July 29, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



131 



■of sis chapters which have been in the posses- 

 sion of the Geological Society since 1856. The 

 rest of the manuscript cannot be found, but 

 these chapters contain many interesting obser- 

 vations. 



The Ninth Eeport of the Missouri Botanical 

 Oarden contains several short papers by Pro- 

 fessor Trelease. One on Florida Epidendriims 

 shows that the plant of the Florida flora which 

 has long been known as Epidendrum venosum is 

 in reality E. Tampense, a species quite different 

 from the true Mexican venosum. A colored plate 

 of Tampense and a half-tone from a photograph 

 of venosum render the distinctions quite evi- 

 dent. A second paper on the common species 

 of Apocynum calls attention to the charac- 

 teristic difference in the habit of growth and 

 position of the leaves of the common Dog- 

 banes, Apocynum androsceinifolium and A. can- 

 nabinum, which is well shown in two half-tones. 

 A ' new palm fungus ' is a short note con- 

 cerning a palm disease which has proved quite 

 destructive in Nebraska, and which is described 

 as new, under the name Exosporium palmivorum. 

 In a fourth paper Professor Trelease describes 

 and figures a magnificent specimen of Yucca 

 gigantea, which he found in cultivation in one 

 of the gardens of the Azores, some years since, 

 and also notes certain changes in nomenclature 

 of Yuccas, bearing upon his earlier studies of 

 these interesting plants. A proliferous inflor- 

 escence of Y. constricta collected in New Mexico, 

 by Miss Mulford, is also described and illus- 

 trated by a half-tone engraving. 



At a special meeting of the Royal Geograph- 

 ical Society, London, on June 27th, Professor 

 Elisee Eeclus brought forward his scheme for 

 the construction and erection of a great terres- 

 trial globe. According to the report in the 

 London Times he began with a reference to the 

 paramount importance which perfect accuracy 

 had assumed in the knowledge of our planet ; 

 he pointed out that truthful representation of 

 a fragment of a sphere was impossible on a 

 plane surface. There was only one way of 

 representing truly the surface of the earth ; a 

 sphere or fragment of a sphere must be repro- 

 duced by another sphere or fragment of a sphere. 

 That was why he had such an intense desire to 



see scientific opinion give this mode of plane- 

 tary representation much greater attention than 

 heretofore. Spherography, although the most 

 important department of geography, had not 

 kept pace with cartography, in which immense 

 progress had been made, and he presumed it 

 would be a real revolution when it had taken 

 in science and practice the paramount place it 

 deserved. Even scientific people were not yet 

 sufiiciently convinced of the absolute necessity 

 of studying geography on images of our planet 

 reduced to a given scale with the real propor- 

 tions. If the scale of the globe were very small 

 — one to ten or twenty millions, for example — 

 the surface had to be kept exactly even, pol- 

 ished, so to say, because the proportional size 

 of highlands and mountains could not be repre- 

 sented. In larger spheres another element of 

 truth and beauty was added in that the actual 

 relief appeared on the curvature of the model. 

 The system of exaggerating altitudes was 

 utterly bad, contrary to real science, and to be 

 discouraged by all geographers having respect 

 for Nature and her laws. But as soon as the 

 sphere was large enough to show at least one- 

 millionth part of the real proportions then the 

 heights and depths as well as the planimetric 

 dimensions should be represented on that scale. 

 On a large globe on the scale of 1 : 100,000, 

 rugosities of the surface might be finely shown, 

 even hillocks 50 meters in height. Such repre- 

 sentation of ordinary heights would afford an 

 unexpected advantage by furnishing a standard 

 of comparison, since those looking at a relief 

 would easily estimate the real dimensions of a 

 country by the sight of the ridges and moun- 

 tains that diversified the surface. In conclu- 

 sion Professor Eeclus said the moment had 

 come for a grander representation of the earth 

 than had hitherto been made, for the erection 

 of a model globe which would be as scientific- 

 ally accurate as possible and which, being 

 kept continually under correction, would be- 

 come not only a thing most beautiful to look 

 at, but also a standard study for travellers and 

 geographers. 



An explosion of acetylene gas occurred on 

 July 9th at the metal works of Messrs. Goliasch 

 & Co., Berlin. A foreman was killed and 

 another man was slightly injured. 



