Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 313 



pensive, but usually deprive plants of all colour, the discovery of a 

 cheap and effectual solution for the preservation of plants is a de- 

 sideratum." 



The specimen was gathered at the latter end of October 1826, 

 and was presented to the Linnaean Society in May last, with an ac- 

 count of the process. As many species of funguses may be expected 

 to appear at the latter end of this month and in the next, persons 

 who are desirous of trying the before-mentioned method of preserv- 

 ing such vegetables, will no doubt have an opportunity of so doing. 



Sept. 17, 1828. i B. M. Forster. 



DIFFERENCE OF LONGITUDE BETWEEN PARIS AND GREENWICH. 



Captain Kater in his account of trigonometrical operations for 

 determining this difference, (published in Part I. of the Phil. Trans, 

 for the present year,) observes, p. 193, that the quantity 2° 30' 17"'73, 

 obtained by those operations, " converted into time is 9 m 21 s# 18, 

 differing only S *28 in defect from the admirable results obtained by 

 the operations with fire-signals, reported in the Phil. Trans, for 

 1826, by Mr. Herschel." 



It may possibly save trouble to some future inquirers, to state, 

 that Captain Kater here refers to the results of Mr. Herschel's ope- 

 rations, as corrected by Mr. Henderson in the Phil. Trans, for 1827, 

 p. 295 (see also Phil. Mag. and Annals, N. S., vol. ii. p. 142), which 

 give 9 m 21M6, or 9 m 2i s *5, to the nearest tenth of a second, instead 

 of 9 m 21 s -568, and 9 m 2P-6, as given in Mr. Herschel's paper. 



Mr. Ivory also, in his paper On the measurement of degrees per- 

 pendicular to the meridian, in the last Number of the Phil. Mag. and 

 Annals, refers to the same determination as corrected by Mr. Hen- 

 derson ; though he, like Captain Kater, refers only to the original 

 paper in the Phil. Trans, for 1826, without mentioning Mr. Hen- 

 derson's recomputation in the same work for 1 827. 



FIGURE OF THE CELLS OF THE HONEYCOMB. 



To the Editors of the Philosophical Magazine and Annals. 

 Messieurs, 



En faisant des recherches surles alveoles des abeilles *, j'ai recueilli 

 les details suivans, qui peuvent servir a l'histoire du probleme pro- 

 pose par Reaumur. 



1°. Le professeur Cramer, de Geneve, envoy a a Koenig, en 1739, 

 une solution qui ne differait pas de la sienne, etant appuyee comme 

 elle sur le calcul de l'infini. Toutes les deux sont perdues. 



2°. Le Pere Boscowich, sans avoir connaissance de la methode de 

 Maclaurin, resolut comme lui le probleme par la consideration des 

 maxima et minima. On trouve cette solution dans ses remarques sur 

 lepoeme de Stay. 



3°. Enfin, Lhuilier, de Geneve, a resolu aussi le probleme, par 

 un procede plus simple encore que celui de Maclaurin, puisqu'il 

 arrive au meme r&sultat, sans employer la consideration des maxima 

 et minima : ce n'est plus qu'une question de geomStrie commune. 



* See p. 20 and p. 233 of the present volume of the Phil. Mag. and 

 Annals. — Edit. 



New Series. Vol. 4, No. 22. Oct. 1 828. 2 S Vos 



