amygdalina, calophylla, colossea, cordata, ficifolia, globulus, tetraptera, and several others; of other characteristic Myrtacea, the genera Callistemon, Syncarpia, Agonis, Melaleuca, Beaufortia, and Leptospermum; of Leguminosæ, Acacia, Gompholobium, Kennedya, Clianthus, Platylobium, &c.; of Epacrideæ, Leucopogon, Richea, Epacris, Lissanthe, and Styphelia; of Proteaceæ, Banksia, Grevillea, Xylomelum, Telopea, Hakea, Lambertia, Macadamia, Petrophila, &c.; of genera belonging to other natural orders, taking them in the order they occur in the pictures Phyllocladus, Doryphora, Casuarina, Pimelea, Prostanthera, Billardiera, Exocarpus, Anigozanthus, Xanthorrhæa, Kingia, Cephalotus, Cheiranthera, Xanthosia, Leschenaultia, Stylidium, Johnsonia, Trichinium, Isotoma, Byblis, Actinotus, Nuytsia, Doryanthes, Fusanus, Comespermum, &c., &c. In conclusion I may state that there is a complete index to the catalogue, so that it is possible to ascertain what plants are figured by reference thereto. W. BOTTING HEMSLEY

The linen-bleaching establishment of M. Paul DuchesneFournet is situated at Le Breuil-en-Auge, and is a large concern to which most of the linen fabrics manufactured at Lisieux are sent to be bleached. The complete process of bleaching consists in successively exposing the linen pieces first to the action of chlorine, then to alkaline baths, lastly to the sun's rays. The last operation is of course conducted out of doors by laying out the linen in the open meadows. Each length of linen measures about 100 metres, and the establishment boasts a bleaching ground of 15 hectares (37 acres). The operation of taking up the pieces is laborious, necessitating several workmen.

M. Clovis Dupuy, engineer-in-chief of the works, proposed a mechanical device for picking up the linen pieces by the aid of a railway which carried the requisite

FIG. 1-The locomotive, with dynamo-electric motor and driving-gear. Calvados in France derives additional interest from the fact that the motive power is, in this instance, furnished by electric accumulators. We propose to give a general description of the railway, but will first briefly state the object for which the line has been constructed.

FIG 2.-The Faure accumulators in the tender.

mechanism. But a railway worked by a steam-engine could not be tolerated in the bleaching field, as the smoke produced by the burning fuel and the ashes projected from the funnel would play havoc with the linen laid out beside the line. M. Dupuy therefore determined to build an electric railway, the construction of which is now finished, and which works very satisfactorily.

The electric railway of Le Breuil-en-Auge passes the end of each of the many plots upon which the linen is laid out, there being a piece of straight line 500 metres in length, and twenty-one branch lines. The total length is 2040 metres. The rails are of the narrow gauge of o'8 metre (2 feet 7 inches).

The train is driven by a locomotive shown in Fig. 1, the driving machinery being a Siemens' dynamo-electric machine working as a motor. The currents to drive the motor are supplied from a battery of Faure accumulators

current to flow. A "rheostat-chain," the invention of M. Reynier, who in 1881 applied a similar device to a sewing machine driven by electricity at the Paris Exposition, is thereby stretched. As its tension increases, there is better contact electrically between its links, and with this better contact the electric resistance diminishes; the flow of current and consequently the speed of the engine, is therefore increased. By moving the lever in one direction or the other, the speed of the train may therefore be varied at will. When the lever is put back to its position of rest, it not only breaks contact, but also puts on the brake. To reverse the motion of the train, there is a second lever, which shifts the brushes of the dynamo. A third lever sets the wheels of the dynamo in gearing either with the axle of the locomotive, or with the bauling machinery previously mentioned.

The tender (Fig. 2) attached to the locomotive holds the accumulators, which are of the type constructed by M. Reynier, consisting of two lead plates covered with red lead, and wrapped in felt or serge, rolled together in a spiral, placed in dilute acid in a stoneware jar. These cells are arranged (Fig. 2) in three tiers in baskets, each basket holding six cells. On each shelf are four baskets, except on the uppermost, which holds two only. The sixty accumulators weigh 500 kilogrammes (half a ton).

