The printed page is large (123 by 200 mm.), and the type and arrangement, while so compact as to leave no waste space, are pleasing to the eye.

NEW EDITION OF BRITTON'S MANUAL.

THE second edition of Britton's Manual of Flora of the Northern States and Canada,' which appeared some months ago includes descriptions of about one hundred additional species in an appendix, bringing the total number up to more than 4,600. Generic and specific synonyms have been added in many instances, thus adding greatly to the usefulness of the book for working botanists. The addition of a number of artificial keys will be especially helpful to beginners.

A NEW TROPICAL FLORA.

J. R. JOHNSTON (Gray Herbarium of Harvard University) has in preparation a work on theFlora of the Islands of Margarita and Coche' off the north coast of Venezuela, which must prove of much interest to American botanists. In noticing his descriptions of new species from these islands some time ago, the authorship of this work was erroneously given in these columns.

THE TEACHING OF BOTANY.

IN a most suggestive book entitled 'The Teaching of Biology in the Secondary School' (Longmans, Green & Co.) by Professors Lloyd and Bigelow, the former discusses many matters connected with the teaching of botany. Calling attention to the advances which botanical science has made in America during the last twenty-five years, and the changes which the teaching of the subject has experienced, he insists that the teachers should come to their work with a special mental equipment for their peculiar tasks,' and full of knowledge of the problems which they will be called upon to face in their work. In the course of the author's discussion one finds such chapter headings as 'The Value of Science, and Particularly of Biology in Education'; 'Nature Study; The Value of Botany in Secondary Education'; 'Principles Determining the Content of a Botanical Course'; 'The Various Types of Botanical Courses';

Use of the Method of Thought in Teaching Botany'; 'General Botanical Principles to be Emphasized in Teaching'; 'Detailed Discussion of the Course in Botany for the High School'; The Laboratory, its Equipment, Materials for Study and for Demonstration'; 'Botanical Literature for the Use of Teachers and Students.'

It is impossible to summarize these chapters. They should be read from beginning to end by every young teacher, and by some who are no longer young. In passing it may be noted that the author is thoroughly and heartily a believer in 'nature study'; indeed, he is so much in earnest in its advocacy that he devotes a good many pages to criticism of many of the erroneous methods employed by some of its teachers. In discussing the types of botanical courses for high schools he says truly, "one of the big ideas which a student should get from the study of plant forms is that of evolution. should have an opportunity of looking into the kind of evidence which underlies this idea." The Huxley and Martin method,' he says, 'was ordinarily that of verification, while the development of individual initiative in thought was largely ignored.' Agassiz's method of bringing the student into 'direct contact with some form, such as a starfish, and leaving him to find out things for himself without aid of any kind' is characterized as 'heroic treatment, which can not be employed generally.'

He

Not to attempt too much is insisted upon, and also that the botany of the beginner must include something of each of the greater divisions of the science. In elucidating these suggestions the author discusses in detail the work which may be taken up in the high school. After quoting the course of study recommended by the Committee on a College Entrance Option in Botany, of the Society of Plant Morphology and Physiology, he details a course of his own, beginning with morphology and anatomy of the fruit and seed, and following this with ecology, field work, physiology, the root, the shoot, the leaf, the bud, Myxomycetes, Schizophyta, Thallophyta, Bryophyta, Pteridophyta, Phanerogams, geographical botany and physiographical plant ecology. In practise it will be found quite

impossible to cover this work in the time allotted to botany in the secondary schools, but there can be no doubt as to the high value of these suggestions, from which the teacher may well make such selections as his time may permit.

CHARLES E. BESSEY.

THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA.

CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY.

FOEHN WINDS IN THE ANTARCTIC.

DURING the Antarctic voyage of the Discovery, warm southerly winds were observed which, because of their high temperature, have generally been regarded as of foehn-like character. Sir Clements Markham (Geogr. Journ., June) believes that the high temperature may result from the fact that these winds blow from the ocean beyond the pole, that is, Weddell Sea, and not from adiabatic warming during descent. Hence he thinks that the Great Barrier may end on the other side of the pole with another line of ice-cliffs facing the Weddell Sea, and that the winds may blow across the ice barrier with great velocity without lowering their temperature. On the other hand, Dr. W. N. Shaw suggests that the snow which comes with these warm southerly winds is carried along in a surface drift, and notes that intensely cold air can contain very little moisture.

