rising. Pleiades rising. May and 64 45 13 25 August Sun. The Pleiades and Arcturus were the warning stars for the May and August festivals respectively. these, the Arcturus alignment is the better preserved, and this gives the date of erection of the circle as about 1400 B.C.

Of

The stones known as "Long Meg and her Daughters" are in the neighbourhood of Little Salkeld, a few miles from Langwalby. There are sixty-eight stones in the circle, and at least one other is buried. The 25-inch Ordnance map gives a fairly accurate plan. The diameters are about 350 feet in an east and west direction, and 305 feet north and south.

Between six and seven hundred yards to the northeast there is a small circle of some 15 feet diameter composed of eleven good-sized stones.

The only shaped stone, Long Meg, is to the southwest of the main circle. It is more than 12 feet in height, and is deeply notched at the top.

The alignments taken were :—

(1) From the centre of the large circle, over a stone which is now recumbent, to a well defined gap on Newbeggin Fell (the only well defined gap on the horizon); (2) from the centre of the large circle to that of the small outlying circle; (3) from Long Meg to the centre of the large circle.

These are dealt with in Table II., and we here also get the date from the Arcturus alignment. This date is 1130 B.C., showing that Long Meg was probably

erected after the Keswick circle had fallen into disuse.

TABLE II.-Long Meg (Lat. 54° 43′ 20′′).

WE

HILE ostensibly forming a part of the scientific results of the Valdivia expedition of 1898-9, the present volume is in reality much more than this. Indeed, it represents the results of many years of work and experience of the flora of South Africa. For an account of this flora, the editor of these memoirs has been singularly fortunate in securing the cooperation of Dr. Marloth. The author has given to botanists an excellent and comprehensive survey, which for many years must form a standard reference work on 1 "Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse der deutschen Tiefsee-Expedition auf

dem Dampfer Valdivia, 1898-1899." Edited by Prof. Carl Chun. Zweiter Band, Dritter Teil. Das Kapland, insonderheit das Reich der Kapflora, das Waldgebiet und die Karroo, pflanzengeographisch dargestellt. By Rudolf Marloth. Pp. 436; with 20 plates and 8 maps. (Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1908.) Prices 100 marks and 81.50 marks.

the plant-geography of South Africa. The volume contains a full historical summary of the work of previous investigators and travellers, adds much that is new, and supplies a series of vivid descriptions of the peculiar vegetation of this quarter of the globe.

a

After giving an account (accompanied by a series of maps) of the various floral regions as suggested by earlier plant-geographers, the author proposes scheme of his own. This resembles, on the whole, several essentials from any previous scheme. that proposed by Dr. Bolus in 1905, but differs in The following are the larger divisions now suggested :— (A) The Cape Province of the South-west.

(B) The Southern Palæo-tropical Provinces, which include :

(1) The grass steppes of Rhodesia, the Northern Transvaal, part of Natal, &c.

(2) The South-eastern Littoral.

(3) The forests of the South Coast.

(4) The Central Region, including the Karroo, the Karroid uplands, and Little Namaqualand.

(5) The Western Littoral.

The essential differences between Dr. Marloth's scheme and earlier ones consist in (a) the more accurate delimitation of the Cape Province, (b) the separation of the forest region of the South Coast from the Cape Province, and (c) the smaller subdivisions which he proposes for the above provinces. Though brief descriptions are given of the others, the only regions treated in detail in this volume are the Cape Province, the South Coast forests, and the Central Region. Each of these may now be briefly noticed.

It

The Cape Province.-The peculiar systematic character of the Cape flora is, of course, well known. is exceedingly rich in species, many of which have a very limited range, and includes numerous endemic forms of the orders Proteaceæ, Thymelæaceæ, Ericaceæ, Restionaceæ, &c. The dominant vegetation is a "Macchia," composed of sclerophyllous evergreen shrubs, with small, entire, xerophytic leaves. Mixed with the shrubs, but subordinate to them, are many xerophytic dicotyledonous herbs, together with bulbous and succulent monocotyledons, and many Restionaceæ. This Macchia (see Fig. 1), which somewhat resembles that of the Mediterranean region, forms the real climatic type of vegetation of the Cape region. Other ecological types, e.g. those found in marshes, or on rocky ground, sand dunes, &c., are due to local edaphic influences. The Macchia is typical only where the original vegetation has not been destroyed, and Dr. Marloth is of opinion that if the land were freed from the influence of bush fires and of grazing herds of domestic animals, in fifty years' time it would become entirely covered with a dense, impenetrable Macchia.

