PRINCIPAL J. L. THOMPSON, of the Hawkesbury Agricultural College, New South Wales, has no doubt that the climate and much of the soil of Australia are well suited for the culture of the olive. All that is needed, he thinks, is an adequate supply of labour. He himself has been very successful in preserving green olives; and in a paper on the subject in the August number of the Agricultural Gazette of New South Wales he gives the following account of the system adopted. The olives are very carefully picked from the trees when about full grown, but perfectly green. They should be handled like eggs. If they are braised in any way, they will become black and decompose. In the green state, olives contain gallic acid, which gives them an acrid taste. To remove this they are first of all steeped in alkaline water, made either of wood ashes, lime water, or washing soda; of the latter, about three or four ounces to the gallon of water. As soon as the lye has penetrated through the pulp, which is usually in from eight to ten hours, they are put into clean water and steeped until all acrid and alkaline taste has been removed. During that time the water is changed every day. They are then put into brine, composed of one pound of salt to each gallon of water, and kept carefully covered with a thick linen cloth, for if exposed to the air they will turn black. They are finally put up in air-tight jars.

THE Meteorological Department of the Government of India has published Part IV. of **Cyclone Memoirs," being an inquiry into the nature and course of storms in the Arabian Sea, and a catalogue and brief history of all recorded cyclones in that sea from 1648 to 1889. The work, which has been prepared by Mr. W. L. Dallas, chiefly for the use of mariners navigating those parts, will no doubt be of considerable use to them, as

hitherto there were no track charts of the storms in the Arabian Sea for the different months. For the majority of the storms quoted the available materials are admittedly very scanty; nevertheless, the author has been able to draw some useful conclusions from them, with reference to the general behaviour of the storms. The paper is divided into two parts-the first gives the details of each of fifty-four storms in chronological order, the second treats of their geographical distribution and movements according to months and seasons, and the discussion is followed by charts showing the tracks of the storms in the different months. The cyclones are formed on the northern limits of the south-west monsoon; when the northern limits of the monsoon reach the land, and also when the north-east monsoon extends from Asia to the equator, which is the case from December to March, no cyclones are formed over the Arabian Sea. The barometric fall is gradual and equal on all sides, except near the centre, and a depression of 0.25 inch below the average is indicative of the existence of a cyclone in the neighbourhood. When the storms are in confined waters they may burst with great suddenness, but in other cases strong winds are felt for several hundred miles around the centre. The northern parts of the Arabian Sea are liable, during the prevalence of the north-east monsoon, to be disturbed by small cyclonic storms descending from the highlands of Persia and Beluchistan, but the whole of the south-west of the Arabian Sea, though liable to south-west gales during the summer monsoon, and to strong north-east winds during the winter monsoon, is free from cyclones.

DR. STIRLING'S Notoryctes typhlops, the lately discovered Australian animal, to which we have repeatedly called attention, forms the subject of an interesting note in the "Hand List of Australian Mammals," by J. Douglas Ogilby, an advance copy of a portion of which has been forwarded to us. The conclusion at which Mr. Ogilby has arrived, after an exhaustive study of Dr. Stirling's pamphlet, is that in this ani nal we have at last obtained a definite connecting link between the Monotremes and the Marsupials. At the present stage of our know.

ledge it would, he thinks, be presumptuous to class Notoryctes among the Monotremes proper, although several leading naturalists incline to the opinion that its affinities are closer to these mammals than to the Marsupials. He prefers for the present to look upon it as an aberrant Polyprotodont.

Journal which is to contain, among other things, contributions regarding newly discovered flora and fauna of the island, and articles dealing with botany and kindred sciences. Four parts will be published in the year. In this first number there formation of some Jamaica Lepidoptera. He points out that, are excellent notes, by Mr. T. D. A. Cockerell, on the transalthough many species of butterflies and moths have been described from Jamaica, the transformations of very few are

THE Institute of Jamaica has isued the first number of a

known.

DR. A. H. POST, the well-known anthropologist, describing in this week's Globus various marriage customs, refers to a strange sort of symbolical marriage which is supposed to have originated in India. It is a marriage with trees, plants animals, or inanimate objects. If anyone proposes to enter upon a union which is not in accordance with traditional ideas, it is believed that the ill-luck which is sure to follow may be iaverted by a marriage of this kind, the evil consequences being borne by the object chosen. In various regions a girl must not marry before her elder sisters, but in some parts of Southern India the difficulty is overcome by the eldest daughter marrying the branch of a tree. Then the wedding of the second daughter may safely be celebrated. Dr. Post gives several other instances, which are likely to be new to many students of anthropology.

