of the summer half of the Celtic year, marking the victorious close of the sun's contest with the powers of darkness. . . when the crops were fast coming to maturity," and he suggests that the great festival held on the first of August at Lyons (ancient Lugduna) superseded an older feast held on that day in honour of Lug, and was the Gallo-Roman continuation of the Celtic custom of old days." Gwyl Awst (the Yule of August) is the name by which this same August festival was known in ancient Wales.

He remarks that "the Lugnassad was, so to speak, the Summer Solstice of the Celts, whereas the longest day was then of no special account (Rhys, Hibbert lectures).

Very interesting accounts of an August festival are given by Mr. Frazer (Golden Bough") as celebrated by the Creek Indians and also by the Natchez tribe on the Lower Mississippi, when fires were lighted to destroy what was old before the ceremonial renewal of new fire took place by the priests by the friction of two pieces of wood, on the appearance of the first ray of the rising sun.

Among the special marks distinguishing the primitive ritual of heathendom from later customs, Mr. Frazer remarks that there were no temples, but that the celebrations took place by brooks, in woods, barns, harvestfields, &c.

This interesting fair is clearly a survival from pre-Celtic days, but the interest in the place has unfortunately been much obscured by the alteration of the old name Tan to St. Anne's Hill on all modern maps.

It was a very common and well-known custom of the Church in late times to alter the name of a place to that of a saint, where, finding large gatherings assembled for religious ceremonies, their object was to substitute Christian for heathen ideas. Caer Anna in Brittany became St. Anne d'Auray, and Tan Hill became St. Anne's Hill. St. Anne's Day was not fixed for the whole Latin Church until 1584, when Gregory XIII. appointed the feast to be held on July 26 (August 6); the name of St. Anne lors not occur in the older church calendars, and her cult s a very late one. THEREZA STORY-MASKELYNE.

Carbon Dioxide in the Breath.

THE presence of 0-06 per cent. of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is held, I believe, to render the air unfit for breathing purposes, whereas o 03 per cent. may be taken as normal. A consideration of the quantity of this gas which must be continually present in the lungs makes such sensitiveness on their part to appear rather extraordinary.

Taking an average expiration as 300 c.c. and the reserve "air" in the lungs as 2000 c.c., and assuming that the atmosphere contains o-03 per cent. of carbon dioxide and expired air 4 per cent. of carbon dioxide, we have the following figures (a homogeneous mixture in the lungs is imagined for simplicity) :

quired every seven minutes to get rid of the extra carbon dioxide due to an increase of 0.03 per cent. in the atmosphere.

One is tempted to wonder, therefore, whether carbon dioxide per se in these small quantities can have any appreciable effect. Or, on the other hand, is it possible that this gas in the lungs is in some manner "vitalised," as questioned by Prof. Meldola some time ago (see NATURE, 1902, vol. lxvi., p. 492), and that on reaching the outer world it is in a short time changed into the ordinary and more poisonous form? F. SOUTHERDEN.

Royal Albert Memorial College, Exeter, April 25.

2300

in lungs.

Hence before the next expiration 11.91 c.c. of carbon dion de must accumulate to make up the original 92 c.c., the corresponding oxygen being absorbed.

Now if conditions remain the same, excepting that the atmospheric carbon dioxide reaches 0-06 per cent., we have

FIG. 1.

-Jurassic Ginkgo leaves from Oregon. (From Status of the Mesozoic Fleras of the United States.")

of the U.S. Geological Survey published in 1900. The second paper deals with Triassic, Jurassic, and Lower Cretaceous floras, and includes observations on the stratigraphical relations of the plant-bearing

strata.

The excellent quality of the plates, many of which consist of photographic reproductions of specimens, is in welcome contrast to the unsatisfactory figures 1 "Status of the Mesozoic Floras of the United States." Second Paper. By Lester F. Ward, with the collaboration of William M. Fontaine. Arthur Bibbins, and G. R. Wieland Part i., Text. Part ii., Plates. Pp. 616; Plates i-cxix. Monographs of the U.S. Geological Survey, vol. xlviii. (Washington, 1905)