Dr. Marloth has explored many of the mountains outside the area of the Cape Province proper, and finds that outliers of the Cape flora Occur as "islands" on the higher mountain ridges, both in the Karroo and also in Little Namaqualand. The occurrence of these Cape "islands" is, he considers, largely due to the fact that the ridges are sufficiently high to experience the effects of the rainy south-east winds. Their climate thus more nearly resembles that of the Cape than that of the dry desert plains below them. Besides this, wherever edaphic and other factors permit, there is a reciprocal invasion between Cape and Karroid forms. For instance, even those parts of the Cape region which have the greatest rainfall are not entirely devoid of succulent immigrants from the Karroo. Comparatively few succulents, however, can survive the effects of an exceptionally rainy winter.

The Forests of the South Coast.-Though formerly more extensive, the true forests of South Africa are now practically confined to a small strip of coast-land in the Knysna district. Floristically, the Knysna forests are so distinct from the Cape Province that Dr. Marloth has classed them (for the first time) as a separate region. In this district, where the annual rainfall amounts to some 36 inches, the woodland has all the characters of a typical temperate rain-forest. Epiphytes are common, and lianes are not infrequent. Westwards the forests become more dwarfed, and finally pass into the Macchia of the Cape Province. The Central Region.-Passing northwards from the South Coast the rainfall rapidly diminishes, and in consequence the country becomes increasingly arid and desert-like. Thus the Central Province (including the Karroo, the Karroid uplands, and Little Namaqua

into grass steppes, and to the south and west into the richer vegetation of the Cape Province.

The Karroid uplands, which occupy large tracts of the northern part of Cape Colony, are still comparatively little known botanically, except from the collections of Thunberg, Lichtenstein, and Burchall, made more than a hundred years ago. In fact, according to Dr. Marloth, many parts of this region have never yet been visited by botanists.

Ecology. The chief value of Dr. Marloth's work is on the floristic side of plant geography. He has travelled extensively, and, although many parts of South Africa are still incompletely known botanically, he has considerably advanced our knowledge of plant distribution in this part of the world. But, in addition to this, Dr. Marloth has not lost sight of the ecological point of view. Throughout the work the dependence

land) forms a vast area, over which semi-desert conditions prevail. But the only true desert in South Africa is the narrow strip of coast-line known as the Western Littoral. Elsewhere, the streams arising in the mountains somewhat lessen the severity of the conditions, and even in the "Gouph we can only speak of a stony semi-desert. The term " Gouph," a word of Hottentot origin, signifying barren, empty, void, is employed to denote the most arid and desertlike part of the central Karroo. The vegetation, for the most part, consists of dwarfed, rounded shrubs, with reduced, often ericoid leaves, and numerous succulent herbs scattered between the shrubs. Here and there, one or the other type of plant is so dominant as to render it possible to distinguish a succulent steppe from a dwarf-shrub steppe, but in general they are mixed. Eastwards the Karroo passes

of vegetation on rainfall (which is nowhere better seen than in South Africa) is emphasised, and rainfall and temperature tables are introduced wherever possible. One very interesting point brought out is the importance, especially at higher altitudes, of moisture deposited on the vegetation from the thick clouds which so often cover and obscure the mountain tops. An apparatus for collecting the moisture precipitated from clouds has been employed on Table Mountain. On one occasion, during a period of six days, this instrument registered a precipitation of 152 mm.. while an adjacent rain-gauge only recorded an actual rainfall of 4 mm. The author devotes a special section of more than fifty pages to the "General Ecology of South African Plants." Under this heading are discussed the various growth-forms found in in different plant formations, such as annuals,

Mention must also be made of the extraordinarily massive proportions of the absolutely chinless lower jaw. The knobs on the backs of the incisors recall the Krapina find. All the upper front teeth have much curved roots adapted to the round arching of the upper jaw-bone.