ACCORDING to an official French Report, the copper mines of French Congo are likely to prove of considerable importance. They lie in the district around the sources of the Ludima-Niadi, about two days' journey south of Stéphanieville. The ore is malachite, which is brought to the surface by about 350 negroes. Their methods of work are extremely simple. They reach the malachite by digging out, with implements of hard wood, holes or shafts three feet wide and twice as deep. The malachite is broken on the ground, and afterwards, when pulverized, put into a furnace on a tray with charcoal, on which bellows are made to play. In due time the tray is removed by means of pieces of bamboo, and the metal is poured into sand moulds. The entire district is said to be rich in copper, and masses of malachite are frequently found in the Ludima.

MR. ERNESTE. THOMPSON, of Toronto, contributes to the new volume of the Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum (vol. xiii.) a valuable study of the birds of Manitoba. He gives an enthusiastic description of the music of prairie larks, large numbers of which, at dawn, may be heard in the spring to "burst all together into a splendid explosion of song, pouring out their rich, strong voices from every little height and perch, singing with all their might." They sing all day, and at night joyously hail the moon. As their notes become more complicated, the most casual observer cannot fail to perceive "that the love-fires are kindling, and that each musician is striving to the utmost of his powers to surpass all rivals and win the lady lark of his choice." "On one occasion," says Mr. Thompson, “as I lay in hiding near a fence, three larks came skimming over the plain. They alighted within a few yards of me, and two of them burst into song, sometimes singing together and sometimes alternately, but the third was silent. When at last they flew up, I noticed that the silent one and one of the singers kept together. I had been witness to a musical tournament, and the victor had won his bride."

ANOTHER of the many birds of Manitoba about which Mr. Thompson has something interesting to say is the crane.

The

first intimation of its advent in the spring is usually a loud trumpeting or croaking that seems to shake the air for miles. But the cranes themselves, generally in pairs, soon begin to be seen. Their food at that season is chiefly rose-pips, in gathering which they stalk over the bare plains. At first little can be noted but their excessive wariness, but as the warmer weather quickens their feeling, they often "so far forget their dignity as to wheel about and dance, flapping their wings and shouting as they honour their partners,' and in various ways contrive to exhibit an extraordinary combination of awkwardness and agility." This dance Mr. Thompson has seen only during the pairing season.

REFERRING to the question "whether squirrels are torpid in winter," Mr. C. Fitzgerald writes in the December number of the Zoologist that, during many winters passed in the backwoods of North America, he has seen squirrels frisking among the trees in the coldest weather. On bright sunny days especially they delight in chasing each other from tree to tree among the evergreens, and cover the snow with their tracks. The young of the ordinary red squirrel are born early in the spring. The "Chipmunks," or little striped ground squirrels, lay up in the autumn a store of provisions of grains, nuts, &c., for winter, and on fine days may be seen sunning themselves. Mr. Fitzgerald has on several occasions come across their hoards, and once saw two large bucketsful of shelled buckwheat taken from the hollow of an old birch tree that the woodmen had chopped down on the edge of a clearing which had been cropped the previous summer with that grain.

AT the meeting of the Linnean Society of New South Wales on October 28, the fifth part of Mr. E. Meyrick's "Revision of Australian Lepidoptera" was read. This paper practically concludes the Australian Geometrina, except in so far as future discoveries may produce fresh material. One hundred and twelve species are included, of which forty-seven are described

as new.

MR. CARL LUMHOLTZ contributes to the current Bulletin of the American Geographical Society a very interesting report on his explorations in Northern Mexico. The most remarkable caves he met with were at the head of the Piedras Verdes River, 6850 feet above sea-level. These caves contain groups of deserted houses or small villages, and the houses are splendidly made of porphyry pulp, and show that the inhabitants had attained a comparatively high culture. The dwellings were sometimes three stories in height, with small windows, and doors made in the form of a cross; and occasionally there were stone staircases. The caves, which number about fifty in a stretch of twenty miles, are from 100 to 200 feet above the bottom of the cañon, and the largest is some fifty feet high. One series of them, on the shady side of the cañon, had been reserved for burial-places. Here, at a depth of three feet, Mr. Lumholtz dug out a number of bodies in a wonderful state of preservation, the saltpetre which is mixed with the disintegrated rock having for centuries preserved them, making them look like mummies. Several had their features, hair, and eyebrows perfect, and these were photographed. The hair is very slightly wavy, and softer than that of the ordinary Indian, almost silky in fact. They were small people, and reminded Mr. Lumholtz strikingly of the present Moqui village Indians. The Moquis, like the Zuñis, have a tradition that they came from the south. The same district abounds in mounds, some of which are very large. Mr. Lumholtz thinks that an explorer might find in these mounds a fine field for investigation. With his own limited force of men he was not able to make as extensive excavations as he wished to make; but still, a good deal of work was done. He unearthed a great many polished stone implements, about 300 jars, most of them