in some of the earlier monographs on American fossil floras. Under the head of Triassic floras an account is given of the results of an expedition into Arizona in 1901, which seems to have been more successful in discovering fossil vertebrates than the remains of vegetation. Reference is made to the "inexhaustible quantity of silicified wood," some specimens of which are included in the genus Araucarites, a type widely distributed in Mesozoic strata in many parts of the world. By far the most important part of the report is that by Mr. Fontaine, which deals with the rich Jurassic flora of Oregon. An inspection of the photographs and drawings reveals the interesting but not unexpected fact that the general facies of the vegetation exhibits a striking agreement with that which has been described from the Oolite rocks of East Yorkshire, Siberia, and other Old-world localities. A few species occur which appear to be identical with Wealden plants, while others are reminiscent of the older Rhætic floras. We welcome this exceedingly valuable addition to palæobotanical literature, but it is unfortunate that the author has

the Potomac beds of Maryland. Mr. Wieland gives a particularly interesting figure of a young frond of a species of Cycadella in which the rachis is traversed by a U-shaped vascular band bearing a much closer resemblance to the meristele of a fern petiole than to the conducting strands in the rachis of a Cycad (Fig. 2). The notes which Mr. Wieland has already contributed on the morphology of Mesozoic Cycads have raised a keen desire for further information, and embolden us, who wait with envy and impatience, to urge him to publish with all speed an instalment of his promised monograph.

By the publication of these volumes Mr. Lester Ward has laid his fellow-workers in palæobotany under a further obligation. Although there are various matters of detail which we should venture to criticise if space permitted, there can be no doubt as to the value of this latest contribution from the veteran author and editor. A. C. SEWARD.

RECREATIONS OF A NATURALIST.

THE "naturalist " on the present occasion is Mr. J. E. Harting, from whose pen we have welcomed during the past forty years (eheu! fugaces) many volumes on many aspects of sport and natural history. Among his recreations are outings on the moor, the hill, and into the quiet byways of the

FIG. 2.-Unexpanded Frond of Cycadella utopiensis, Ward, showing the rachis with two rows of young pinna and a mass of ramental scales. (From "Status of the Mesozoic Floras of the United States.")

not exercised more self-restraint in his use of recent generic names in cases where there is no proof of close relationship between the Jurassic and existing plants. Fragments of fern fronds are designated species of Dicksonia and Thyrsopteris on wholly insufficient grounds. So long as palæobotanists continue the practice of labelling fossil species with the names of recent genera merely because of superficial resemblances presented by vegetative organs, their lists of species cannot be accepted as trustworthy contributions towards a fuller knowledge of the plantdistribution of former ages. Ferns and Cycads are well represented, and the abundance and variety of leaves referred to the genus Ginkgo-that striking embodiment of the "past in the present "-constitutes a notable feature of the Oregon flora (Fig. 1). The volume also contains an account of Lower Cretaceous floras, together with much information on the plants of the older Potomac formation, and descriptions of additional specimens of silicified Cycadean stems from the Jurassic rocks of Wyoming and

FIG. 1.-A Kingfisher hovering. From "Recreations of a Naturalist."

country, with gun or rifle (in their proper season), or with neither with equal enjoyment to him, and, as frequently as fortune favoured, with what it is easy to see he perhaps loves best of all, "a cast of hawks." Another form of "recreation" has been-metaphorically speaking-" finding a hare in the library and hunting it through the preserves of ancient authors until the hunt had a happy termination, or the literary hare escaped to give sport another day.

No doubt the writing of the essays that describe these recreations formed a supplementary one, not improbably combined with "business" as an enhancement to the diversion; for most of the forty essays in the present volume have previously appeared elsewhere, chiefly in the columns of The Field. Mr. Harting's library hunts are fewer in number and less engaging than those pursued by him out of doors. Of these one here and there might, perhaps, have been omitted, as somewhat belated, such as the account of "Swan-upping," in which the information is eleven years old, while the "Horse and its Historians" is a review of a work published in 1888,

1 "Recreations of a Naturalist." By James Edmund Harting, author of a "Handbook of British Birds," &c. With 81 illustrations. Pp. xvi+ 433. (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1906.) Price 155. net.

though since then has not the "Thoroughbred Horse " been written by Prof. Ridgeway?

we

The majority of the other essays are, however, worth issuing in collected form. In reading them recognise the spirit of the genuine sportsman naturalist-the best combination in a human being for the full enjoyment of the external world-and follow with deep satisfaction his excellent companionship out into the open in his "Marsh Walk in May," "On the Hill," and "Bird Life on the Broads." An interesting chapter on "Small Birds on Migration carried by Large Ones" leaves the question as undecided as before. It may be worth recording, however, that many years ago the present writer listened with intense interest to his vis-à-vis, at a Lisbon hotel table d'hôte, relating how he had seen in Egypt small birds landing from the shoulders of an immigrant crane. The writer on inquiry learned that the name of his co-resident was "von Heuglin."