FIG. 5.-The starting-gear, with chain rheostat.

The total weight of the locomotive is less than a ton, that of the tender 700 kilos. (1543 lbs.), and that of each loaded truck 800 kilos. (1763 lbs.). With the workmen and six passengers, the total weight of the train is 6400 kilogrammes (about 6 tons). The accumulator cells are charged at the factory by the current of a Gramme machine, which has been used since 1879 to light the establishment by eleven Reynier lamps. The power available in the works is 60-horse. Only 3 horse-power is, however, required during the charging of the cells, which takes from five to eight hours.

In the top of the tender is a switch, by means of which the accumulators can be used in rotation, beginning with a minimum of twenty-four, and increasing successively by sixes up to sixty cells.

This railway has worked since March last with results advantageous in every way. The speed of the train attains 12 kilometres (about 7 miles) per hour; but in this special case, great speed is not desired. According to the information furnished by M. Dupuy, the train can work for three hours; being limited only by the charge that can be imparted to the accumulators.

This application of electricity to a purpose for which a steam-engine would be out of the question, is not only

novel, but suggestive. We feel disposed to query how long it will be before that great section of the public of London who travel by the Metropolitan Railway, insist that their lungs and eyes have as much claim as the linen of M. Duchesne-Fournet to be protected from the disastrous presence of the smuts and scoriæ of the steamengine.

THE WEATHER OF THE PAST WEEK

THE very disagreeable weather we have had these last few days deserves a passing notice. Strong persistent northerly winds for nearly a week have swept over the whole of the British islands. On Sunday and Mon day a continuous north-easterly gale blew over Shetland and Orkney, completely interrupting all communication floods, and hailstorms; and at the same time much snow among these islands, accompanied with heavy rains, fell in the upland districts of the interior of North Britain, draping the mountains of Aberdeenshire and Perthshire in their winter covering of snow down nearly to their bases. On the other hand, in England and Scotland, much thunder and hail occurred towards the end of last week, and not a few lives were lost by the severity of the thunderstorms. These disagreeable and remarkable phenomena were attendants on an atmospheric depression signalled by the Meteorological Office on Thursday morning, last week, as about to advance over the more southern parts of these islands. The depression appeared in course, its centre following the line of the Cheviots; and its northern side being characterised by unwonted high pressures, it proceeded with singular leisureliness over the North Sea, and only reached Christiania by the morning of Monday. The slow onward rate of motion of this cyclone, the steep gradients formed on its north and north-west sides, and its southerly route across the North Sea readily explain the extent, strength, persis tence, and disagreeably low temperature of the gale, and the unseasonable snowfalls which accompanied it. It is to such low depression-centres brooding over or slowly crossing the North Sea, that we owe our coldest summer weather; and it is a continued repetition of these in the critical months of June, July, and August that brings disaster to the farming interests. In the middle of June, 1869, a similar storm occurred when equally strong winds prevailed, when even more snow fell, particularly in the north-west of Great Britain, and temperature sank some degrees below freezing over extensive districts; but the storm was of shorter duration than the one we have just had. In this case, also, the cyclone formed steep gra dients for northerly winds, and its centre crossed England and the North Sea, but it advanced over North-Western Europe at a more rapid rate than the present storm, which has formed so marked a feature of the weather of June, 1882.

NOTES

WE take the following from the Times-At the meeting of the Royal Society last week, the fifteen undernamed candidates

were elected Fellows:-Prof. Valentine Ball, M.A., George Stewardson Brady, M.D., F.L.S., George Buchanan, M.D., Charles Baron Clarke, M. A., F.L.S., Francis Darwin, M.A., F.L.S., Prof. William Dittmar, F.C.S., Walter Holbrook Gas kell, M.D., Richard Tetley Glazebrook, M. A., Frederic Ducane Godman, F.L.S., Prof. Jonathan Hutchinson, F.R.C.S., Pr Archibald Liversidge, F.G.S., Prof. John C. Malet, M.A., William Davidson Niven, M.A., Robert Henry Inglis Palgrave, F.S.S., Walter Weldon, F.C.S.

