July 20, 18*3.] 



SCIENCE. 



87 



between the basins of the Syr Dari i and the Tarim 

 rivers. — w. h. r>. (85 



Oxus and Caspicin. — A recent report on the lev- 

 ellings undertalieii by tlie Russian engineers to de- 

 termine if the Oxus (.\niu-daria) could be turned 

 from its present channel, which leads to tlie sea of 

 Aral into the Usboi channel, leading to the Caspian 

 Sea, decides that it is impossible without extended 

 artificial works. A canal would have to be con- 

 structed for a length of over two liundred versts, 

 at a cost of at least fifteen to twenty million rubles, 

 before it would be possible to divert the Oxus from 

 its present course. — {Peterin. geoijr. mitth., 188;3, 231.) 

 W. M. D. [86 



(.Africa.) 



Notes. — Joseph Thompson's party has been heard 

 from, having been obliged to retreat to Mombasa, on 

 account of hoslililies excited by a caravan in advance 

 of them. All well, and would make another start 



with a different caravan. Schweinfnrlh has made 



a scientific journey from Cairo to Mirsa Tobruk in 



Cyrenaica. News has been received from the 



delayed Italian expedition to Abyssinia and the coast 

 of tiie Red Sea, according to which the principal 

 official party are detained at Dcbra Tabor by King 

 John, while the explorer Antonell^ has succeeded in 

 getting away from Assab and in travelling through 

 the Aussa country, previously closed to Europeans, 



to Schoa. Dr. Pogge h.is returned to Mukenge, 



according to a letter forwarded by Portuguese traders 

 from Malange, and will sliortly depart for Europe. 



The German traveller Flegel has returned to 



the coast from his journey in Adamaur. The 



British government has annexed the territory lying 

 south-east of the former limits of Sierra Leone as 

 far as the Liberian boundary, between that and the 



Sherbro Islands. Several French trading-stations 



have recently been established on the Fula Diallon 

 coast, northward from Sierra Leone, in the hope of 

 opening a lucrative traffic witli the rich interior dis- 

 tricts. The French naval surgeon Colin has been 



intrusted with a mission to the old gold-country of 

 Bur6 on the upper Senegal. The Morocco au- 

 thorities have permitted Spain to undertake a topo- 

 graphical investigation of the country around Santa 

 Cruz de Mar Pequena, on the coast opposite the 



Canary I>land3. The khedive has appointed 



tlie minister of the interior and former governor 

 of the Soudan, Eyoub P.acha, to tlie presidency of tlie 

 Soci^te de geographic de Cairo. The general secre- 

 tary is Dr. Bonola. The credits granted for the 



Algerian administration, by the commission to revise 

 the estimates, amount to about twenty-eight and a 

 halt million francs, of which about three million 

 francs are for purposes of colonization. The imports 

 into the colony from all sources in 18S0 were about 

 eighty millions, and the exports about fifty-six 

 millions. The customs receipts from all sources 



were about ten million francs. Lieut. Angelo 



Cardozo of the Portuguese navy has just returned 

 from Mosambifiue, where he lias been eight months 

 engage<l in explorations in Sofala-land. lie ascended 

 last September from Inhambane toward Mulamula 



and Pachano, along'the mountains to Maringxia, and 

 across the Sabia River to Goanha; 1 hence, descend- 

 ing the Gorongoza to Sofala, he relumed to Inham- 

 bane by the seacoast. Ilerr Beine has just been 



sent by the International African .issociation to 

 relieve Becker and replace M. Maluin, whose state of 



health requires an immediate return to Europe. 



M. J. Lapeyre, second in command of the (iiraud 

 expedition, whose health had given way, w,is obliged 

 to return from Aden to France on that account. — 

 Vf. H. D. (87 



BOTANY. ' 



Systematic histology. — By this term, Vesque 

 designates the systematic classification of plants on 

 the basis of histology. The variations of histological 

 elements, as regards size, shape, and distribution, 

 even in a single genus or species, are very wide, and, 

 with limited exceptions, have not hitherto been re- 

 garded as very useful characters in classification. 

 Vesque endeavors to show by an examination of the 

 orders Capparidaceae, Cruclferae, and Frankeniaceae, 

 that some histological characters are so nearly con- 

 stant as to justify their employment in systematic 

 botany. Such, for instance, are the stomata and 

 hairs, the mucilage-cells, the palisade-cells, the shape 

 and composition of the fibro-vascular bundles, etc. 

 But, as was to be expected, the cases in which the 

 histological characters are uncertain are so numerous 

 as to be discouraging. That the species in many 

 genera can be arranged in natural groups on the basis 

 of their minute structure appears to be pretty clearly 

 made out by Vesque's contributions. — {Ann. nc. 

 na/., Oct., vi. XV. 2.) G. L. G. [88 



Flo-wrers of Aesculus glabra. — One of Prof. 

 Coulter's students finds that the perfect flowers of 

 the buckeye are protogynous, while others, which at 

 first sight appear protandrous, really liave imper- 

 fectly formed pistils. They are thus polygamous, 

 with, it is thought, a tendency to monoicism. Bees, 

 especially Apis, visit them, but go only to unopened 

 buds, from which they obtain nectar by cmwding 

 their tongues between the petals. " The open flowers 

 were avoided, and could only have been fertilized by 

 the chance of being near the buds; for the bees had 

 evidently learned that the latter contained the 

 nectar. ... It is a case of an insect attracted by a 

 flower which it does not visit, but may accidentally 

 fertilize, and obtaining nectar from a flower which it 

 can neither fertilize nor obtain pollen from." The 

 species is worthy of further sludy. — {Hot. gazette, 

 June.) w. T. [89 



ZOOLOGY. 

 (General anatomy ami phynioloiiij.) 



Olfactory lobes of insects and vertebrates. 

 — G. Bellonci, in continuation of his two previous 

 articles (.Vem. arcad. sc. Bologna, 188«l, and AM 

 accad. reale lincei, 1880-81) on th« olfactory lobes of 

 arthropods, now reports his further observations, 

 which he has also extended to vertebrates. The 

 same fundamental plan determines the structure and 

 relations of the olfactory lobes in both the higher 

 arthropods and the vertebrates. The olfactory and 



