600 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIV. No. 619. 



Westminster Gazette in its account of the 

 British Association meeting : 



It is interesting to note the dangers to a scien- 

 tific institution directly under our bureaucracy 

 when Professor Oliver, in his address this morn- 

 ing to the botanical section, actually urges that 

 the British Museum botanical collections should 

 be transferred from the enlightened charge of the 

 independent trustees to Kew, which is under the 

 board of works. If government is to advance the 

 pursuit of scientific research by subsidies, it must 

 be content to entrust the disposal of these sub- 

 sidies to boards of independent men. 



It seems to ns that, of course unconsciously, 

 he has supplied a weighty argument in favor 

 of retaining the two herbaria, so that if at one 

 the ' dead Welwitschia ' should be ousted by 

 the 'live dandelion,' the former may yet be 

 retained in safe custody for the benefit of fu- 

 ture students. 



Much more might be said did space allow. 

 It would be possible, for instance, to show 

 more fully what has already been indicated — 

 namely, that Professor Oliver is hardly quali- 

 fied, either by knowledge or by position, to pro- 

 nounce judgment upon matters as to which 

 older if not wiser men have expressed very 

 different opinions. We think that, on reflec- 

 tion, he will regret that he introduced what 

 was felt by many who heard it to be an ele- 

 ment of discord into an assembly of botanists 

 from all parts of the country. ' He is evi- 

 dently,' as Bentham said of Naegeli, ' a man 

 of great ability and zeal, and a constant and 

 hard worker'; and we can only hope that in- 

 creasing years will enable him to take broader 

 views, and at least to recognize that his indi- 

 vidual standpoint is not the only one, and 

 need not necessarily be the best. 



James Britten. 



Note. — The death of Mr. C B. Clarke since 

 the above was written suggests the mention 

 of him as one who was in no sense a creation 

 of ' the schools,' and whose name will always 

 be associated with Kew, where he did most of 

 his work, and with the national herbarium, to 

 which he was a frequent and welcome visitor. 

 — The Journal of Botany. 



CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY. 

 THE MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW. 



The July, 1906, number of the Monthly 

 Weather Review (dated October 11) contains 

 the following papers : 



' The Waterspout seen off Cottage City, 

 Mass., on Vineyard Sound, on August 19, 

 1896,' by Professor F. H. Bigelow. This is 

 one of a series of papers on the thermo- 

 dynamics of the atmosphere, and is the most 

 complete discussion of a waterspout which we 

 have ever seen. Several excellent half-tones 

 are given. An early notice of this waterspout 

 and of some of the photographs here repro- 

 duced was included in these notes in Science, 

 N. S., Vol. IV., 1896, 718-719. Professor 

 Bigelow has made a careful study of all the 

 available accounts of this waterspout, and has 

 made calculations as to its dimensions. 



' Climatology of Porto Rico from 1867 to 

 1905, inclusive,' by W. H. Alexander. Mr. 

 Alexander has already contributed other 

 studies of West Indian climatology. The 

 present paper contains numerous tables of 

 climatological data which will be valuable to 

 any one who seeks information regarding 

 Porto Rican climate. 



' Snow Rollers,' by Wilson A. Bentley. Mr. 

 Bentley's name is well known in connection 

 with his remarkable studies of snow crystals 

 by micro-photography. The present article 

 deals with the formation of ' snow rollers ' at 

 Jericho, Vt., on January 18, 1906, and is illus- 

 trated by means of two half-tones. ' Snow 

 Rollers at Mount Pleasant, Mich.,' by Pro- 

 fessor R. D. Calkins, is another study of a 

 similar occurrence, at a different place. 



MAMMATO-CUMULUS CLOUDS. 



The September, 1906, number of the 

 Meteorologische Zeitschrift contains a study 

 of mammato-cumulus clouds by H. Osthoff, 

 with some illustrations reproduced from draw- 

 ings. In all, sixty-seven observations of this 

 peculiar cloud form were made by the writer, 

 the majority being in summer and during the 

 warmer hours. A rapid disappearance of the 

 cloud was noted as characteristic, the form 

 being a passing stage of an existing cloud. 



