August 2, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



131 



this island, including 1,320 plants out of 

 about 1,800 in the whole State, a little care 

 and skill would soon convert these areas 

 into botanical museums without destroy- 

 ing their rugged wildness. In this re- 

 spect a word maj' not be amiss concern- 

 ing the advanced and most practical ideas 

 of what should constitute a park. The 

 days of gravel walks, iron benches and 

 notices to ' keep off the grass ' have passed, 

 while landscape gardening has in the hands 

 of masters of the art become largely the 

 preservation of nature rather than sup- 

 planting it with forced growths. Asphalt 

 drives have yielded to woodland roads, 

 while paths wind through the valleys and 

 between the trees instead of the trees bor- 

 dering paths laid out in geometrical lines 

 and curves. One of the oldest pai'ks in 

 Chicago is being modified from its conven- 

 tional character and devoted to the display 

 of native wild plants and flpwers that grow 

 or have grown within twenty-five miles of 

 the city." 



GENERAL. 



Steps are being taken toward the erection 

 of memorials in honor of Huxley. The 

 Dean of Westminster has signified his 

 willingness that a tablet be placed in the 

 Abbey. It is proposed to establish at 

 Charing-cross Hospital Medical School, of 

 which Mr. Huxley was a student, an an- 

 nual lecture and a science scholarship and 

 medal. It is also suggested that a statue 

 of the deceased naturalist should be placed 

 in the great hall of the Museum of Natural 

 History at South Kensington, beside those 

 of Darwin and Owen. 



The American Naturalist reports an address 

 by Mr. Hedley on the faunal regions of 

 Australia given before the Adelaide meet- 

 ing of the Australian Association for the 

 Advancement of Science. Mr. Hedley 

 concludes that "superimposed, one above 

 another, may be distinguished three divis- 



ions of Australian life. The earliest is the 

 Autochthonian. Possiblj^ this arrived from 

 the Austro-Malayan islands in or before the 

 Cretaceous era and spread over the whole 

 of Australia. The next is the Euronotian. 

 Probably this reached Tasmania fi-om South 

 America, not later than the Miocene epoch; 

 many of the original inhabitants, pai-ticu- 

 larly on the east coast, probably disappeared 

 before the invaders. Thirdly, a contingent 

 of Papuan forms seized on the Queensland 

 coast, late in the Tertiary, and likewise 

 largely exterminated their predecessors." 



Pkofessoe Swaetz, Baron von Miiller and 

 Professor Engelmann have been elected 

 correspondents of the Paris Academy of 

 Sciences. 



The Department of Agriculture has ob- 

 tained from Peru samples of a giant species 

 of maize. The size of the grains is four 

 times as large as those of the species grown 

 in the United States. The plant is very 

 prolific and it is hoped that it will be possi- 

 ble to introduce it into America. Profes- 

 sor E. L. Sturtevant is making a study of 

 this cereal, to which the name of ' Zea 

 amylacse ' has been given, with a view to 

 finding out how it may be cultivated most 

 advantageously . 



Extensive studies of the upper atmos- 

 phere have been planned by Professor A. 

 McAdie, of the Weather Bureau, by the 

 means of flj^ing kites. Ten kites, the two 

 leaders measuring six feet high by seven 

 wide and eight others following five feet 

 high by six feet wide, will be flown, if possi- 

 ble, to the bight of two miles. It is hoped, 

 by the means of these experiments and 

 others which will follow them, to make pos- 

 sible the drawing of a map of the atmos- 

 phere in which temperature and baromet- 

 ric curves, electric currents, etc., will be 

 located for various parts of the country and 

 for different seasons of the year. The kites 

 will be kept in the air twelve hours, if possi- 

 ble. In order that accurate temperature 