LOW TEMPERATURE IN THE SAHARA.

IN the Meteorologische Zeitschrift for June, 1905, there is a note on some low temperatures observed on December 19, 1904, in the Sahara, between Tuggurt and Guerrara. The temperature at midnight was 30.2° Fahr.; at daybreak (6:15 A.M.), 28.4°; at sunrise (7:15 A.M.), 33.8°; at 2:30 P.M., in the shade, 75.2°; at 7 P.M., 41.0°; and at 8:30 P.M., 39.2°. It was calm, and the sky was clear. On December 20, at 7:30 P.M., the temperature was 33.8°, and there was heavy frost, which in places reached a thickness of 1 cm.

NOTES.

Das Wetter for June, 1905, contains an interesting article, of a 'popular' nature, entitled 'Aus dem Leben der Wolken,' by Dr.

A. de Quervain; also a discussion, illustrated by means of curves, entitled 'Temperaturen auf Bergstationen und in der freien Atmosphäre, by Dr. W. Wundt.

THE Annuaire météorologique of the Royal Observatory of Belgium contains a useful list of text-books of meteorology, prepared by J. Vincent. Special attention is paid to general treatises, but a considerable number of special works on marine, medical and agricultural climatology are included. The list begins with Aristotle, and includes books in Latin, Greek, English, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Danish, Spanish, Hungarian, Norwegian and Portuguese.

THE mechanism of the origin of rain-clouds, and the conditions of heavy rains and floods on the northern slope of the Pyrenees, were discussed by Marchand, Director of the Pic du Midi Observatory, before the Congrès du SudOuest Navigable, held at Bordeaux in June, 1902. The paper was printed in the proceedings of that congress, and a German translation of a portion of the article, in the Meteorologische Zeitschrift for June, 1905, makes this interesting study accessible to the general reader.

RECENT publications on the meteorology of the free air are those of Teisserenc de Bort, on the diurnal changes in temperature (Comptes rendus, Vol. cxl., 1905, 467) and of Hergesell, on the results obtained by means of kites over the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean in 1904 (ibid., January 30, 1905). R. DEC. WARD.

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COUNCIL OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE.

THE annual report of the council for the year 1904-5 states that the arrangements for the meeting of the association in South Africa had been directed, under the sanction of the council, by a special South African committee, sitting in London, and consisting of the general officers of the association (the president and president-elect, the general treasurer and the general secretaries), Professor Armstrong, Dr. Horace Brown, Sir William Crookes, Sir

James Dewar, Sir Archibald Geikie, Professor H. A. Miers, Sir Henry Roscoe and Dr. Sclater. The coordination of the work of the various local committees had been carried out under the direction of the central organizing committee for South Africa, sitting at Cape Town, consisting of Sir David Gill (chairman) and Dr. J. D. F. Gilchrist (secretary). An additional expenses fund having been opened to supplement the subvention of £6,000 from the South African colonies, contributions amounting to £3,100 had been received.

The following agreement has been made between the British Association and the South African Association in the matter of financial arrangements respecting the annual meeting in 1905: (1) That all members (but not associates) of the South African Association shall be entitled to associates' tickets at the meeting of the British Association in South Africa in 1905; (2) that the South African Association shall pay a contribution of £500 to the funds of the British Association; (3) the South African Association guarantees the purchase of a thousand copies at least of the annual volume, the copies to be sent direct to the members of the South African Association on payment to the British Association by the South African Association of the sum of 8s. per copy.

A committee of the council, consisting of Professor G. H. Darwin, Sir A. Geikie, the general secretaries and the general treasurer, was authorized to consider the appointment of an assistant secretary, in succession to Dr. Garson, resigned, with the result that Mr. A. Silva White was unanimously appointed to fill that office.

