated.) 513 



Our Astronomical Column : — 



Comet Morehouse, 19081: 517 



The Orbits of Several Spectroscopic Binaries . . . 517 

 The Determination of Time in Subtropical Latitudes . 517 



Cambridj^e University Observatory 517 



The Royal Photographic Society's Annual Exhi- 

 bition. By C. J 518 



The British Association : — 



Section G. — Engineering. — Opening Address by 

 Dugald Clerk, F.R.S., M.Inst.C.E., F.C.S , 



Prf sident of the Section . . 518 



Section II — Anthropology. — Opening Address by 

 Prof. William Ridgeway, M.A., F.B.A., 

 Litt.D., LL.D., President of the Section . . 525 



University and Educational Intelligence 533 



Societies and Academies 534 



