Sept. 24, 1 8 74 J 



NATURE 



427 



Mr. Louis Seebohm, cne of the chief photographers who 

 embaiked on the Svatara in June last as a member of the 

 American Transit of Venus expedition, died at Baliia on July 22. 

 He had been extremely ill during the voyage, and was ordered 

 home by the medical officer of the vessel, but died of fever before 

 he could be removed. 



The October number of Fctermann's Mitthcilungcn will con. 

 tain a valuable paper by Prof. II. Fril/, on the geographical 

 extension of the Aurora Borc.alis; the accompanying map, which 

 contains the magnetic meridians, shows Ijy a system of curves 

 the places on the earth's surface from whicli the light is seen with 

 equal frequency. Also a line map of Haiti on the scale of 

 TiTUTTuTT, witli accompanying description ; and the continuation 

 of Dr. Nachtigal's contribution on the tributaries of the kingdom 

 of Baghirmi, in which he gives some account of the fauna and 

 flora of the region and of the manners, customs, and condition of 

 the people. There is also a paper translated from the Russian of 

 L. Kostenko, giving a personal account of the country between 

 Khiva and Fort Kasala on the Sir-Daria. 



A MOVEMENT is On foot among the students of the University 

 of St. Andrews witli the object of electing Mr. Darwin to the 

 Rectorial chair in the room of Lord Neaves, who retires in 

 November. On the last occasion a large number of the students- 

 were favourable to the election of a scientific man in the person 

 of Prof Huxley, and as he lost his election by only^ three votes, 

 the Darwinians are encouraged to prosecute the candidature 

 of their nominee. The election will take place on the fourth 

 Thursd.-iy of November. 



The Daily Nm'S of Saturday last has a letter, dated Kandavan, 

 Aug. 8, from its correspondent with the Challor^ir, giving an 

 account of a short cruise from Wellington, New Zealand, whicli 

 was left on July 6, lo the Fiji Islands. The trawling and 

 dredging was very successful, and many zoological and botanical 

 specimens have been obtained. Among tlie treasures obtained 

 by the trawl was a live nautilus, the only one caught alive since 

 the ship left England. The Challenger was to proceed to the 

 New Hebrides and Torres Straits, where it was expected to 

 arrive about the beginning of this montli. 



M. CoREN WINDER has contributed to a recent meeting of the 

 Socicte des Sciences of Lille an exhaustive series of observations 

 on the processes of respiration and nutrition in plants. He sup- 

 ports M. Claude Bernard's view, that tlie process ordinarily known 

 as the respiration of plants — the decomposition of the carbonic 

 acid of the atmosphere — is renlly a process of digestion, and 

 that simultaneously with this, plants carry on, by day as well as 

 by night, a true process of respiration, similar in all respects to 

 that performed by animals, consisting in an oxidation of the 

 carbonaceous matters of their tissues. By a very careful series 

 of analyses, performed mainly on the lilac and maple, M. Coren- 

 winder determined that the proporlion of nitrogenous matter in 

 the leaves gradually and progressively diminishes from tlie time 

 that they emerge from the bud till their fall ; the proportion of 

 carbonaceous matter increases very rapidly during April and 

 May, and then remains nearly stationary till October ; while that 

 of incombustible substance increases during the whole period of 

 vegetation. He distinguishes, therefore, two periods in the 

 vegetative season of the plant — the first period, when nitro- 

 genous constituents predominate, is that during which respira- 

 tion is the most active ; the second, when the proportion of 

 carbonaceous substance is relatively larger, is the period when 

 respiration is comparatively feeble, the carbonic acid evolved 

 being again almost entirely taken up by the chlorophyll, decom- 

 posed, and the carbon fixed in the true process of digestion. 