decorated, and some in very odd shapes, and several specimens of a big stone wheel, and a stone cylinder fitting into it, probably used for some sort of game. The mounds contain houses, and, as usual, most of the relics are found near the dead bodies, which are always buried under the floor, partly under the wall. These people must have been there before the arrival of the cave and cliff dwellers, but who they were it would not yet be safe to say.

MESSRS. T. COOKE AND SONS, of Buckingham Works, York, have issued a new illustrated catalogue of telescopes, surveying and other optical instruments.

MESSRS. GURNEY AND JACKSON (Mr. Van Voorst's successors) hope to have ready for publication by the end of this year the first volume of "A Synonymic Catalogue of LepidopteraHeterocera," which Mr. W. F. Kirby, of the Zoological Department, British Museum, has been for some time engaged upon.

SIR J. D. HOOKER'S well-known book of travels, "Himalayan Journals," has been reprinted in the Minerva Library series (Ward, Lock, Bowden, and Co.). It is reprinted from the first (unabridged) edition, with the omission of some of the appendices, which were only of limited general interest. Murray has supplied copies of the original woodcuts, many of them from drawings by the author.

Mr.

A NEW Review, which will be partly scientific, is about to be issued at Rome. It is to be published twice in the month, and will be entitled Natura ed Arte.

THE admirable Harveian Oration recently delivered by Dr. W. H. Dickinson has just been published by Messrs. Longmans, Green, and Co.

PART 9 of Cassell and Co.'s " Universal Atlas" has just been issued. It contains a map of the Balkan Peninsula, another of China and Japan, and one of Japan alone, the first occupying a double page.

Two communications upon phosphides of boron have been published by M. Moissan and M. Besson respectively in the most recent numbers of the Comptes rendus. M. Moissan has obtained two compounds of phosphorus and boron of the composition PB and P3B, by the reduction of the new compound PBI, recently prepared by him (comp. NATURE, vol. xlv. p. 67) in a current of hydrogen gas. M. Besson, however, in July of this year published a note upon one of these compounds, PB, which he obtained by heating the compound BBг3. PH3 to the temperature of 300° C, and in the current number of the Comptes rendus calls M. Moissan's attention to the fact.

The-e com

pounds of boron and phosphorus appear to be somewhat remarkable substances, and the following is a brief account of their mode of preparation and properties, as described by Messrs. Moissan and Besson. The curious compound PBI, is a substance crystallizing in vacuo in beautiful bright red crystals. When these crystals are heated in a current of dry hydrogen to a temperature of 450°-500°, three things happen: a small portion of the compound volatilizes unchanged, and forms an annular red deposit upon the cooler part of the tube; another portion loses iodine and yields a second sublimate, yellow in colour, of the other compound of phosphorus, boron and iodine, (PBI), prepared by M. Moissan; the remainder of the PBI, becomes converted in situ into the normal phosphide of boron, PB. The heating of the PBI, is best effected in a U-shaped tube immersed in a bath of fused nitre. After the reduction is completed as far as possible, which is determined by the cessation of the evolution of vapour of hydriodic acid, the U-tube is removed from the bath, and the residual phosphide extracted, powdered rapidly, and again placed in the tube, and the reduction continued for a short time longer, in order to insure the removal of the last

