848 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XX. No. 520. 



Meteorological Society, October, 1904, Mr. A. 

 L. Rotch, of Blue Hill Observatory, describes 

 an instrument for determining the true direc- 

 tion and velocity of the wind at sea, devised 

 by himself and constructed by Casella, of 

 ].ondon. With this instrument the angles of 

 the apparent and true v^ind relative to the 

 ship are measured directly, and by utilizing 

 the ship's course and speed as a base, absolute 

 directions and velocities of both winds are 

 immediately ascertained. 



GENERAL CIRCULATION OF THE ATMOSPHERE. 



.The report by Hildebrandsson, to the In- 

 ternational Meteorological Committee, on the 

 international cloud observations, the principal 

 conclusions in which were some months ago 

 referred to in these ' Notes,' is published in 

 English in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal 

 Meteorological Society, Vol. 5XX., October, 

 1904. This study has attracted much atten- 

 tion because of the new views advanced in it 

 concerning the general circulation of the at- 

 mosphere, and it is well to have it accessible 

 to a larger number of readers than was the 

 case with the original publication in French. 



kite-flying at SEA. 



During the past summer, the Prince of 

 Monaco has been investigating the meteorol- 

 ogy of the free air in the northeast trade 

 wind latitudes. Kites have been flown from 

 the yacht Princess Alice, and an altitude of 

 nearly 17,000 feet was attained on one occa- 

 sion. In this kite work. Dr. Hergesell was 

 actively interested and he accompanied the 

 expedition, but Americans will recall that the 

 first suggestion concerning the use of kites 

 for exploring the atmosphere over the oceans 

 was made by Mr. A. L. Eotch, of Blue Hill 

 Observatory. 



METEOROLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF SAXONY. 



The 'Jahrbuch' of the Eoyal Meteorolog- 

 ical Institute of Saxony for 1900, compiled by 

 Dr. Paul Schreiber, contains an elaborate 

 critical discussion of the pressure observations 

 made in Saxony between 1866 and 1900, as 

 well as the meteorological summary for the 

 year 1900, with special discussions of evapora- 

 tion measurements, thunderstorms and depth 

 of snowfall. E. DeC. Ward. 



BOTANICAL NOTES. 



studies in PLANT FECUNDATION. 



A VERY useful compilation representing the 

 present state of our knowledge of the process 

 of fecundation in plants has recently appeared 

 from the hand of Professor D. H. Mottier in 

 one of the publications (No. 15) of the Car- 

 negie Institution of Washington, under the 

 title of ' Fecundation in Plants.' It is a 

 thick octavo pamphlet of nearly two hundred 

 pages, with seventy-five text illustrations. 

 The author's purpose is well stated in the 

 preface to be ' to present the subject of 

 fecundation in the vegetable kingdom by the 

 discussion of concrete cases, selecting from the 

 great groups of plants certain typical repre- 

 sentatives in which the sexual process seems 

 to have been most thoroughly investigated.' 

 In carrying out this purpose he devotes an 

 introductory chapter of sixty pages to the dis- 

 cussion of typical problems of nuclear division 

 and cell formation, especially in spore mother- 

 cells, closing the chapter with an interesting 

 ten-page discussion of the significance of the 

 sexual process. In the latter the author is 

 very emphatic in his disbelief in a chemical 

 theory of fecundation. " Although the de- 

 velopment of a rudimentary embryo induced 

 by artificial means may proceed in the same 

 manner as the product of normal fecundation, 

 yet the artificial stimulus can not be looked 

 upon as being equivalent to the sexual process. 

 In the case of the former, we are dealing with 

 a stimulus which merely starts growth, but 

 a mature individual is never developed. The 

 sting of an insect or some similar stimulus 

 may call forth a growth in a leaf of an oak 

 which results in a gall, a local and limited 

 growth, but never in an oak tree, and we can 

 not for one moment think of comparing such 

 a stimulus to a sexual process." And again, 

 ' The author does not agree with those who 

 regard the sexual process merely as a restora- 

 tion to the egg of the power of growth and 

 division.' 



The second chapter includes the discussion 

 of typical cases of fecundation in which motile 

 isogametes are concerned, the examples se- 

 lected being Vloihrix, Hydrodictyon and 

 Ectocarpus. Here he shows ' that fecundation 