The closing chapters of the volume are occupied by a useful discussion on the affinities and origin of the South African flora in general, and that of the Cape Province in particular. The older theories of Hooker and Wallace, as well as those of later authors, to account for the resemblances between the floras of South Africa, Australia, and temperate South America, are given at some length, and discussed in the light of what is known of geological and climatic changes since the Cretaceous period.

Not the least interesting feature of the volume is a series of short, posthumous sketches of the vegetation of various districts, by the late Prof. A. F. W. Schimper, who was botanist to the Valdivia expedition. These sketches, which are marked by Prof. Schimper's usual lucidity, supplement Dr. Marloth's descriptions in many respects.

On p. 188 is a photograph, taken in the Knysna forest district, in which both Prof. Schimper and Dr. Marloth appear. The latter, however, with characteristic modesty, has omitted his own name from the description of the figure. The volume is copiously illustrated by line drawings and photographs. Some of the latter take the form of particularly beautiful heliogravures. There are also a number of useful maps, illustrating the rainfall, geology, and phytogeographical regions of South Africa. Karte 6 would be improved by a clearer method of indicating the regional boundaries.

To sum up, the work presents a most useful account of the present position of geographical botany in South Africa. Its very limitations, particularly in the ecological sections, afford a graphic indication of the enormous (and in many directions practically untouched) field which awaits future investigators.

PALEOLITHIC MAN.1

R. H. Y.

RECENT discoveries have filled up to a great extent the gaps in our knowledge of Palæolithic man. The skeleton find in the lower grotto of Le Moustier (Dordogne) in the main confirms Klaatsch's conclusions, based on a comparison of the

face-skeleton of the Neanderthal race with that of the present Australians. Homo mousteriensis belongs to the older Diluvial race, that is, to the Neanderthal type, not to Homo sapiens found in more recent Diluvium. The subject was about sixteen years old probably a male. That Homo mousteriensis belongs to the Neanderthal type is further shown by the character of the femur and radius (of which the length is estimated at 195 mm., while the upper measures 210 mm.). The Neanderthal race had short extremities, in which fact Klaatsch sees an approximation to the present Arctic races of Mongoloid relationship.

arm

1 " Recently discovered Fossil Human Remains and their Bearing upon the History of the Human Race," by Moritz Alsberg (Globus, vol. xcv., No. 17, May 6, 1909).

able to burning, but there is no sign of the cannibalism ascribed by Kramberger to Krapina man.

Another important find in France is that of a male skeleton, brought to light by the Abbés A. and J. Bouyssonie and Bardon near La Chapelle-aux-Saints (Corrèze), in an absolutely undisturbed archæological stratum. The subject is an old man of about 1'60 m. in height. The skull is actually 208 mm. long by 156 mm. broad, that is to say, dolichocephalic, with an index of 75. The height from basion to bregma is only 116 mm. The breadth-height index is 62, far outside the variation in living man. The huge, almost round orbits and very wide nasal aperture agree with what has been noted as very remarkable in skulls of the Neanderthal type. Though the face is defective, its prognathous nature is clear. The mandible is of great dimensions, and in so far as senile atrophy has not produced changes, exhibits a formation which agrees in the main with those of lower jaws from Spy, Krapina, La Naulette, &c. Here, too, we have absence of chin, "negative chin-formation" (Klaatsch). The occipital and temporal regions have Neanderthal characteristics. The old man's grave contained no tools of the Acheulean stage. This fact, and the predominance of reindeer-bones in the grave, would lend some degree of probability to the supposition that La Chapelle man belongs to a rather later cultural phase than Le Moustier man. Both are to be taken as representatives of the Neanderthal type, and as belonging to the Middle Diluvium.

