242 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 
results of clerical errors in drawing up the list. The only other 
paper dealing strictly with astronomy is Mr. Tebbutt’s deter- 
mination of the orbit of the comet of 1881. A paper by the 
Rev. P. MacPherson on the “Astronomy of the Australian 
Aborigines,” is chiefly of interest to the student of Anthropology. 
The coincidence of certain terms used by the Australians with 
others of Aryan origin is pointed out, and in regard to one root 
argutl, some ground exists for believing that the root is the same 
as the Latin aguz/a. Without attempting to found any theory 
on such a slender basis, the author concludes that “ the root may 
take its place with such others as have been pointed out from 
time to time, and some future inquirer, on a wider basis of in- 
duction, may be in a position to decide how far such words are 
mere coincidences, or how far they prove that the ancestors of 
the aborigines were one with those whose descendants have spread 
over Asia and Europe.” 
Mr. W. E. Abbott’s “Notes of a Journey on the Darling” 
form probably the most interesting reading in the journal, as they 
are those of an observant traveller. His remarks on the water- 
supply of the Western Plains are very valuable, as they refer to 
a matter which is of the most vital importance to the interior of 
Australia. The theory advanced for the general dryness of 
these plains is that there are two water-systems, “one on the 
surface of the land, carrying away to the sea a certain part of 
the annual rainfall, and one underground, possibly an ancient 
river system, carrying off by far the larger portion.” “ When 
Mr. Russell first put forward the theory. of an underground 
drainage system to explain the great disparity between the 
rainfall in the watershed of the Darling and the outflow of that 
river, one of the difficulties which occurred to me was that if 
such a thing were in existence the surface rivers crossing the 
underground channels in all directions would in many places 
cut through the clay beds and form communications with the 
underground water, so that strong springs would be numerous 
in the Darling and its tributaries ; but, when one has examined 
the Darling and its tributaries, this difficulty disappears at once. 
The clay soil, which is almost perfectly impervious to water, has 
been deposited evenly over the whole country. There is no 
tilting up of the strata anywhere that I have seen which would 
cause the rivers to cut across and expose the edges, and the 
rivers themselves are little better than shallow gutters cut in 
the clay.” Mr. Abbott recommends the use of tube-wells to 
obviate the influx of mud and sand which so often chokes open _ 
wells in this part of Australia. 
Mr. W. A. Dixon contributes a short paper “On the inorganic 
constituents of some epiphytic ferns,” which throws a good deal 
of light on the sources from whence these aerial-rooted plants 
obtain the mineral matter present in their food. 
The most elaborate paper in the volume is a “ Census of the 
genera of plants hitherto known as indigenous to Australia,” by 
Baron Ferd. von Mueller. To the non-botanical reader this will 