It is interesting to notice, that in connection with the vote of sympathy of the Common Council on the death of Garibaldi, the Lord Mayor stated that "on the death of the great phil

sopher and man of science, Mr. Darwin, he received over twenty telegrams from cities in Italy, expressive of Italian sympathy with the loss this country had sustained."

We have received from Bucharest a little brochure of the greatest interest, in the shape of a translation into Roumanian of Sir John Lubbock's British Association address, "Fifty Years of Science," by Prof. J. P. Licherdopol. The translation, we learn from the title page, is made from the report in NATURE. Prefixed is a brief address to Sir John Lubbock, which is written in vigorous and almost perfect English. "Your Fifty Years of Science,'" the translator writes, "has impregnated itself in the heart of the people who populate the plains and mountains of the Lower Danube. The scientific truths and literary beauties of such a work of genius cannot remain unknown to the Roumanians; I therefore took upon myself the pleasing duty of making it more known among them. I beg of you, therefore, to glance at it, and to receive it as your own; you will recognise it, perhaps, by its forms, which are impossible to be changed." As the translator styles himself Professor of Natural History and Physical Science, ex-Assistant Naturalist to the Museum of

Natural History, and preparator in the Chemical Laboratory; and as a list of other scientific works, original and translated, is prefixed, it is evident that science has a hopeful place in Roumanian education and literature.

A COMMITTEE of members of the Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Medicine, the Society of Agriculture, and the faculty of science in the Superior Normal School of Paris, has been formed for the purpose of presenting to M. Pasteur a medal in commemoration of his fruitful researches.

We regret to announce the death of Mr. Scott Russell, the eminent engineer, which took place on Thursday morning last, in the seventy-fifth year of his age. John Scott Russell, according to Engineering, was the eldest son of the Rev. David Russell, a Scotch clergyman. His great predilection for mechanics and other natural sciences induced his father to allow him to enter a work. shop, to learn the handicraft of the profession of an engineer. He subsequently studied at the Universities of Edinburgh, St. Andrews, and Glasgo v, and graduated at the last at the early age of sixteen. He had attained to such proficiency in the knowledge of the natural sciences, that on the death of Sir John Leslie, Professor of Natural Philosophy in Edinburgh, in 1832, the young Scott Russell, though then only twenty-four years of age, was elected to fill the vacancy temporarily, pending the election of a permanent professor. About this time he commenced his famous researches into the nature of waves, with the vie to improving the forms of vessels. His first paper on this subject was read before the British Association in 1835. The interest created by this paper was so great that a committee was appointed by the Association to carry on the experiments at their expense. Mr. Scott Rusell discovered during these researches the existence of the wave of translation, and developed the wave-line system of construction of ships in connection with which his name is so widely known. In 1837 he read a paper be;ore the Royal Society of Edinburgh, "On the Laws by which water opposes resistance to the motion of floating bodies." For this paper he received the large gold medal of the Society. In 1844 Mr. Scott Russell removed to London. In 1847 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He for a short time occupied the post of the secretary of the Society of Arts, which place he resigned to become joint secretary with Sir Stafford Northcote of the Great Exhibition of 1851. He was, in fact, one of the three original promoters of the Exhibition, and under the direction of the late Prince Consort, took a leading part in organising it. Mr. Scott Russell was for many years known as a shipbuilder on the Thames. The most important work he ever constructed was the Great Eastern steam

ship. Mr. Scott Russell was one of the earliest and most active advocates of ironclad men-of-war, and he has the merit of having been the joint designer of our first sea-going armoured frigate the Warrior. In early life he took a great interest in steam locomotion on ordinary roads, and while at Greenock he constructed a steam coach which ran for some time successfully between Greenock and Paisley. His greatest engineering work was without doubt the vast dome of the Vienna Exhibition of 1873. The last engineering work which Mr. Scott Russell ever designed was a high level bridge to cross the Thame; below London-bridge. It was intended to cross the river with a span of 1000 feet, and to allow of a passage beneath it for the largest ships.