P. Adloff has in several publications dealt with the question as to whether the above physical characteristics comprised under the term " Neanderthal race represent an absolutely fixed human type, or whether they were subject to variations. As regards differences of dentition in different specimens of the Neanderthal type, he comes to the conclusion that by no means insignificant differences do exist; Krapina man

especially exhibits a form sharply distinguished from other representatives of the genus Homo. Obviously, in a type like the Neanderthal, scattered over a vast area, and doubtless existing for many thousands of years, certain variations must arise by way of adjustment to different climatic conditions, food, mode of life, &c.

find at Mauer, near Heidelberg, of a fossil human Dr. O. Schoetensack has recently made a notable lower jaw, which he has called Homo heidelbergensis. ties: (1) massiveness of the body of the jaw, combined It unites two at first seemingly contradictory qualithickness, and special form of the ascending ramiwith entire absence of chin-projection, breadth and phenomena usually taken as indicating a development of teeth agreeing with that of present man in all little advanced, so-called pithecoid qualities; (2) a set essentials, the size of the teeth not surpassing the scale of variation in some still extant primitive peoples (e.g. Australians). No doubt, as Adloff says, the teeth of man are in many respects more primitive than

those of anthropoids, and the pithecoid characteristics met with in human dentition are actually primitive features. A glance at the lower jaw of a young gorilla or of a South American howler shows a remarkable resemblance of the mandible to that of Homo heidelbergensis. Dr. W. Wright has given an account and illustrations of this jaw in NATURE of June 3, p. 398.

In determining the exact position of Homo heidelbergensis in the human pedigree, it must always be borne in mind that a huge difference in time exists between H. heidelbergensis and the members of the Neanderthal race. Fossil remains of Neanderthal man belong to the Middle Diluvium, coinciding in general with the Mousterian culture period; whereas the remains (of Elephas antiquus, Rhinoceros etruscus, Falc., and Equus stenonis, Cocchi) were found undisturbed in the same stratification with H. heidelbergensis, which points to earliest Diluvium or to the transition period from Diluvium to late Tertiary age (Pliocene). The long periods intervening between Neanderthal man and H. heidelbergensis are shown by Penck's climatic curve of the Glacial periods (Ice ages), mainly coinciding with the Quaternary age, with warmer inter-Glacial periods between and the Palæolithic culture periods introduced into his diagram. The culture epoch, called Mousterian by the French prehistorians, corresponds, according to Penck, together with the subsequent divisions of Paleolithic culture (Solutrean, and perhaps partly Magdalenian), to the Ice-age divisions, comprising the inter-Glacial epoch, which falls between the Riss- and Würmeiszeit. On the other hand, Penck makes the oldest divisions of Palæolithicum correspond: Acheulean and the preceding Chellean, to the warm intervening epoch of specially long duration between the Mindel- and Risseiszeit. Obviously, the late Palæolithic age (of successive Mousterian, Solutrean, and Magdalenian cultures) lies very much nearer to the present than that earlier division of the Palæolithic age (of Acheulean and Chellean cultures).

The supposition that a very long interval elapsed between Middle Diluvium (with Neanderthal man in Europe) and that earliest Diluvium (of H. Heidelbergensis) receives indirect confirmation from recent excavations by R. R. Schmidt (Tübingen). He devotes himself chiefly to later divisions of the Palæolithic age, and, working back from the Neolithic age, shows the relatively long duration of the culture-sections which he calls late, high, and early Magdalenian; later and earlier Solutrean; late, high, and early Aurignacian; and late Mousterian. However, the slow and gradual earliest cultural progress of the human race leads one to attribute to those oldest divisions of the Palæolithic age, commonly called Chellean or Acheulean, a still longer duration than to all those later divisions.

Diluvium, or

Thus an enormously long period must have elapsed between Neanderthal man (generally coinciding with Le Moustier culture) and H. heidelbergensis (of earliest Pliocene-Diluvium transition). No fundamental objection stands against the view of Rutot, Klaatsch, Verworn, and others that the first beginnings of human cultural development reach far back beyond Diluvium into the middle division of the Tertiary period (Oligocene, according to Rutot), and that the much debated eolith is to be regarded as the primitive implement of man at the lowest cultural stage. It is obvious that an extremely long period of slow development must have preceded the production of the "hand-wedge," the characteristic implement of the Chellean age.