The books and other publications presented to or received in exchange by the association, with the exception of the publications of the corresponding societies of the association and the annual volumes of reports of the various Associations for the Advancement of Science, have been transferred to the Library of University College, Gower Street, the council of University College having undertaken to give the same facilities to members of the British Association for the use of University College

Library as were granted under similar circumstances by the University of London.

The council also reported on a plan for dealing with the meteorology of the British colonies and the relation of the association to corresponding societies.

SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS.

THE American Anthropological Association is meeting this week at San Francisco under the presidency of Dr. Frederic Ward Putnam, of Harvard University and the University of California. The preliminary program contains the titles of thirty-nine papers, which proves that the anthropologists at least can hold an unusually successful meeting in the summer and on the Pacific Coast. We hope to print subsequently abstracts of the papers. MR. W. R. DUNSTAN, F.R.S., director of the scientific and technical department of the Imperial Institute; Mr. F. W. Dyson, F.R.S., chief assistant at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, and Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, F.R.S., director of the National Physical Laboratory, have been elected members of the council of the British Association.

THE regents of the University of California have granted a year's leave of absence to Professor Wm. E. Ritter, of the department of zoology, for research at the San Diego Marine Biological Station and travel abroad. Associate Professor Charles A. Kofoid will have charge of the department in his absence. Mr. C. O. Esterly, Mr. L. Griggs and Dr. Alice Robertson have been appointed assistants in zoology.

MR. GEORGE K. CHERRIE, of the Museum of the Brooklyn Institute, has just returned from South America, where he has been collecting for that institution. He obtained about 800 bird skins, representing very fairly the avifauna of the region about Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela. These include a fine series of the Hoatzin, together with nests and eggs of that bird; skins and skeletons of the Guacharo bird, and skins of a number of species of South American herons. From the observations of Mr. Cherrie, it seems probable that the breeding of the hoatzin is largely influenced

by the condition of the water, and inland, away from the influence of tide water, they do not breed until the ground beneath their nests is flooded. For this reason, although Mr. Cherrie stayed until June, he only obtained eggs of this bird. Eggs of a number of other species of birds were also obtained, many of which are but little known.

MR. EDWARD W. BERRY, the paleobotanist and secretary of the Torrey Botanical Club, is engaged in studying the fossil flora of Maryland for the Geological Survey of that state. Correspondents are requested to address him after September 1, in care of the Maryland Geological Survey, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md.

MR. GERALD DUDGEON has been appointed by the secretary of state for the British colonies to examine and report upon questions relating to the development of the agricultural resources of British West Africa.

DR. OLIVER E. GLENN, acting professor of mathematics at Drury College, has been appointed a member of the editorial staff of the American Mathematical Monthly, succeeding Dr. Saul Epsteen, who has been called to the University of Colorado.

PROFESSOR J. VOLHARD, professor of chemistry at Halle, celebrated on August 6 the fiftieth anniversary of his doctorate.

THE trustees of the British National Portrait Gallery have purchased a portrait of Tiberius Cavallo, 1746-1809, one of the earliest students of electrical science.

WE learn from the New York Evening Post that the city of Nuremberg, in conjunction with the Society of German Clockmakers, has erected a monument by way of commemorating Peter IIenlein, who, four hundred years ago, substituted springs for weights in clocks, and thus made watches a possibility. The statue was made by the Berlin sculptor Meissner. It represents Henlein at work in his shop.

IN connection with the indication by the council of houses in London which have been the residences of distinguished individuals, a memorial tablet was on August 14 erected on

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No. 34, Gloucester Square, Hyde Park, where Robert Stephenson, the great engineer, resided at one time. The tablet is of encaustic ware and terra-cotta in color.

DR. OTTO HERZ, the entomologist of St. Petersburg, has died at the age of fifty-six years. The deaths are announced of the Rev. Dr. J. Keith, of Scotland, who took an active interest in natural history, and of Mr. W. E. Langdon, a past president of the British Institution of Electrical Engineers.

