HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OS SIP, 



163 



completed, which will evidently be before long, will 

 be the best book on the subject fur ordinary readers. 



Nos. xi. to xiv. of Mr. Howard Saunders' "Illus- 

 trated Manual of British Birds" is to hand. The 

 illustrations are up to their well-earned mark, and 

 the descriptions arc comprehensively and lucidly 

 written. 



Miss Jelly intends to publish, as soon as a 

 sufficient number of subscribers has been obtained, 

 a catalogue of the species of recent polyzoa. We 

 advise intending subscribers to enter their names 

 as soon as possible, as Miss Jelly intends to print 

 only a limited number of copies. 



It is proposed to form a Museum Association for the 

 intercommunication and co-operation of the various 

 museums throughout the country. The advantages 

 of such an association are manifest, and we hope soon 

 to see it an accomplished fact. A meeting for the 

 consideration of the subject took place at York on 

 June 20th. 



Mr. James Thomson sends us his paper " On 

 the Detection of Mural Pores in the Genus Alveo- 

 lites." It is an answer to a paper of Professor A. H. 

 Nicholson's in the " Geological Magazine " for March, 

 1888, and is full of interesting matter illustrated by 

 woodcuts. 



A VERY important " Bulletin " has just been 

 published by the United States Government, as one 

 of the memoirs of its geological survey, entitled the 

 "Nature and Origin of Deposits of Phosphate of 

 Lime." It is one of the best and most exhaustive 

 essays of its kind we have ever studied, running to 

 one hundred and forty-three imperial octavo pages of 

 letterpress. The author is Mr. R. A. F. Penrose; 

 but the work has a very able preface by Professor 

 Shaler. Mr. Penrose discusses the modes of oc- 

 currence of the Apatites of Canada, Norway, and 

 Spain ; the Nodular phosphates of North and South 

 Carolina, Alabama, Florida, North Wales, and 

 England ; the phosphate beds of the Cretaceous 

 upper and lower greensands ; and of the Tertiary 

 phosphate beds. There is also a very interesting 

 chapter on the " History of the Rock Phosphates of 

 England." Next follow others on the Phosphates of 

 Belgium, Northern and Central France, and Russia ; 

 on the Phosphatic Limestones of Kentucky ; on Guano 

 Deposits, Cave and Lacustrine Deposits, &c. More- 

 over, there is appended an exhaustive bibliography of 

 all works treating on this important subject. 



Mr. H. Lamb has just brought out a capital 

 "Flora of Maidstone." The catalogue is a very 

 exhaustive one. The nomenclature is according to 

 the eighth edition of the London Catalogue. It may 

 be had of Mr. W. S. Vivish, 2S King Street, Maid- 

 stone. Price \s. 



MICROSCOPY. 



Scales on Red Currants.— My attention has 

 been called to a paragraph in August SciENCE-Gossir, 

 188S, by Sidney Tindall, on the subject of the curious 

 scales found inside red currants. As long ago as 1874 

 I sent some of these currants, with two mounted slides 

 dry and in C. balsam, to the Editor of SciENCE-Gossii'. 

 Mr. Groathin, of Cambridge, thought that silica must 

 enter into their structure ; they polarize beautifully 

 in C. balsam, and in the dry state the colours are 

 softer. I find them nearer the crown, forming a cover 

 to the seeds; they are rounded, not flat and split 

 when pressed ; it is in very dry seasons they mosU/ 

 abound, though last year I found a few. — Louisa S. 

 Saunders. 



Microscopic Life in Hailstones. — We take the 

 following letter by Mr. I. C. Thompson, of the Liver- 

 pool Microscopical Society, from the " Liverpool 

 Daily Post " for June 4th : — The violent hailstorm of 

 this afternoon, and the very unusual dimensions of 

 the hailstones, afforded an excellent opportunity of 

 making observation thereon. Happening to have 

 two microscopes at work at the time, I collected a 

 number of the hailstones as they fell through my open 

 study window, putting them at once into clean watch- 

 glasses placed under the microscopes. Several 

 observations have been recorded during the last few 

 years upon the substances, organic and inorganic, 

 found in hailstones. Amongst the organic bodies 

 have been noticed amoeba;, rotifers, bacilli, and 

 particles of vegetable matter. Various inorganic 

 substances have also been detected, but I am not 

 aware that their nature has been accurately deter- 

 mined. The hailstones accompanying to-day's storm 

 were of remarkable form and structure, some being 

 round and thick with flat surfaces, and composed of 

 a number of concentric layers, both transparent and 

 opaque. Others were large, jagged, and angular, 

 while some resembled broken pieces of ice. As they 

 dissolved in the conical-shaped watch-glasses, a deposit 

 fell to the centre, which a rough microscopical exami- 

 nation showed to be composed of a dark-coloured 

 amorphous inorganic substance, and minute stone 

 particles. Interspersed with them I noticed small 

 pieces of vegetable tissue, having the appearance of 

 parts of cryptogamic spore-cases, and amongst them 

 were numbers of very minute oblong bead-like bodies 

 about one-fifty-fifth of an inch in length, each having 

 a dark patch at the apices. These small bodies I at 

 once mounted in a clear glycerine medium, and sub- 

 jected them to a further high-poised microscopical 

 examination. Under a one-eighth inch objective they 

 were found to have a rough, knobby surface, the dark 

 ends being curled up extensions and were similar in 

 character to the forms known as belonging to the 

 spores of some of the lower cryptogamia, especially 

 the lichens, to which they evidently belong, although. 



