August 21, 1885.] 



SCIENCE. 



157 



wants of gardeners, agriculturists, and ama- 

 teurs, for whom it is intended ; but it may well 

 be questioned whether the photographs convey- 

 so good an idea of the subject as can be ob- 

 tained from the almost numberless wood-cuts, 

 and other illustrations in the text-books of 

 plant-diseases. Naturally, the best figures are 

 those which represent the teleutospores ; but 

 even these are no better than most of the wood- 

 cuts with which the botanical public is alread}^ 

 sufficiently familiar ; and the figures giving the 

 gross appearances of the fungi, both in their 

 uredo and aecidial conditions, are almost 

 worthless, although the original preparations 

 were evidently excellent. However valuable 

 photography may be in representing minute 

 forms like bacteria, or certain structures which 

 can be seen with verj' low powers, it is evi- 

 dently not adapted to those plants which, like 

 ordinary- moulds, rusts, etc., require a moder- 

 ately high power. The execution of the plates 

 of the atlas is as good as that of any similar 

 work which we have seen ; but, judging by the 

 result, it would seem to be better to abandon 

 photography altogether in such cases. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



— The Kongo conference makes its appearance in 

 all the geographical periodicals, generally accompa- 

 nied by a map of greater or less value. We shall 

 ourselves publish a map in our next issue. Besides 

 innumerable lectures and addresses, the republication 

 of the coticiusions of the international commission 

 has been made by nearly every geographical periodi- 

 cal of note. Karl Winter of Heidelberg has just is- 

 sued a neat pamphlet of a hundred and tvv^enty pages, 

 in which the history and final agreement, forming one 

 of the most remarkable results of modern civilization, 

 are set forth clearly and briefly by C. A. Patzig, with 

 the title, ' Die afrikanische konferenz und der Congo- 

 staat.' 



— The mittheilungen of the Yereins fin- erdkunde 

 zu Halle an der Saale for 1884 is largely devoted to 

 Thuringia. Rackwitz has an anthropological article 

 illustrated by an interesting chart of the distribution 

 of antiquities, customs, boi-ndaries of dialect, etc.; 

 Reischel, a discussion on the orohydrograpby of the 

 central Thuringian basin; Edler discourses on sun- 

 spots; and David Brauns furnishes an interesting 

 paper on the distribution of vertebrates in Japan. 



— The Argentine expeditions into Patagonia have 

 raised the credit of that country, which has long 

 been supposed arid and sterile. The report of Gen. 

 Yillejas, and that of Col. Roa who has travelled 

 more than five hundred leagues in Patagonia, affirm 

 that the region near the base of the mountains is rich, 

 not only in metals and minerals, but in fertile valleys 



which nestle between spurs of the range. With 

 steam-transportation between the mountains and the 

 coast, it is afiirmed that rapid growth of population 

 might be expected, and prosperous communities be 

 established. 



— The expedition of Dr. Bunge of the Lena inter- 

 national station had not been heard from for some 

 time, and some anxiety was felt for its safety. A re- 

 cent telegram announces its safe arrival at Yakutsk. 



— Sibiriakoff, the wealthy Russian merchant, well 

 known as the friend and patron of Xordenskiold, has 

 himself made an interesting journey during the sum- 

 mer of 1884. The details of it are only now made 

 public, as news travels slowly in those regions. He 

 ascended the Petchora to Oranets, then crossed the 

 Ural to the Sigva or Whitefish River, which joins the 

 Sosva, an affluent of the Obi. The traveller reached 

 Shikurik Sept. 21, and Tobolsk Oct. 18. It is demon- 

 strated by this journey, that a trade route by which 

 goods can be carried in summer is practically open in 

 this direction, a matter of great commercial impor- 

 tance to Siberia. 



— J. Chaffaujon has been engaged in exploring the 

 region of the Orinoco, and has already rectified many 

 errors of the charts of its course. He has started 

 from Bolivar, Yenezuela, on another journey, which 

 is expected to take him into unknown districts of its 

 head-waters, 



— A work interesting to the philologist, geographer, 

 and anthropologist, is that of I'abbe Pierre Bouche on 

 the slave coast and Dahomey. The author spent 

 seven years among the black barbarians of this region, 

 and became familiar with their vices and virtues. 

 It is furnished with a map, and issued by Plon at 

 Paris. The same firm are publishing; a large number 

 of geographical or partly geographical works at very 

 modest prices. Among these may be noted a transla- 

 tion of Gilder's 'Rodgers' expedition,' Clapin's 'Le 

 Canada,' and Count Raymond de Dalnias' ' Les Ja- 

 ponais,' which has had a very favorable reception. A 

 life of Francois Garnier, the French Cortez of An- 

 nara, has been published by Dreyfous. Recent events 

 in Tonkin have recalled his marvellous career and 

 romantic death, which, embodied in a novel, would 

 have been criticised as too improbable for literary 

 art. 



— Further particulars of the fate of the African ex- 

 plorer, Richard Boehm, have been received in Ger- 

 many. He died of fever, caused by over-anxiety and 

 fatigue, on the 27tli of March, 1884. His camp was 

 in southern Urna, — three days' journey from Lake 

 Upamba, recently discovered by him and Reichardt. 

 After the death of his companion, Reichardt tried to 

 go on alone to the sources of the Lualaba, but was 

 obliged finally to fight his way back. The letter just 

 received from him is dated from Karema on Feb. 20 

 of this year. 



— A telegram received at Berlin from Alexandria 

 announces that the African travellers. Dr. Juncker 

 and Casati, have arrived at Lado, an Egyptian mill- 