WE recorded last week the death of Professor Leo Errera. A correspondent writes in regard to him: "Errera was one of the comparatively few rich men who work as hard at science as do those who earn their living by teaching and research. A multi-millionaire, he earned the rather hard degree of Docteur Agrégé, and since his student days has been an important factor in the class-room and research work in botany at Brussels. His most notable work as an investigator, perhaps, was his demonstration that fungi store food reserves in the form of glycogen, like animals, and the contributions from his laboratory have been chiefly along physiological and ecological lines. Notwithstanding this limit to the field of his more active contributions, however, he was interested in all branches of botany, and at the recent International Congress at Vienna, where he secured a decision to hold the next quinquennial session at Brussels, he was one of the most constant and interested attendants at the arduous—and perhaps thankless-nomenclature sessions.

THE correspondent of the London Times in Cape Town cabled on August 18 that the first boat, conveying a portion of the visiting members of the British Association to Durban, and marking the conclusion of the business program in Cape Town, would leave that night. It was obvious at the outset that a rivalry was established between the purely pedagogic portion of the program and that part which makes for first-hand knowledge of South Africa. Fortunately there is no tendency to gauge the success of the 1905 meeting by the attendance at the lectures. So far the attendance has not been striking, but it is felt that

that has been more than made up by the keenness of the members to see all that can be seen of the country, and to profit by a closer acquaintance with its problems, which is essential to the proper understanding of them in England. South Africa, while paying a tribute to the high standard of the papers read, will endorse whole-heartedly the policy adopted by the members.

THE Committee of the British Association on Zoology Organization has reported that a register of zoologists has been established, and that fifty-seven zoologists have accepted the invitation of the committee to place their names upon the register. The committee has obtained by correspondence the opinion of a large number of the zoologists of the country upon the question of the importance of the grant applied for by the committee of Section D to enable a committee to send a competent investigator to the Zoological Station in Naples. Other matters affecting the interests of zoologists in the country have engaged the attention of the committee during the year. A meeting of the committee was held in London on May 11. A meeting of zoologists summoned by the committee to consider the question of the teaching of natural history in schools was held in the Zoological Gardens, London, on the same date.

Ar the last monthly meeting of the Zoological Society of London it was stated that the additions to the society's menagerie during that month had amounted to 274, amongst which special attention was called to a leopard (Felix pardus), from near Hong-kong, presented by Mr. J. A. Bullin; to the three Californian sea lions (Otaria gillespii), from Santa Barbara, purchased; to a white-tailed gnu (Connochates gnu), born in the menagerie; and to a male Somali ostrich (Struthio molybdophanes), purchased.

IT is expected that within a year wireless telegraph communication will be established between New Zealand and Australia.

THE Journal of the American Medical Association states that, at the request of the medical directors of the City Hospital, the board of public service adopted a resolution that hereafter the professor of pathology of the Cin

cinnati University shall be the head of the pathologic department of the hospital. The directors stated that they had been made convinced of the fact that a professorship of pathology would soon be added to the university staff.

THE Sanitary Inspectors' Association met in London on August 18. In the course of his presidential address, as reported in the London Times, Sir J. Crichton-Browne dealt with the housing problem,, and pointed out the advantages from a health point of view of country life as compared with town life. That the townsman was shorter-lived than the countryman was, he said, incontrovertible. Professor Karl Pearson, a thoughtful and cautious anthropologist, had told us that decadence of character and of intelligent leadership was to be noted alike in the British merchant, the professional man and the workman, and this he attributed to the fact that the intellectual classes were not reproducing their numbers as they did 50 or 100 years ago. In this view Professor Pearson was supported by the prime minister, who said at Cambridge last year that in the case of every man who left the laboring class and became a member of the middle or wealthier classes his progeny were likely to be diminished owing to the fact that marriages were later in that class. He was inclined to think, however, that intellectual decadence, if it be upon us, was not altogether due to the causes assigned by Professor Pearson and Mr. Balfour, and was not necessarily destined to deepen as time went on. In a people like our own there was always outside the actually intellectual class a still larger class potentially intellectual with abilities incompletely evolved, because never called forth, but capable under stress of circumstances of the higher development. Many of our finest intellects had sprung from the unintellectual class, and genius was generally more or less of a sport. His own view was that any dearth of ability from which we might be suffering was to be ascribed not so much to the infertility of the cultivated classes as to the artificial production of stupidity in various ways, and to the incessant drainage from the country-which was the fit and