THE death is announced of Mr. James Spence, Professor of Surgery in Edinburgh University, in the 70th year of his age. director of the Batavia Observatory. He died on May 1, during WE regret to announce the death of Dr. P. A. Bergsma, late his passage through the Red Sea, on the way home from India. We quite recently announced the retirement of Dr. Bergsma from his post in Batavia Observatory, where he has done so much good work.

IN anticipation of the jubilee meeting this year the British Medical Journal devotes most of its last number to a Historical Sketch of the British Medical Association.

As a result of the action taken by the Essex Field Club with reference to the preservation of Epping Forest in its natural condition, a conference was held on Friday evening, June 9, at the residence of Mr. E. N. Buxton at Woodford. Of the verderers there were present besides Mr. Buxton, Sir T. Fowell Buxton, and Mr. Andrew Johnston. The scientific claims of those to whom the preservation of the forest as such is a matter of importance, were ably advocated by many well-known naturalists who had been invited to take part in the discussion. Among the speakers were Dr. Henry Woodward, Dr. M. C. Cooke, Mr. J. E. Harting, Mr. Charters White, the President of the Quekett Club, Mr. G. S. Boulger, and Messrs. R. Meldola and Wm. Cole, the President and Secretary of the

Essex Field Club. The results of the conference were, as we

learn, satisfactory with respect to the future of the forest.

THOSE entomologists who study fossil insects, and palæontologists generally, should feel grateful to Mr. S. H. Scudder for having compiled "A Bibliography of Fossil Insects," forming No. 13 of the "Bibliographical Contributions" appearing in the Bulletin of Harvard University. It extends (including an appendix) to 47 pages in double column, and must include nearly 1000 references, to each of which, as a rule, are appended a few lines of explanatory notes. The subject is made to include spiders and myriopods, in addition to true insects. No trouble appears to have been spared in order to render it as complete as possible; on this point Mr. Scudder laments that the enormous. increase of popular literature that has taken place latterly, containing hosts of minor papers wholly popular in character, has vastly increased the labour of compilation without corresponding advantage. He doubts if as much activity is now shown in the department of fo sil entomology as when the labours of Heer gave a sudden impetus to its study. Possibly the often eminently unsatisfactory and speculative nature of the subject has something to do with this.

WITH reference to Prof. Riley's extracts from Dr. Macgowan's papers on the utilisation of Ants in Horticulture, in China, a correspondent calls our attention to a long article in the Ceylon Observer for April 26, in which is reprinted the following extract from Tennent's Natural History of that island:-"To check the ravages of the coffee bug (Lecanium coffeæ, Walker), which for

current to flow. A "rheostat-chain," the invention of M. Reynier, who in 1881 applied a similar device to a sewing machine driven by electricity at the Paris Exposition, is thereby stretched. As its tension increases, there is better contact electrically between its links, and with this better contact the electric resistance diminishes; the flow of current and consequently the speed of the engine, is therefore increased. By moving the lever in one direction or the other, the speed of the train may therefore be varied at will. When the lever is put back to its position of rest, it not only breaks contact, but also puts on the brake. To reverse the motion of the train, there is a second lever, which shifts the brushes of the dynamo. A third lever sets the wheels of the dynamo in gearing either with the axle of the locomotive, or with the bauling machinery previously mentioned.

The tender (Fig. 2) attached to the locomotive holds the accumulators, which are of the type constructed by M. Reynier, consisting of two lead plates covered with red lead, and wrapped in felt or serge, rolled together in a spiral, placed in dilute acid in a stoneware jar. These cells are arranged (Fig. 2) in three tiers in baskets, each basket holding six cells. On each shelf are four baskets, except on the uppermost, which holds two only. The sixty accumulators weigh 500 kilogrammes (half a ton).

FIG. 5.
-The starting-gear, with chain rheostat.

