324 Scientific Intelligence. 



during " convocation week," that is the week of Jan. 1st, 1903. 

 This raid-winter meeting is a decided change of policy, but it is 

 left for the future to decide whether the time of meeting shall 

 be permanently changed or whether there shall be two meetings 

 annually. 



2. British Association. — The meeting of the British Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science was held in Glasgow, Sept. 

 11 to 18. The presidential address was delivered by Prof. A. W. 

 Kucker (see Nature, Sept. 12). 



3. Catalogue of the African Plants collected by Dr. Friedrich 

 Wehoitsch in 1853-61. Vol. II, Part II, Cryptogamia, British 



Museum (Natural History), 1901. Pp. 261-565.— The final por- 

 tion of this work is especially valuable since it contains accounts 

 by no less than ten specialists of all the divisions of cryptogams 

 from a region where the lower plants had been seldom collected. 

 The groups most fully treated are the fresh water algae by W. & 

 G. S. West and the lichens by E. A. Wainio. It is stated that 

 the earliest collections of algae made in Africa are more extensive 

 and representative than any hitherto described.- Of the orders 

 of fresh water algae the Desmidiaceae and Myxophycae are best 

 represented. It is of interest to note the occurrence of JVosto- 

 chopsis lobatus Wood, first discovered in the United States, and 

 later found in South America. In looking over the list of fresh 

 water species from Africa, one finds a confirmation of the fact 

 that fresh water algae are more cosmopolitan in their range than 

 any other plants except perhaps the algae of brackish water. 

 The marine algae which were worked up by Miss E. S. Barton are, 

 as might have been expected, much less numerously represented, 

 only forty species being enumerated, and some of these were 

 collected at Madeira and the Cape Verde Islands. The lichens 

 include a large number of new species which are described in 

 detail. The fungi were determined by Miss A. L. Smith, and 

 include the species of Welwitsch previously described by Curry 

 and Lagerheim. Of the four Mycetozoa enumerated by Arthur 

 Lister, two were first found in the United States. The mosses 

 by Antony Gepp, and the hepatics by F. Stephani include a 

 number of new species, and the vascular cryptogams are given by 

 W. Carruthers with the description of but one new species. 

 There is also a general index of both volumes of the catalogue. 



w. G. F. 



4. Leitfaden der Wetterkunde, gem einv erst dndlich bearbeitet ; 

 von Dr. R. Bornstein. Pp. 181 with 17 plates and numerous 

 text figures. Braunschweig, 1901 (Fr. Vieweg u. Sohn). — The 

 number of those interested in the science of weather predictions 

 and desirous of having an intelligent knowledge of the meteoro- 

 logical principles upon which they are based has increased very 

 largely in recent years in consequence of the admirable work 

 done by the various Government Bureaus. To thern, as also 

 indeed to those who have already had a training in this branch 

 of science, the author's concise and systematic treatment of the 

 subject will be of great value. He discusses all the topics 