traces of iodine. The phosphide of boron thus obtained is a brown powder, very light in texture, and insoluble in every solvent which has yet been tried. In contact with oxygen the compound ignites at a temperature about 200°, and burns with a very brilliant flame, forming boric and phosphoric anhydrides. With chlorine gas it inflames at the ordinary temperature, producing boron trichloride and phosphorus pentachloride. Vapour of sulphur converts it into sulphides of boron and phosphorus. When thrown into a little fused nitre instant incandescence and deflagration occur. Its behaviour with nitric acid is characteristic; it immediately becomes incandescent, and moves rapidly to and fro over the surface of the acid, all the while burning with a most dazzling flame. It reduces concentrated sulphuric acid to sulphur dioxide. Fused potash decomposes it with evolution of phosphoretted hydrogen and formation of potassium borate. Sodium or potassium, in an atmosphere of hydrogen, react upon warming with great energy, the mass becoming whitehot. Magnesium, heated with the phosphide to 500°, also reacts with incandescence. Even silver and copper react violently upon heating with phosphide of boron. Vapour of water decomposes it at 400°, with production of boric acid and phosphoretted hydrogen. Heated to 300° in ammonia gas it takes fire, and burns with formation of nitride of boron and deposition of phosphorus.

THE second compound of boron and phosphorus, P ̧Ð1⁄2, was obtained by M. Moissan by heating the compound PB just described in a current of hydrogen to a temperature near 1000°. Under these circumstances a portion of the phosphorus is eliminated, and condenses in drops in the colder part of the tube, leaving the PB, in the form of a light brown powder, which is distinguished from the normal phosphide BP by its indifference to chlorine and nitric acid. It is much more stable than the normal phosphide, but is, like the latter compound, decomposed with incandescence by fused nitre.

THE additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the past week include a Formosan Fruit Bat (Pteropus formosus) from Formosa, presented by Mr. Thomas Perkins, F.Z.S.; a Paragonian Cavy (Dolichotis patachonica) from Patagonia, presented by Mr. H. H. Sharland, F.Z.S.; a Blotched Genet (Genetta tigrina) from South Africa, presented by Mr. Edmund R. Boyle; a Grey Ichneumon (Herpestes griseus) from India, presented by Mr. G. F. Hawker; a Little Grebe (Tachybaptes fluviatilis), British, presented by Mr. T. E. Gunn; a Tuatera Lizard (Sphenodon punctatus) from New Zealand, presented by Mr. W. King; a Brush-tailed Kangaroo (Petrogale penicillata) from New South Wales, purchased; three Carpet Snakes (Morelia variegata) from New South Wales, received in exchange.

OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN.

THE SECULAR ACCELERATION OF THE MOON AND THE LENGTH OF THE SIDEREAL DAY.-Laplace showed that the secular diminution of the eccentricity of the earth's orbit ought to produce in the longitude of the moon a term proportional to the square of the time, and which he determined as + 10", where t is expressed in centuries. Adams and Delaunay have reduced this term to + 6" 11. From a discussion of eclipses Airy concluded that the coefficient of acceleration is as much as 12" or 13; and accepting this, the question arises as to the cause, other than that indicated by Laplace, which will account for the difference of 6". This forms the subject of a paper by M. Tisserand in Comptes rendus, No. 20, 1891. Prof. Darwin found that the tidal action between the earth and the moon was sufficient to furnish an apparent acceleration equivalent to the required complement. The accompanying decrease in the earth's rotational velocity produces an apparent acceleration of 3" 8/2 in the case of Mercury, an amount which may make the longitude of the planet vary by as much as 15" in a couple of hundred

years. Since the observed transits of Mercury extend over more than two centuries, M. Tisserand has discussed them with the idea of determining whether the term 3" 8 is really indicated by them. He finds, however, that the extreme transits are not so well represented with the new term as without it, although the difference is not very great. This result, therefore, is unfavourable to the idea as to the variability of the sidereal day, or at least to a variation sufficient to reconcile the result of Airy's research with the calculations of Adams and Delaunay. This being so, it is concluded that the increase in the length of the day, produced by tidal action, has nearly the same value as the diminution which results from the contraction of the earth caused by secular cooling, and that, on account of the compensating action of the two effects, the length of the sidereal day remains very nearly invariable.

STATE OF SOLAR ACTIVITY.-Prof. Tacchini gives, in Comptes rendus for November 30, a résumé of solar observations made at the Royal Observatory of the Roman College during July, August, and September of this year. The number of days of observation were 31 in July, 31 in August, and 19 in September, and the results obtained are as follows:Relative frequency Relative magnitude

:

The number of prominences recorded is greater than during the preceding three months. The highest prominence (142") was observed in August.

