720 



scii:nce. 



[Vol. II., No. 43. 



bi-eaks up in different years. As a complement to 

 this investigation, may be mentioned a paper on Nor- 

 densl^iold's explorations, printed by Fr. Schmidt of 

 the St. Petersburg academy of sciences, in which the 

 author endeavors to clear np some doubtful points in 

 the observations made on the Vega voyage, by com- 

 bining with them the results of explorations by Sau- 

 nikoff, Hedenstrom Anjou, and others. — w. h. d. 



[420 



NeTv charts of north-east Siberia. — The Hy- 

 drographic office of the navy department has issued a 

 chart of Plover Bay, derived from Russian surveys 

 by Maksitovich, and oneof the Anadyr Kiver estuary, 

 founded on the surveys of the Telegraph expedition 

 in 186.5, with corrections by Eussian officers on tlie 

 ship Haidemak, in 1S75. Following an error of the 

 Russian hydrographic office, the title of ' Port Provi- 

 dence ' is given to the whole of Plover Bay, and the 

 latter name to the smaller and included port, in direct 

 reversal of the custom of American and other navi- 

 gators for the last thirty years. — w. H. D. [421 



Graah's investigations of 1829-30 in Green- 

 land. — Apropos of Nordenskiold's Greenland expe- 

 dition, a very full account of Graah's voyage, and a 

 deserved tribute to his qualities as an explorer, ap- 

 pears in the last number of the Deutsche (jeograph- 

 ische blatter. This is doubly useful, as the account 

 of the journey originally published has long been 

 out of print, and difficult to obtain. The same num- 

 ber contains a statement and criticism of the hy- 

 pothesis offei'ed by Nordenskiiild in regard to the 

 interior of Greenland, from the pen of Prof. Bor- 

 gen, whose views have been sufficiently confirmed 

 by the results of the voyage, so far as yet made pub-, 

 lie — -w. H. D. [422 



(.J/rica.) 



The Portuguese in Africa. — In support of the 

 rights claimed by Portugal on the Kongo, and else- 

 where in the interior- of Africa, a memorandum was 

 issued', some time since, by the geographical society of 

 Lisbon, in which it was claimed for Portuguese ex- 

 plorers that they had revealed to science precise and 

 exclusive information in regard to the orography and 

 hydrology of the Dark Continent. The plea of this 

 memorandum has been traversed by President Wau- 

 ters, of the Royal Belgian geographical society, in a 

 very lively and interesting article. Without express- 

 ing an opinion as to the merits of parties now strug- 

 gling for supremacy on the Kongo, attention may be 

 called to the manner in which the author shows how 

 the characteristics of the hydrology of the interior of 

 Africa on ancient charts were derived. Two centu- 

 ries before tlie Christian era, Eratosthenes, from in- 

 formation obtained on the Ethiopian expedition of 

 Ptolemy Philadelphus, described with tolerable accu- 

 racy the chief features of the river-system of Abys- 

 sinia, and placed the source of the principal branch 

 of the Nile in a lake situated to the southward of 

 that country. Ptolemy and the Arabian geographers 

 added other lakes and branches, the details of which 

 appear to have been based chiefly on rumor and im- 

 agination. In 1444 certain Abyssinian monks visited 

 Rome on an ecclesiastical errand; and, from infor- 



mation derived from them. Brother Jlauro corrected 

 the geograpliy of that part of the Nile basin comprised 

 in the Abyssinian watershed, the remainder finding 

 its source on a vast marsh located in the centre of 

 the continent. This appeared on his celebrated 

 Mappe-monde in 1458. 



According to the author and Father Briicker, the 

 curious network of lakes and rivers found on the 

 globes of Martin Behaim and medieval geographers, 

 which suggest so curiously the lakes and rivers now 

 known to exist, were all derived from the sources 

 above mentioned. In many cases the names of the 

 lakes and towns can be recognized ; and in suppressing 

 synonymes, and replacing Abyssinian rivers (which 

 appear spread over central Africa on such maps) 

 where they belong, the central region of t)ie conti- 

 nent becomes almost a blank. It was reserved for 

 the celebrated De Lisle, in the early part of the last 

 century, to sweep from the charts every thing not due 

 to actual observation, leaving to Livingstone and his 

 successors the occupation of the blank thus made by 

 delineating the physical features recognized in these 

 modern and only authenticated explorations. — {BulU 

 soc. Belg. geogr., ii. 1SS3.) w. h. d. [423 



BOTANY. 



Synonymy of higher cryptogams. — The 'No- 

 menclator der gefiisskryptogamen,' by Carl Salomon, 

 gives the genera and species of the higlier crypto- 

 gams, together with their synonymes, and tlie geo- 

 graphical distribution of the species, — a work which 

 is much needed by stitdents in this department of 

 botany. — w. Cx. P. [424 



Ohio fungi. — The third part of the 'Mycological 

 flora of the Miami valley,' by A. P. Morgan, has ap- 

 peared, and includes the species of Agaricini from 

 Coprinus to Leuzites. The paper is accompanied by 

 colored plates of two new species, — Coprinus squamo- 

 sus and Hygrophorus Laurae. — (Journ. Cine. soc. 

 nat. hist.) w. G. F. [425 



Phycologia Mediterranea. — In this volume of 

 about five hundred large octavo pages. Prof. F. Ar- 

 dissone of Milan describes the Florideae of the Italian 

 coast, followed by the Bangiaceae and Dictyotaceae, 

 under the heading Incertae sedis. From the con- 

 text, liowever, one understands that the writer con- 

 siders the two last-named orders to be nearly related 

 to the Florideae. The descriptions and synonymy are 

 given in full in Latin, and there are many notes in 

 Italian on tlie microscopic structure and develop- 

 ment. The antheridia of Spyridia are said to be 

 unknown. They liave, however, been described and 

 figured in American specimens of S. fllamentosa, 

 which also occurs in Italy. — ^Y. o. F. [426 



Pollination of Asclepias. — Dr. Taylor speaks of 

 the temporary capture of flies by A. purpurascens, 

 and of the removal of polliiiia by them on their es- 

 cape, and suggests that North-American botanists 

 examine the insects caught on our asclepiads for the 

 peculiar pollen-masses (Sc. gossip, Sept.). 



Like Apocynum, the milkweeds have long been 

 known to catch insects not adapted to fertilize their 

 flowers ; and irritable movements have several times 



