7H 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Several other earthquakes of the year were 

 accompanied by the phenomena of fountains, 

 as in Bessarabia in May, and one on the 

 lower Danube in October. Earthquakes oc- 

 curred at nine different points in the German 

 Empire on thirteen days. The days on which 

 the most earthquakes were noticed were the 

 14th of February and the 2d of July. 



Relation of the Algae to the Phanero- 

 gams. Dr. Ernst Krause in a late number of 

 " Kosmos " has a discussion of the relation- 

 ship between the algae and the phanero- 

 gams, taking the Podosiemacece as the spe- 

 cial subject of his dissertation. The species 

 of this family, he believes, combine charac- 

 teristics of the algae and phanerogams, and 

 show a direct transition between them, as 

 in the opinion of many botanists the Cyti- 

 nece and Balanophorece do between the fun"i 

 and the phanerogams. The resemblance be- 

 tween the two families is so striking, and the 

 forms of both so variable, that one would be 

 excusable for inferring that the podostemes 

 are alga? with phanerogamous flowers ; their 

 flowers are, moreover, either apetalous or 

 imperfect, and very simple. They are de- 

 scribed by H. A. Weddel as very small 

 plants, which cling to rocks overflowed by 

 running water in the tropical regions of Asia, 

 Africa, and America. The lower forms are 

 composed of* little else than parenchyma, 

 while only the larger ones have vascular 

 organs. The stem is either wanting or as- 

 sumes an extreme diversity of shapes ; 

 sometimes it is upright and dichotomous, 

 branched and leafy ; sometimes it is like 

 certain mosses ; often it is spread on the 

 ground, or attached with a cushion-like foot ; 

 sometimes it creeps like a rhizoma or is leaf- 

 like, like the thallus of some liverworts or 

 lichens, and clinging to the stone in the 

 same manner as they do. It has hardly any 

 true roots. Leaves are for the most part 

 absent in the thallus-like species, but are 

 highly diversified in the stemmed species, 

 departing at the same time widely from the 

 ordinary forms ; they are seldom square on 

 the stalk, are entire or unequally divided, 

 often forked. The nerves, when they ex- 

 ist, are dichotomous, seldom parallel. The 

 buds, both of the stem and the flowers, are 

 folded convolutely. The cushion-like organs 

 of attachment are elsewwhere found only 



among the algae ; the absence of vascular or- 

 gans is common to algae and mosses among 

 green plants, and also to a few phanerogams, 

 as the Naiadcce, Ceratophyllece, and Lemna- 

 cece. As the lower plants of these orders 

 show no differentiation of stem and leaf, 

 at least no more than the algae, they might 

 be placed, with the Podostemacece in a group 

 representing a direct transition between the 

 algae and the phanerogams, for which the 

 provisional name of Anlhophycce is sug- 

 gested. If we also regard the Cytinece, 

 which have no cotyledon, and the Balano- 

 phorece, which have only a simple undivided 

 embryo, as higher forms rising out of the 

 fungi, we may join them as Anthomycetce 

 with the Anlhophycce representing the low- 

 est phanerogams, as Anthothalloidce. 



Chimhorazo and its Climbers. Referring 

 to the successful attempt of Mr. Whymper to 

 ascend to the summit of Chimborazo, Dr. 

 Nachtigal stated, at a recent meeting of the 

 Berlin Geographical Society, that a French- 

 man, Jules Remy, professed to have accom- 

 plished the feat in 1856, but it is very doubt- 

 ful if he did. He gave the height at 7,328 

 metres (23,816 feet), whereas it is 1,000 

 metres, or 3,250 feet less. Humboldt ob- 

 served the height trigonometrically to be 

 6,530 metres (or 21,222 feet), and Reiss, as 

 the result of three measurements, found the 

 highest of the two peaks to be 6,310 metres 

 (20,507 feet) and the other 6,269 metres 

 (20,374 feet). Humboldt, in 1802, attempt- 

 ed the ascent, but only reached a height of 

 5,878 metres (19,103 feet), while Boussin- 

 gault, with Hall, in 1831, reached a height 

 of 6,004 metres (19,513 feet) ; they attempt- 

 ed the ascent from the south side, while Dr. 

 Stuhel, from the north side, reached a height 

 of 5,810 metres (18,882 feet). After an in- 

 spection of ten days, Mr. Whymper made 

 three attempts, and on the third day suc- 

 ceeded in mounting both peaks. The night 

 before the final ascent he spent at a height 

 of 5,227 metres (16,98S feet). 



The Comets of 1843 and 1880. It seems 

 to be well established that the comet which 

 recently appeared in the southern hemi- 

 sphere is identical with the great comet of 

 March, 1843. This comet, one of the most 

 remarkable in history, appears to have been 