OBSERVATIONS OF CEPHEI.-Mr. J. E. Gore made some observations of the variable star u Cephei, the “ garnet star" of Sir William Herschel, between January 1888 and December 1890, which show that the variation of light is very irregular, and that the star sometimes remains for several months with little or no perceptible change of magnitude (Proc. Royal Irish Acad., January 26, 1891).

Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 3067, contains an account of the investigation, carried out by Herr Dr. Walter Wislicenus on the "Influence of Ring and Disk Blinds in Micrometic Measurements," in order to account for the following phenomenon. If one lifts a transit off its pillars and places it so that it does not interfere with the line of sight of the collimators, and then brings the central wires of each collimator exactly in coincidence, it is found that, by putting the meridional circle back again, and placing it in its vertical position with the apertures in the central cube open, coincidence of the wires no longer exists, but a slight displacement is noticed. It may be remembered that this question was raised at Greenwich as early as the year 1868, while in the two following years, from observations made in that interval, a correction of o" 48 and o" 58 was found for the difference of reading. In 1874 this discrepancy was accepted as real, and corrections for it were made, but no real origin for it was assigned. Mr. Turner, in the year 1886, also investigated this difference of reading, employing the collimators of the transit circle at Greenwich, and the numerical results obtained were given in vol. xlvi. p. 329, of the Monthly Notices. By using a wooden model of the central cube of the transit, he got essentially the same results as those given by the cube in the ordinary manner, but both were in discordance with the readings taken when nothing was interposed. To account for the difference he says: "The discrepancy is due to a real difference between the lines of collimation of the central and eccentric portions of the object-glasses of the collimators."

In Herr Dr. Wislicenus's experiments, six blinds of varying diameters were employed, and were placed on the cube of the Strassburg meridional circle to represent different central-cone apertures. He measured the difference between the readings taken with and without these blinds on five separate days, in the two positions, horizontal and vertical, of the collimator threads. To still further vary the method, he removed the meridional circle, and placed the blinds on the collimators, making another series of observations, the collimator threads being again in these two positions. From the above measurements he concluded (to state it very briefly): (1) that the differences obtained with the Greenwich circle are of a purely optical nature, and can be easily removed by making the aperture of the central cube somewhat larger than the full aperture of the collimators; (2) and also if the objective of a telescope be screened quite symmetrically by concentric rings or disks, or by such an arrangement as that in the Greenwich instrument, there occurs not only a variation in the focal image as regards sharpness and brightness, but there can also be found the same displacement. In discussing the observations and conclusions arrived at, he mentions that in the best objectives the same colour rays do not combine in a point on the optical axis, but in such a way that one does not obtain a focus but a focal line of unequal brilliancy, from the brightest point of which one deduces the focal plane of the lens ; he then goes on to say that since the optical axis of the lens forms therefore an angle with that of the objective, the displacement of the brightest point of the focal line would not fall perpendicular on the focal plane of the lens, but one would have to observe it with the lens somewhat on one side, by this means one would be able to see its projection on the focal plane of the lens. Therefore, "by the existence of a centeringerror the displacement of the focal image by the insertion of blinds before the objective would be explained."

THE Annales of the University Observatory in Vienna, vol. vii., contains all the observations of planets and comets made in the years 1887-89, with the Fraunhofer's, Clark's, and Grubb's refractors of apertures 16'2 cm., 30'1 cm., and 680 cm. respectively, together with the reduced results of the above. In addition to the work mentioned, the Grubb refractor was extensively employed in the study of the nebula in the Pleiades, special attention being given to the Mer pe nebula, which forms the chief topic of discussion in the interesting report towards the end of the volume; an excellent illustration also of the nebula itself is added, in which are shown all the fundamental stars with many others of smaller magnitude.

Of the other illustrations given, there are three very good pictures of the moon, taken with the same instrument. Plate I. is the result of an exposure of 6 seconds taken on an orthochromatic plate, and for sharpness and clearness is excellent. Plate II., which is an enlargement of a part of Plate I. enlarged four times is also very fine. Plates IV., V., and VI., contain drawings of comets and nebulæ, and are accompanied with descriptions of their peculiarities.

Altogether this volume is of a most interesting nature, and shows the result of a great amount of painstaking and useful work, which will be welcomed by all astronomers.

THE EASTERN TAURUS AND ANTI-
TAURUS.

AT the meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, on Monday evening, the paper read was on the Passes of the Eastern Taurus and Anti-Taurus, by Mr. D. G. Hogarth.