The total weight of the locomotive is less than a ton,
that of the tender 700 kilos. (1543 lbs.), and that of each
loaded truck 800 kilos. (1763 lbs.). With the workmen
and six passengers, the total weight of the train is 6400
kilogrammes (about 6 tons). The accumulator cells are
charged at the factory by the current of a Gramme
machine, which has been used since 1879 to light the
establishment by eleven Reynier lamps.
The power
available in the works is 60-horse. Only 3 horse-power
is, however, required during the charging of the cells,
which takes from five to eight hours.

In the top of the tender is a switch, by means of which the accumulators can be used in rotation, beginning with a minimum of twenty-four, and increasing successively by sixes up to sixty cells.

This railway has worked since March last with results advantageous in every way. The speed of the train attains 12 kilometres (about 7 miles) per hour; but in this special case, great speed is not desired. According to the information furnished by M. Dupuy, the train can work for three hours; being limited only by the charge that can be imparted to the accumulators,

This application of electricity to a purpose for which a steam-engine would be out of the question, is not only

novel, but suggestive. We feel disposed to query how long it will be before that great section of the public of London who travel by the Metropolitan Railway, insist that their lungs and eyes have as much claim as the linen of M. Duchesne-Fournet to be protected from the disastrous presence of the smuts and scoriæ of the steamengine.

THE WEATHER OF THE PAST WEEK

THE very disagreeable weather we have had these last few days deserves a passing notice. Strong persistent northerly winds for nearly a week have swept over the whole of the British islands. On Sunday and Monday a continuous north-easterly gale blew over Shetland and Orkney, completely interrupting all communication among these islands, accompanied with heavy rains, floods, and hailstorms; and at the same time much snow fell in the upland districts of the interior of North Britain, draping the mountains of Aberdeenshire and Perthshire in their winter covering of snow down nearly to their bases. On the other hand, in England and Scotland, much thunder and hail occurred towards the end of last week, and not a few lives were lost by the severity of the thunderstorms. These disagreeable and remarkable phenomena were attendants on an atmospheric depression signalled by the Meteorological Office on Thursday morning, last week, as about to advance over the more southern parts of these islands. The depression appeared in course, its centre following the line of the Cheviots; and its northern side being characterised by unwonted high pressures, it proceeded with singular leisureliness over the North Sea, and only reached Christiania by the morning of Monday. The slow onward rate of motion of this cyclone, the steep gradients formed on its north and north-west sides, and its southerly route across the North Sea readily explain the extent, strength, persis tence, and disagreeably low temperature of the gale, and the unseasonable snowfalls which accompanied it. It is to such low depression-centres brooding over or slowly crossing the North Sea, that we owe our coldest summer weather; and it is a continued repetition of these in the critical months of June, July, and August that brings disaster to the farming interests. In the middle of June, 1869, a similar storm occurred when equally strong winds prevailed, when even more snow fell, particularly in the north-west of Great Britain, and temperature sank some degrees below freezing over extensive districts; but the storm was of shorter duration than the one we have just had. In this case, also, the cyclone formed steep gra dients for northerly winds, and its centre crossed England and the North Sea, but it advanced over North-Western Europe at a more rapid rate than the present storm, which has formed so marked a feature of the weather of June, 1882.

NOTES

WE take the following from the Times:-At the meeting of the Royal Society last week, the fifteen undernamed candidates were elected Fellows-Prof. Valentine Ball, M. A., George Stewardson Brady, M.D., F.L.S., George Buchanan, M.D., Charles Baron Clarke, M. A., F.L.S., Francis Darwin, M.A., F.L.S., Prof. William Dittmar, F.C.S., Walter Holbrook Gaskell, M.D., Richard Tetley Glazebrook, M. A., Frederic Ducane Godman, F.L.S., Prof. Jonathan Hutchinson, F.R.C.S., Prof. Archibald Liversidge, F.G.S., Prof. John C. Malet, M.A., William Davidson Niven, M.A., Robert Henry Inglis Palgrave, F.S.S., Walter Weldon, F.C.S.

It is interesting to notice, that in connection with the vote of sympathy of the Common Council on the death of Garibaldi, the Lord Mayor stated that "on the death of the great philo