Neanderthal man, then, is of slight antiquity as compared with H. heidelbergensis. Klaatsch has for years upheld the theory that to discover the roots of

the human race we must go very far back, perhaps even to the roots of the mammalian genealogical tree, and additional probability is lent to this idea by the Heidelberg find. The teeth of the Heidelberg jaw undoubtedly prove that no anthropoid stage preceded that to which the Heidelberg mandible belongs, so that to explain the similarity of human and anthropoid forms we must go back to the remote ancestor from which there branched off on the one side the genus Homo and on the other the genera of anthropoids and perhaps of other ape-species. The fact that the origin and development of anthropoids reaches back to the Middle Tertiary age (Miocene) prevents the assumption that the Heidelberg mandible is itself the stage of development at which the anthropoids branched off from the genus Homo; this is also rendered improbable by the discovery of eoliths in Middle Tertiary beds. There is nothing to preclude the supposition that the Heidelberg fossil, as regards formation, stood fairly near the point of separation. The line of descent Pithecanthropus-Neanderthal man-recent man has to a certain extent been shaken by the recent researches, which attribute less antiquity to Pithecanthropus than was hitherto supposed to be the case.

At the conclusion of the paper is a brief discussion of the genealogical tree of the phylogeny of man and the anthropoids, recently published by Prof. G. Bonarelli, of Perugia. According to this table Pithecanthropus erectus, Homo heidelbergensis, and Neanderthal man may be regarded either as successive stages in the direct line of descent of Hominidæ or as offshoots from those stages. A. C. HADDON.

THE ORIGIN OF THE PLANETARY SYSTEM. R. SEE contends that the planets and satellites of the solar system were captured and their orbits made remarkably circular by a resisting hypothesis is altogether wrong, whereas the current medium. In his view, therefore, Laplace's nebular view is that it is in the main right, though in need of considerable modification and extension.

Dr. See's paper contains a single table, the object of which is to show that, when the sun and planets are expanded to fill the orbits of the bodies revolving about them, their rotations must have been so slow that it is inconceivable that they could have flung off planets or satellites. As an extract from the tables distribution remains unchanged, the principle of conwe may quote that, assuming the law of internal servation of angular momentum implies that the sun, when it filled the orbit of the earth, rotated in 3192 doubt inconceivable that the matter which now forms years instead of in 25'3 days, as at present. It is no the earth was being carried round as an integral part of a nebulous sun at one instant, and shortly afterwards revolving as a planet with 3000 times its

former velocity; but Dr. See's figures involve the assumption that the law of internal distribution remains unchanged. He probably regards 3000 as a sufficient factor of safety.

A precisely similar point is made with regard to thirty-three other bodies in the solar system. Dr. See then continues that, as detachment has been disproved, capture is the only other alternative. This is not a proof. There are more things in heaven and earth than Dr. See has dreamed of in his philosophy. Capture is a possibility, but Dr. See has done nothing to raise his theory beyond a mere conjecture, even though he points out, in addition, that a resisting medium would diminish the mean distance and the 1 "On the Cause of the Remarkable Circularity of the Orbits of the Planets and Satellites and on the Origin of the Planetary System." By T. J. J. See.

Eccentricity of an elliptic orbit, and that in the case of Jupiter's satellites the outer orbits are highly eccentric, and the inner orbits nearly circular. It may be mentioned that Mercury is an exception to his rule. Suppose that Laplace had not thought of the possibility of capture. Then Laplace would have been as much entitled to say detachment was the true explanation, because no other was possible, as Dr. See is now entitled to say that capture survives as the only possible explanation. Laplace, of course, would not have reasoned in this way. His theory explains many features of the solar system, in fact so many that when new discoveries showed that his theory was incomplete, there has been a nearly universal reluctance to say that it was altogether wrong. We do not see that Dr. See's hypothesis explains anything. Why, for instance, on the hypothesis of capture are the vast majority of orbits near the plane of the ecliptic and their motion direct?

STATE AID FOR UNIVERSITY EDUCATION.1

THE grant in aid of university colleges originated in the demand for advanced education in 1889 arising from the university extension movement, and was intended to help university colleges in providing suitable courses. In twenty years conditions have changed, and some of the university colleges have become universities, but they are still claimants for the aid. The members of the University Colleges Advisory Committee had a difficult task before them, and they submitted a report dated July 24, 1908. On this a Treasury minute, June 3, 1909, has been founded which lays down the conditions for participation in the grant. The conditions are summarised thus:

(1) Any institution to secure a share of the grant must be prepared to afford satisfactory instruction of university standard, which should normally include English, classics, French, German, history, philosophy, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology.