The paper described the general characteristics, geographical and ethnographical, of the eastern half of the mountain system of Southern Asia Minor, and is based on experience gained by the author in the course of journeys in 1887, 1890, and 1891, undertaken under the auspices of the Asia Minor Exploration Fund, to which the Royal Geographical Society has been a generous contributor. In 1890, Prof. W. M. Ramsay was the nead of the Expedition, and though in the other years the author was not accompanied by him, he followed lines which that great authority on Asia Minor had laid down. Mr. H. A. Brown (author of "A Winter in Albania "), the Rev. A. C. Headlam, of All Souls' College, and Mr. J. A. R. Munro, of Lincoln College, Oxford, took part in the expeditions in different years. The first object of the journeys was archæological, to carry on the brilliant work of Prof. Ramsay commenced in 1881, but the members of the expeditions have always taken geographical

notes and observations in traversing the interior of Asia Minor, about many parts of which less is known in modern than was known in ancient times. In following old trade-routes across the mountains, he explorers have traced the modern tracks, for the limits of ancient and modern geography are very often not to be distinguished in Asia Minor. Much of the peninsula is a land of the dead, but much also possesses great interest in the present, and, may be, will acquire an interest of a different kind for England in the near future. It has been explored by many travellers, from Pococke, Hamilton, Leake, and Ainsworth, to the archæologists who have penetrated it in different directions during the past twenty years, and the trained surveyors, led by Sir Charles Wilson, who did so much geoBut Asia Minor is very graphical work in it ten years ago. large, often very difficult to traverse, and of very varied character, as is to be expected in the meeting-place of so many civilizations and faiths, ancient and modern. Much has yet to be done before western geographers can claim even a superficial knowledge of its whole area, and many parts have never been visited by any explorer at all.

The first district described is the wild mountainous region between the beautiful lakes of Egerdir and Beysheher, remarkable for the absence of passes, for the great gorge of Eurymedon, and for the primitive character of the indigenous population who live cut off from the world. Not less noteworthy are the extraordinary ruins of the Pisidian city of Adada, which exist high up among the hill-tops, and are now called Kara-Bavlo, a name which recalls that of St. Paul, and probably is derived from a great church dedicated to the Apostle in commemoration of a These sojourn on his way from Perga to Antioch in 45 A.1). ruins preserve the most perfect specimen of an Anatolian city of Roman days. Passing by the sites of Lystra and Derbe, the Low Taurus is reached, a marked depression between the high inter-lacustrine ranges and the Bulgar Dagh, which begins about 70 miles west of the Cilician Gates (Gulek Boghaz). waterless, arid character of the northern, and beautiful scenery of the southern slopes, especially in the Calycadnus valley, are described in connection with the routes radiating from Karaman. The remarkable ruins of the monastery of Koja Kalessi, which contain a very perfect church of the early fifth century at the latest, and of the city of Coropissos, add archæological interest to this section of the Taurus. The eastern part of this region is a veritable Pompei, where Roman cities, villages, and roads have been left to decay in a deserted country.

The

The high Taurus is reached near Eregli. The famous defile known as the "Cilician Gates" has been often described, but not so the important passes further east, from Sis to Hadjin and Gyuksun; from Marash to Gyuksun, Zeitun, and Albistan ; and from Adiaman to Besni and Malatia. The Eastern Taurus is a region of great beauty, richly wooded, and traversed by the tremendous cañons of the Samanti, the Saros, and the Jihan, not passable even on foot. Whenever a railway is made from Asia Minor towards the Euphrates, it will take the gorge of the latter river, which in ancient times was rendered possible for a road. The ethnographical and historical interest of this region is very great, as it formed the refuge of the last independent Armenians of Cilicia, whose robber-towns, Hadjin and Zeitun, are described by the author. Of late their exclusive possession has been disputed by Circassians and Kurds, the latter retaining curious traces of their pre-Islamite rites and customs.

Lastly, the principal passes into the Anti-Taurus from the west, and out on the east in the direction of the Euphrates, are briefly noticed. The Anti-Taurus district is one of the most curious in Asia Minor; man deserted it almost entirely from the eleventh century until less than a century ago, when nomadic Avshar and Kurds penetrated to its remote and lofty valleys. Thus has been preserved so much of the great Roman military road to the Euphrates in the valleys of the Saros and Gyuk Su, with a series of milestones recording its many restorations; to the same cause we owe the interesting ruins of Comana, and "Hittite" monuments, recalling very early days, when a great trade-route, afterwards identical with the Royal Persian road, already took this line. Of different but equal interest are the modern inhabitants, nomadic Avshar, and half-troglodyte Kurds, nominally Musulmans, but really worshippers of other gods than that of Islam; and newly-imported Circassians, settled near troublesome Armenian strongholds as a menace and a check. The medley of races in this remote region, for whose control the Turks seem able to make no adequate provision, suggests speculations as to the possible future of race-supremacy in the Ottoman Empire.