In his essay on the "Fascination of Light," Mr. Harting records some circumstantial evidence for believing that the powder-down patches of certain herons are phosphorescent, and probably provide a "living light" for alluring fishes to the surface of the water, and within sight of the foraging bird during the darkness. It is suggested also in regard to the common kingfisher that its orange-coloured breast may serve the same purpose when the bird is hovering (during daylight) over water "on the feed.' While it would be very difficult to prove the latter suggestion experimentally, it seems that the former might be investigated with much chance of success by a couple of unprejudiced, enthusiastic and properly equipped ornithologists spending a few dark nights in a punt in the quiet haunts of the heron.

These "Recreations" may be cordially recommended to the lover of nature as a companion on his summer holidays. The book is full of delightful illustrations-those especially by Joseph Wolf and George Lodge and, as a specimen, the beautiful a specimen, the beautiful hovering kingfisher, by the latter artist, is reproduced here. F.

FORTHCOMING

VISIT OF REPRESENTATIVES OF UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN FRANCE.

THE Senate of the University of London has invited representatives of the University of Paris (Faculty of Letters and Faculty of Sciences) and of the Collège de France to visit London at Whitsuntide. These representatives will be accompanied by the highest officials of the French Ministry of Public Instruction and by a number of representatives of the French provincial Universities. The Société des Professeurs de Langues vivantes and of the Guilde Internationale will be simultaneously entertained by the Modern Language Association, and the University has arranged for the representation of all these bodies at the various ceremonies. The French delegations will be headed by M. Liard, the Vice-Rector of the University of Paris.

The King has graciously expressed his desire to receive a number of the French visitors at Windsor on Thursday afternoon, June 7.

and Prof. Sadler (on behalf of the Modern Language Association); informal receptions of French and English specialists. Wednesday, June 6, visits to Westminster Abbey, to Westminster School, and to some of the London County Council educational institutions, followed by a luncheon to be given by Mr. Evan Spicer, chairman of the County Council, at Belair, Dulwich; in the evening a dinner at University College, and various private dinners, followed by a reception by his Excellency the French Ambassador at the French Embassy. Thursday, June 7, addresses by the Deans of the Faculties of Arts and Science of the Universities of London and Paris, by Sir William Ramsay, K.C.B., and by representatives of the Collège de France, the French provincial Universities, and the French Modern Language Association; and in the evening a conversazione at the University. It is understood that a number of the French guests will, on Friday, June 8, visit the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.

The guests will include the following representatives of science in France :

University of Paris: M. Liard, Vice-Recteur de l'Université; Profs. Appell, G. Bertrand, Léon Bertrand, Vidal de la Blache, Borel, Boutroux, Bouty, Bouveault, Dastre, Delage, Fernbach, Hérouard, Houssay, Joannis, Lapicque, Leduc, Lippmann, Matignon, Matruchot, Painlevé, Pellat, Perrin, Pruvot, and Puiseux.

Collège de France: Profs. Henneguy and Pierre Janet.
University of Bordeaux: Prof. Lorin.
University of Caen: Prof. Guinchant.
University of Lille: Prof. Ponsot.
University of Nancy: Prof. Cuénot.

NOTES.

GREAT surprise and regret have been caused in German chemical circles by the announcement that Prof. W. Ostwald has requested the Saxony Minister of Education to allow him to give up the position which he has held in the University of Leipzig for so many years. German scientific journals and papers are unanimous in saying that of living chemists not one has exercised so great an influence on the progress of modern chemistry as Prof. Ostwald in his almost twenty years of academic teaching. But Prof. Ostwald finds the direction of a large university laboratory making so many calls on his time as to prevent his carrying out the amount of original and private work which he would like, with the result that he has decided to retire to his country house at Grossbothen (Saxony), where a small private laboratory has been arranged, and devote himself to literary and experimental work, dealing in the first instance with the technology of painting.