Prof. II. IIoi"KM.\nn of Giessen has made some interesting 

 experiments Kn\ the permanence of varietal and specific characters 



in the case of the French Bean and Scarlet Runner (Phaseolus 

 ritlgayts and multijlorus). A very large number of attempts to 

 fix special varieties which were casually produced invariably 

 failed, the tendency towards reversion to the ancestral form being 

 apparently irresistible. On the other hand, no one of the cha- 

 racters wliich are ordinarily relied on to distinguish the two 

 species from one another is constant, but is liable, under certain 

 circumstances, to disappear. Dr. Hoffmann has also made a 

 similar series of experiments on the Common Red Poppy {Papaver 

 P/urns). Constant cultivation for six years produced no per- 

 ceptible v.ariation ; but in the seventh year several varieties in 

 the colour, and in the next year in the form of the petals, 

 made their appearance, tending towards an assimilation to 

 P. dulmtn. 



The Gardener s Chroiiiele announces a new material for paper 

 in a well-known American grass, Zkaiiia aqualica. It is stated 

 that the Zizania yields fully as much of the raw material as 

 esparto, and has the great and peculiar merit of being compara- 

 tively free from silicates. Paper made from it is quite as strong 

 and quite as flexible as that made from rags ; it is easily bleached, 

 economical in respect of chemicals, pure in colour, and remark- 

 ably free from specks and blemishes. It is especially recom- 

 mended for the manufacture of printing paper. The grass grows 

 in enormous quantities in our Canadian Dominion, on the shores 

 of Lakes Erie, St. Clair, Ontario, &c., and it is affirmed that a 

 supply of 100,000 tons annually may be looked on as certain. 

 Its habitat is swamps, ponds, and shallow streams, where it 

 grows to a height of from 7 to S, or even to 1 2 and 14 ft. The 

 structure is similar to that of rice, except that the flowers are 

 unisexual. The grains are largely used as an article of food by 

 the native Indians, some tribes depending on them to a large 

 extent for their subsistence. The flavour is said to be superior 

 to that of most other cereals, and it has long been known from 

 these properties as * ' Canada Rice. " 



The will of the late Girolamo Ponti, of Milan, which has just 

 been published in the London Gazelle by order of Lord Derby, 

 is likely to give rise to some trouble before it can be carried into 

 effect. The testator has bequeathed a considerable portion of his 

 property to the " Academies of Science of London, Paris, and 

 Vienna," to be divided among them in equal proportions, for the 

 purpose in each case of founding, with the proceeds resulting from 

 investment, two competitions yearly on the subjects of Mechanics, 

 Agricullure, Physics and Chemistry, Travels by Sea and Land, 

 and Literature. The committees lo be appointed by the societies 

 aie instructed to give preference to those competitors who will 

 have advanced any of the subjects mentioned by original dis- 

 covery. The relatives of Signor Ponti are to dispute the will, 

 and those London societies that think they have claims upon the 

 legacy are urged to bring Jiem forward at once. There can be no 

 doubt which societies are meant in the case of Paris and Vienna ; 

 and at first sight there appears to be little doubt as to what body 

 the title of " Academy of Science of London " would most appro- 

 priately apply. 



At the meeting of the Paris Academy of Sciences held Sept. 

 14, Dr. A. \V. Hofmann announced that his two students, MM. 

 Tiemann and Haarmann, who had obtained vanilline (the aro- 

 matic principle of the vanilla bean) from pine sap, propose to 

 manufacture this substance on a large scale. The sap of a tree 

 of medium height gives vamlline to the v.alue of 100 fr., and the 

 wood is not injured by the extraction of the sap. This will bd 

 the second vegetable product manufactured by purely chemical 

 methods. 



The first fungus exhibition held in Scotland was opened in 

 Aberdeen on Friday, The idea of the exhibition was first su. - 

 gested by the Rev. Mr. Ferguson, of New Pitsligo, in the Scotlh': 

 Naliiralist for April. The suggestion was readily taken up I >■ 

 fungologists and men of science, and the result was an exhibit; a 