THE ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY OF THE WEST INDIA ISLANDS.

THIS Committee was appointed in 1887, and it has been reappointed each year until the present time.

During the past year Mr. F. DuCane Godman, F. R.S., has continued to employ a collector in the island of St. Vincent, and owing to the valuable assistance thus afforded to the Committee it has been possible to complete the exploration of this island. The collections in zoology are very extensive, and those in botany extend to the whole of the phanerogams and the vascular cryptogams. No expense has been incurred by the Committee in regard to any of these collections in St. Vincent.

The services of Mr. R. V. Sherring, F. L. S., were accepted, as mentioned in the last report, to make botanical collections in the island of Grenada. He left this country in October last, and returned after seven months' absence in June last. Mr. Sherring has forwarded to this country large collections, consisting for the most part of vascular cryptogams, and these are now in course of being determined at Kew. A detailed report on the various collections in zoology and botany received during the past year is given below.

At the present time Mr. Herbert H. Smith, the collector employed by Mr. Godman, is making collections in zoology in the island of Grenada. This is the most southerly of the chain of islands intended to be explored by the Committee. When this island is completed, the Committee will have been engaged in investigating the fauna and flora of most of the islands in the Lesser Antilles lying between Martinique and Trinidad. The islands in which collections have so far been made consist of Dominica, St. Lucia, Barbados, St. Vincent, the Grenadines, and Grenada. Zoology. Since the last report collections have continued to be received from St. Vincent by Mr. Godman. The work of sorting and arranging these collections has been begun. The arthropods are already completed, and the larger part of the insects is mounted and prepared for despatch to the specialists who have been engaged to work them out.

For this purpose the Committee have been so fortunate as to obtain the assistance of the following naturalists: Herr Hofrath Brunner von Wattenwyl for the Orthoptera; Prof. Riley for the Rhynchota; Mr. Howard for the parasitic Hymenoptera; Prof. S. W. Williston for the Diptera; Prof. Aug. Forel for the Ants; Lord Walsingham for Lepidoptera, part; F. D. Godman and O. Salvin for Lepidoptera, part; D. Sharp for Coleoptera; M. Simon for Spiders generally; Mr. G. W. Peckham for Attidæ. The Committee have undertaken to procure publication of the memoirs that may be received from these savants.

A small collection of specimens made by Dr. H. A. Alford Nicholls, F. L. S., local secretary to the Committee in the island of Dominica, was received in May last. This consisted of nine mammals, one lizard, one snake, five fishes, one Ascalaphus, twelve Longicornia, two Passalidæ, and five Lamellicornia. Besides these Dr. Nicholls sent from the island of Tobago four of the peculiar nests of the yellow-tailed bird of that island Cassicus cristatus). These birds usually build their nests depending from isolated branches of the silk-cotton tree (Eriodendron anfractuosum), and they look like huge fruits waving in the wind.

A small collection of Lepidoptera was received in November last from Captain Hellard, R.E., local secretary to the Committee in the island of St. Lucia. The mounted specimens in this collection arrived in bad order, owing to the pieces of camphor getting loose ir the boxes and breaking the greater part of them, including almost the whole of the Sphingida.

Mr. John C. Wells, who has devoted attention to the ornithology of Grenada, has kindly consented to act as a local secretary for that island.