AT the invitation of the Anglo-German Friendship Committee a number of editors of German newspapers will visit London shortly. According to present arrangements, the visitors will arrive in London on June 20. Among the many entertainments provided is a visit to the Natural History Museum on Sunday, June 24, under the guidance of Lord Avebury and Prof. Ray Lankester. On Wednesday, June 27, the party will go to Cambridge to be entertained at one of the colleges and taken over the University.

THE President of the Board of Trade has appointed Major P. A. MacMahon, F.R.S., to be Deputy Warden of the Standards, to succeed the late superintendent of weights and measures, Mr. H. J. Chaney.

THE Friday evening discourse at the Royal Institution on June 1 will be delivered by Prof. H. Moissan, on

Dewar, on "Studies on Charcoal and Liquid Air."

THE anniversary meeting of the Royal Geographical Society was held on Monday, May 21, when the medals and other awards announced in NATURE of April 5 (p. 541) were presented.

A FEATURE of the "Country in Town" Exhibition which will be held on July 5-19 in the Whitechapel Art Gallery will be photographs illustrating what can be done to beautify urban gardens, streets, and parks. Photographic prints for the exhibition will be gladly received by the honorary secretary, Mr. Wilfred Mark Webb, at Toynbee Hall, Whitechapel, E.

THE death of Mr. Charles Eugene De Rance occurred on May 9, after eleven days' illness, the result of an unfortunate accident. Although Mr. De Rance began and ended his professional career as a civil engineer, he was for thirty years an officer of the Geological Survey of England and Wales. During this period he was engaged in the south of England and upon the Coal-measures of Flintshire and elsewhere, but most of his work was among the Triassic rocks of Lancashire and Cheshire, and the Glacial deposits of the same districts. He contributed to several memoirs of the Geological Survey, but his principal published work was the "Water Supply of England and Wales" (1882). For sixteen years he acted as secretary of a committee of the British Association on the circulation of underground waters; he was associated also with a committee on coast erosion. Problems of water supply always enlisted his attention; one of his last acts was an appeal

for information as to the influence of the recent earthquakes on the flow of water in wells.

WE notice with regret the announcement of the death on May 1 of Prof. I. C. Russell, head of the Department of Geology at the University of Michigan. He was for a short time assistant professor of geology at Columbia University, and became geologist in the U.S. Geological Survey in 1880. In 1892 he became professor of geology in the University of Michigan. Prof. Russell was vice-president of the American Association in 1904, and was president of the American Geological Association at the time of his death.

MESSRS. C. VENKATARAMAN AND V. APPARAN, of the Presidency College, Madras, write to describe a modification of Melde's experiment with a weighted string attached to the prong of a tuning-fork. When the string to which the pulley is attached is held so as to be neither parallel nor perpendicular to the vibration of the tuning-fork, then, if the tension is properly adjusted, the string takes up a stationary form of vibration capable of simple explanation.

REFERRING to the correspondence on Sounding Stones " published in our issue for January 4 (vol. lxxii., p. 222), Mr. E. M. Buchanan, writing from Henzada, Burma, directs attention to the resonant properties of fossilised wood and a long established custom in Upper Burma, where such wood is common. The natives collect pieces of a kind with even grain, obtainable in lengths of 4 feet to 6 feet, and convert them into gongs by polishing them slightly. In the monasteries or shrines the monks accompany their recitations at matins and vespers with the music of their stone gongs, which are usually well attuned and give a pleasing effect.

WE learn from the Times that the Government has given its sanction to a scheme for the organisation of the Archæological Department of India on a permanent and improved footing. Although much has been done since a Director-General of Archæology was appointed in 1902 for

a period of five years, the experience gained has proved that the task of restoring and conserving the antiquities of India will always require trained ability for its adequate discharge. The present Director-General of Archæology is confirmed in his appointment. In lieu of the present Government epigraphist for Madras, the scheme provides for the appointment of a Government epigraphist for the whole of India, whose duty it will be to organise and collate the results of the epigraphical work of the provincial surveys. At the same time, the importance of Madras for this form of research and its special linguistic conditions necessitate the retention of a special epigraphical expert in that presidency.

