246 



HA RD WICRE' S SCIENCE- G OSSIP. 



months I shall still be in the regions where they 

 abound, I may find cause to alter my ideas ; at any 

 rate, no opportunity will be lost of carefully watching 

 these little models of the outcome of the great 

 "struggle for existence" and "survival of the 

 fittest." 



THE SUNFLOWER. 



I HAVE been much interested in reading Mr. 

 Lett's paper on the above plant in Science- 

 Gossip for September, and I am glad that the 

 mention of Helianthus in my article on "The Power 

 of Movement in Plants," induced him to try some 

 experiments. 



I wish to say a word in reply to his generous 

 criticism. 



My paper was written in 1884, as a contribution 

 to a series read before the Highbury Microscopical 

 Society, and I made the statement quoted by Mr. 

 Lett without carefully searching for modern investi- 

 gations on the subject. This I the more readily did, 

 because I had noticed on several occasions that the 

 flower-heads in a bed of Helianthus did vary their 

 position from east to south-east during the day. In 

 1886, I sent my paper precisely as it stood to the 

 "Journal of Microscopy and Natural Science," in 

 response to a request from Mr. Allen for some 

 contribution. 



In 1887 I carefully revised the entire paper after 

 reading it before the Croydon Microscopical Club ; and 

 in doing so, I took occasion to quote from Professor 

 S. H. Vine's " Physiology of Plants" the following 

 statement as a corollary to my former one: "The 

 flowers, or more correctly the inflorescences of the 

 sunflower, even when the plant is growing quite in 

 the open, direct their superior surfaces, not upwards, 

 but to some quarter of the compass, usually to the 

 south-east. This peculiarity cannot, as yet, be fully 

 accounted for, though it doubtless depends upon some 

 special form of heliotropic irritability. Some radical 

 organs do not, however, assume a fixed light-position, 

 but follow the daily course of the sun to a greater or 

 less extent. It is usually accepted as a fact that this 

 is the case in the sunflower, but Wiesner has found 

 that it is not so. Under normal conditions, the 

 inflorescences of the sunflower assume a fixed light- 

 position, as described above ; it is only when the 

 peduncles are partly etiolated that any daily move- 

 ment can be detected." 



This would seem to show that there is a certain 

 amount of truth in the popular supposition in respect 

 of Helianthus, but that when any revolution does 

 occur, it is a result of the abnormal condition of 

 etiolation. This may have been the case on the 

 occasions named by me, especially as this was noted 

 late in summer. The experiments performed by Mr. 

 Lett may have been made on perfectly fresh, healthy, 



robust plants, in which no trace of etiolation could be 

 found. 



I find, however, in Sachs's "Lectures on the 

 Physiology of Plants," published in 1887, the follow- 

 ing sentence on p. 692: — " In very sensitive plants, 

 e.g., young flax-stems and flower-shoots of the sun- 

 flower, it is possible to notice how its apical parts 

 follow the course of the sun from morn to eve, always 

 inclining towards it." 



I quote this from the English edition, translated by 

 Professor Marshall Ward, so that it seems that the 

 notion has not wholly " passed away from the minds 

 of modern botanists as a poet's fancy," as Mr. Lett 

 suggests. 



If it be true that the "flower-shoots" of Helianthus 

 behave thus, why not the entire inflorescences at a 

 later date ? 



The whole question is one of intense interest, and 

 I am glad that Mr. Lett has turned his attention to it. 

 Whatever may be the final result, I shall thankfully 

 welcome any suggestions or experiments in relation 

 to the subject, either in the case of Helianthus, or in 

 that of any other plant. 



H. W. S. Worsley-Benison. 



Sutton. 



ASTRONOMY AND METEOROLOGY. 

 By John Browning, F.R.A.S. 



I HAVE a prospectus and sample of a new series ■. 

 of charts of the constellations, by Mr. Arthur 

 Cottam, F.R.A.S. The sample chart represents 

 Cassiopeia, in the scale of one-third of an inch to a 

 degree. This is larger than any star-chart recently 

 published. The scale is nearly that of a globe ten 

 feet in diameter. So small a portion of the heavens 

 is given on each chart, that the amount of distortion 

 due to their being on a flat surface is almost inappre- 

 ciable. There are thirty-six charts, and all stars are 

 shown that are visible to the naked eye, that is, down 

 to 63 magnitude. 



Mercury will be at the least distance from the sun 

 on November 6th. 



There will be no occultation in November of any 

 star above magnitude 5. 



In November Mercury will be a morning star in 

 Libra. 



Venus will be an evening star, and will be close to 

 Jupiter on the 1st of the month. 



Mars will be an evening star. 



Jupiter will be too near to the sun for observation. 



Saturn will be nearly stationary in Leo throughout 

 the month. 



Meteorology. — The meteorological records have un- 

 fortunately again been painfully interesting. We 

 hear of heavy snow lying on uncut corn. 



At the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, the lowest 

 reading of the barometer for the week ending 22nd 