Botany. Of the botanical collections received from St. Vincent the vascular cryptogams have been determined by Mr. J. G. Baker, F.R.S., and an accouut of them, with two plates, printed in the Annals of Botany, vol. v. (April 1891) pp. 163–172. Amongst the ferns the most striking novelty is a new species of Asplenium, named A. Godmani, Baker (pl. xi.), found in damp forests at the extreme top of Morne à Garou. Other new species

Fourth Report of the British Association Committee, consisting of Prof. Flower (Chairman), Mr. D. Morris (Secretary), Mr. Carruthers, Dr. Sclater, Mr. Thiselton-Dyer, Dr. Sharp, Mr. F. DuCane Godman, Prof. Newton, Dr. Günther, and Colonel Feilden, appointed for the purpose of reporting ca the present state of our knowledge of the Zoology and Botany of the West India Islands, and taking steps to investigate ascertained deficiencies in the Fauna and Flora.

are Hymenophyllum vincentinum, Baker (pl. x.), and Acrostichum (Elaphoglossum) Smithii, Baker. The total number of vascular cryptogams found recently in St. Vincent amounts to 168 species. Most of these are widely spread through tropical America, and only four are endemic. In addition to the above a new species of Hepatica, also from St. Vincent (Kantia vincentina, C. H. Wright), was described in the Journal of Botany, vol. xxix. (April 1891), p. 107.

Of the phanerogams from St. Vincent and some of the Grenadines the work of determining these is being carried on as expeditiously as circumstances permit. The collection is a very

large one, and the results so far attained are contained in the following memorandum prepared by Mr. R. A. Rolfe :

The flowering plants have been determined as far as the end of Rutaceæ. Those from St. Vincent number slightly over a hundred species, of which about thirty, consisting for the most part of common West Indian plants, were not previously recorded from the island. The most interesting plant is a species of Trigyneia (apparently new), a small tropical American genus of Anonaceæ not hitherto detected in the West Indies. A Clusia and a species of Tetrapterys, which cannot be identified, may also prove new. The remainder have been fully determined. The three most interesting of these are Norantea Jussiæi, Tr. and Pl., previously known only from Guadaloupe and Dominica; Zanthoxylon microcarpum, Griseb., from Dominica and Trinidad; and 2. spinosum, Sw., from Dominica, Jamaica, and Cuba. The composition of the flora of the Lesser Grenadines, situated between St. Vincent and Grenada, was previously almost unknown. The plants hitherto determined are follows:-From the island of Bequia, 34 species; from Mus tique, 18; from Canouan, 5; and from Union, the nearest to Grenada, 5. They are, without exception, common West Indian plants, and are all also natives of St. Vincent. From the results hitherto obtained it seems clear that the flora of the Lesser Antilles is tolerably uniform throughout, although the larger islands of Dominica, Martinique, St. Lucia, and possibly St. Vincent, appear to have each a very small endemic element.

as

The collections made by Mr. Sherring at Grenada consist of nearly 6000 specimens of vascular cryptogams and about 1000 specimens of phanerogams. The number of species of ferns is about 140, and of these two are new, viz. Alsophila Elliottii, Baker, and Acrostichum Sherringii, Baker. The phanerogams have not yet been worked out. Sixty species of ferns were previously known from Grenada from collections made by Mr. G. R. Murray, F. L.S., and Mr. W. R. Elliott. Mr. Sherring has increased this number to 140. The species of greatest interest, other than those known to be new, are Asplenium Godmani, Baker, recently found in St. Vincent; Polypodium Hartii, Jenman, first described in 1886, and known only in the mountains of Jamaica and Dominica; and Acrostichum Aubertii, widely spread in continental America, but new to the West Indies. Other interesting plants collected by Mr. Sherring are Schizaa fluminensis, Miers, new to the West Indies, but believed to be only a shade variety of S. dichotoma, and Danea polymorpha, Leprieur, a critical form of which but little is known.

An account of vascular cryptogams collected at Grenada is in course of being prepared for the Annals of Botany.

Mr. Sherring has prepared an interesting report on the flora of Grenada, and this will prove of great interest to students of West Indian botany.

A collection of plants was received from Dr. Nicholls at the consisted of fifty-six species of vascular cryptogams-all of them, same time as the specimens in zoology already noticed. These were, however, well-known West Indian plants-and a small number (175 numbers) of phanerogams. The latter have not yet been determined.

The Committee recommend their reappointment, with the following members: Dr. Sclater, Mr. Carruthers, Prof. Newton, Mr. Godman, Dr. Günther, and Dr. Sharp. The Committee also recommend that the grant of £100 placed at their disposal, but not expended during the current year, be renewed.

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
INTELLIGENCE.

CAMBRIDGE.-Mr. A. E. Shipley, Demonstrator of Comparative Anatomy, has been appointed Secretary to the Museums Syndicate; and Mr. S. F. Harmer, Demonstrator of Invertebrate Morphology, Superintendent of the Museum of Zoology, in the room of Mr. J. W. Clark.