THE chief annual meeting of the Verein Deutscher Chemiker will be held this year at Nurnberg on June 6-9. Prof. C. Duisberg, of Elberfeld, will report on the work of the commission appointed by the Gesellschaft Deutscher Naturforscher und Aertze to consider the science teaching in German schools; Herr A. von Baeyer will lecture on the anilin dyes; Dr. Lehner, of Zürich, on artificial silk; Prof. Stockmeier, of Nurnberg, on explosions in the aluminium bronze colour industries: Prof. F. Haber, of Karlsruhe, on the optical analysis of coal gas; Prof. A. Werner, of Zürich, on valency; Dr. F. Raschig, of Ludwigshafen, on catalysis; Prof. M. Busch, of Erlangen, on new methods of determining the amount of nitrogen in nitrocellulose; Dr. Ed. Jordis, of Erlangen, on the chemistry of silicates; Dr. L. Eger, of Munich, on the examination and evaluation of railway materials; Dr. O. Röhm, on the manufacture of illuminating gas; and Dr. M. Neumann, of Cronberg, on the theory of the Glover process and the manufacture of sulphuric acid in towers. Visits will be paid to several chemical works and large engineering works in the neighbourhood, including Messrs. Siemens and Schuckert's, while excursions to Erlangen on June 8, to Rothenburg a.T. (Württemberg) on June 10, and to the Jubilee exhibition on June o are to be arranged.

THE Connecticut Agricultural College has been authorised to accept the Edwin Gilbert bequest consisting of a farm of 350 acres at Georgetown, Conn., together with a fund of 12,000l. for the maintenance of the farm. The tract of land is, according to Science, to be used for experimental purposes in connection with the work of the agricultural college, but it is not intended to establish a branch of the college at Georgetown. From the same source we learn that the additional appropriation of 1000l. for the agricultural experiment stations, provided by the Adams Bill, has now been paid. This Bill increased the present appropriation of the agricultural stations under the Hatch and Morrill Acts by 1oool. for the year ending next June, and by an additional 400l. annually above the amount of the preceding year for the next five years. At the end of the five years this will amount to an increase of 3000l., bringing the total appropriation to each experiment station to 6000l. annually. The funds are to be applied only to original researches or experiments bearing directly on the agricultural industry of the United States, with due regard to the varying conditions and needs of the States in which the stations are located.

THE contents of the May number of Naturen include articles on mosquitoes and gnats, on the Yangtse-kiang district and its products, and on dogs-prehistoric and modern-the last of these being by Dr. Reinhardt.

OWING to the advent of abnormally high temperatures an unusually early period, which rendered collecting in the desert practically impossible, Dr. C. W. Andrews,

at

of the Natural History Museum, has returned from his Egyptian trip. We understand that he has obtained some important specimens from the Fayum deposit, but that he was unable to visit the zeuglodon-beds of the Mokattum

ringe.

THE greater portion of the April issue of the Museums Journal is taken up by an illustrated article by Colonel Plunkett, director of the Dublin Museum, on the methods mployed at that institution in circulating objects of art, or reproductions therefrom, among schools and other local establishments. A special endeavour has been made to reduce so far as possible the labour and expense connected with handling, packing, receiving, and dispatching the circulation sets, and although the scheme has only been in operation for a couple of years, it appears to be a conspicuous success.

Ax important paper by Mr. F. W. Thyng appears in the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History vol. xxxii., No. 11) on the squamosal bone of the skull in tour-footed vertebrates. After maintaining, in opposition to the views of Gadow, Broom, and others, that the mammalian incus corresponds to the reptilian quadrate, the author proceeds to demonstrate that, of the two bones ving between the parietal and the quadrato-jugal in the labyrinthodont skull, the lower one, as not overlying the ic capsule, represents the squamosal of mammals, while the upper one should be called the supratemporal. According to the generally accepted scheme of cranial osteology, these names are transposed. The author's re-determination is largely based on the evidence afforded by the larval skull of the hmbless amphibians, or cæcilians, which appear to come the nearest of all living groups to the labyrinthodonts.