(2) The courses of instruction must be attended by a reasonable number of students capable of profiting by the education afforded.

(3) The buildings and initial equipment must be adequate for the courses established.

(4) The aggregate income of the institution, whether derived from grants or otherwise, must be sufficient to maintain all the departments in a state of efficiency, and to provide a superannuation scheme.

(5) The grants should be confined to institutions serving great centres of population, and no new institution should be admitted unless it serves a district not already adequately provided with instruction of a university standard.

(6) Due regard must be paid, not only to the standard and the efficiency of the teaching, but also to the spirit animating the institution and its influence as an intellectual

centre.

These are the conditions, and it must be agreed that they appear very just, except number five, concerning the admission of new institutions to the privileges, as there may be two or more institutions in a great centre which afford equal or identical advantages, one, however, receiving the grant to the exclusion of the other. This is the case in London, where there are two large institutions fulfilling the conditions, but excluded because certain other colleges are sharing already in the grant. Both Birkbeck College and East London College more than satisfy all the conditions, and there are several other institutions and polytechnics which fulfil, or come very near to fulfilling, the qualifications.

It will naturally be asked why the grant in aid is to be limited to certain favoured institutions in some

1 University Colleges (Great Britain). Grant in Aid. Parliamentary Paper 182. (London: Wyman and Sons.) Price 1d.

centres, and the answer must lie in the miserable inadequacy of the grant. The advisory committee had before them, not the difficulty of the standard of the colleges, but how to make quite too small a meal satisfy the demands of a large, hungry, and rapidly increasing family. In domestic affairs the difficulty has to be met by the father increasing the family allowance, and it would be more logical for Parliament to increase the allowance. The solution of allowing part of the family to starve is indefensible. We have alluded to the condition of affairs in London particularly because London has come off worse in amount than any other city in proportion to its population. | London, too, has suffered from want of civic spirit. In the lesser cities strong civic spirit pushes their claims on Parliamentary notice.

It must be noted that the advisory committee is fully alive to the fact that many of the universities and university colleges are drawing grants from several sources, i.e. Board of Education, Board of Agriculture, Parliamentary grants, and local rates, and there is danger of their being paid twice over for the same work; but the advisory committee does not suggest at present any way out of this difficulty other than getting a return made to them from each of the granting authorities.

It has been suggested before that all higher institutions should receive their grants from one authority, which should be able to take a survey of the whole kingdom. At present many higher institutions have to depend largely on the local education authority, which secures neither breadth of treatment nor sufficient continuity. The institutions find that there are fat and lean years, and it is not likely that the best educational results will be obtained when there is so much uncertainty. In an article which appeared recently in this journal it was suggested that the control of the higher technical institutions throughout the country should be under a central authority, for prosperity in trade is a national affair, and not local. The same view must be taken in regard to the university colleges and universities. They should be as free from This is foreshadowed in local restraint as possible.

the report in the following words :

We trust, however, that it may be found possible to regard such a scheme as being merely transitional, and to replace it in the near future by one on the more simple lines we have indicated. . . a scheme that would comprise in a single vote the whole aid granted by Parliament to universities and university colleges for education of university character and standard. The coordination of the institutions which provide higher education in the country in accordance with the principles of administration embodied in the Education Act, 1902, is proceeding apace, and the universities and university colleges have taken the initiative in connecting themselves with the local education authorities most closely related to them by locality and communications. Universities, however, are non-local as well as local institutions, and it is of importance that this two-fold aspect should be appreciated by the central administration, which has to dispense the State subvention for higher education by way of grants to this or that locality, and which must at the same time pay due regard to the interests and necessities of the country as a whole.

NOTES.

THE present summer promises to be one of the coldest short of the measurement in 1903, when at Greenwich on record, but for rainfall it is likely to be several inches the total fall for the three months, June to August, was 16.16 inches. So far, the highest temperature at Greenwich since the commencement of June is 77.7°, on July 18, whilst at the observing station of the Meteorological Office, in St. James's Park, the highest temperature is