THE articles in the combined second and third parts of vol. ixxxi. of the Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Zoologie are only three in number, but each is of unusual length. In the first Mr. Hans Dunker discusses the homology of the cirri and the elytra in the "sea-mouse (Aphrodite): the second is a continuation of Dr. L. Böhmig's studies of the planarian worms of the Tricladida group; while the third, by Mr. C. von Janicki, of Basle, is devoted to certain new or little-known cestode parasites infesting marsupials, bats, insectivores, rodents, and edentates. In the case of the last paper, especial interest, from a geographical point of view, attaches to the discovery in a Brazilian opossum of a new species of tape-worm belonging to the genus Linstowia, which was established by Zschokke in 1898 for the species L. semoni infesting one of the Australian bandicoots, but included another species found in the Echidna or spiny anteater of the same region. The new evidence is of the highest importance in confirming the opinion as to the close affinity of the South American to the Australasian marsupials, and also as to the relatively late date at which the two groups were sundered. Whether the common habitat of the ancestral type was, as has been suggested, in south-eastern Asia or in a sunken southern land remains to be determined.

SOME cultural notes by Mr. H. Drion on hardy bamFos, continued from the previous number, are published in the April number of Le Bambou. Prof. E. de Wildeman contributes a note on the bamboo-hat industry in Java, that gives employment to a large number of natives. The hats are made double and in various qualities dependng upon the degree of fineness of the woven strips. Their cost varies from four pence to eighteen pence; the chief defect is their tendency to become discoloured.

THE Para rubber tree and its cultivation, also the cultivation of other American rubber trees, have attracted a great deal of attention lately, but Ficus elastica, the source of india-rubber, is seldom mentioned, and its cultivation is by no means fully understood. A small brochure written by Mr. C. Bald contains much information on the subject that will be useful to rubber planters in the north of India and elsewhere. Wild plants generally begin life as epiphytes, but the writer describes how seedlings can be readily germinated and transplanted, or a branch may be specially prepared for layering, whereas artificial attempts at epiphytic germination have mostly failed.

THE third number of the Kew Bulletin for this year contains a series of identifications of new plants by workers in the herbarium. Dr. Stapf contributes a decade of African plants and a selection from various countries, including four species of Icacineæ from Borneo. Among the new orchids named by Mr. Rolfe are a Catasetum from Colombia and a Pteroglossaspis that is interesting as the first American record of a genus hitherto known only from Africa. Mr. G. Massee concludes an account of animal and plant parasites destructive to beets and mangolds by

pointing out the risk of growing two root crops in

succession.

IN the Bulletin of the Department of Agriculture, Jamaica, vol. iv., part iii., an article by Mr. H. Q. Levy is published on the cultivation and marketing of oranges and grape fruit. Mr. Levy treats the subject from the point of view of the small grower, and gives advice on the laying out of the plantation, suitable catch crops, and the diseases of citrus fruits; the varieties of orange recommended are the seedless Petersfield navel and the seeded Pineapple. The hints on grading and packing the fruit are pertinent and practical. The part also contains a list compiled by Mr. Wm. Harris of the seasons and prices in Kingston for fruits, vegetables, and other products.

MR. E. P. STEBBING writes a short note in the Indian Forester (March) on Termes gestroi, a termite that attacks Para rubber trees. This parasite has been reported previously from Borneo, Singapore, and the Straits Settlements, and now from the Mergui plantations in Burma. Little appears to be known of the habits of these white ants except that they hollow out their galleries in the crown of the root, where they collect and store the latex, and that they have increased greatly owing to the favourable conditions they find in the plantations of this exotic tree. Further information with regard to their life-history is required before satisfactory methods of treatment can be suggested.

ALTHOUGH an exhaustive investigation into the methods of cultivating and manufacturing natural indigo in India was carried out by Mr. Rawson a few years ago, and valuable suggestions were made by him for effecting improvements, the importance of the subject warranted further experiments that have been undertaken by Mr. C. Bergtheil, the agricultural bacteriologist to the Government of India. In the recent report of the Indigo Research Station at Sirsiah the superiority of the Natal plant, Indigofera arrecta, as improved by cultivation in Java, over the ordinary Bengal plant, Indigofera sumatrana, is clearly established, except under certain conditions. Mr. Bergtheil also emphasises the importance of seed selection. In the manufacturing processes the chief point inculcated is the necessity for maintaining the steeping vats at a temperature of 90° F.