HA RD WICKE' S S CIENCE- G OSS IP. 



257 



as a "lovely plumaged humming-bird one inch 

 long." 



Examination showed that they were not dashed to 

 c'eath, as commonly occurs at ordinary lighthouses 

 when the light is enclosed, but they were burned and 

 blinded, their fall, no doubt, completing the fatality. 

 The vision of birds far exceeds ours in penetrating 

 power, and as the light is visible at a distance of 

 thirty-six miles to human eyes, its allurement to the 

 birds must extend over a very wide circle. 



A Fearful Prospect. — The Chinese are demons 

 in examination work. They now propose to in- 

 troduce mathematics as elements of the curriculum of 

 their metropolitan and provincial competitions for 

 public employment. Whether these will to any 

 notable extent supersede the existing Chinese 

 classics remains to be seen ; but even if they do, neither 

 China nor science will gain much if the customary 

 rote-learning is still carried out. Mathematical 

 prigs are worse than literary prigs, and as the 

 ability for cramming mathematical formulae varies 

 inversely with the power of applying them philo- 

 sophically, the senior wranglers of the Celestial 

 empire are likely to present some hideous examples 

 of barren formulating pedantry. May they all re- 

 main in China ! 



Absorption of Water from Walls by Ivy. 

 — C. C, page 236, takes exception to my statement 

 concerning the absorption of moisture by the rootlets 

 of ivy, on the ground that if the main stem is cut 

 the plant dies. Surely C. C. must have observed 

 what occurs when the stem of a cut flower is im- 

 mersed in water ! Everybody knows that it absorbs 

 moisture and displays the effect of such absorption 

 irrespective of any main root. A rosebud will not 

 only revive, but open out ; the same with other 

 flowers and with leaves. In the spring of last year, a 

 friend sent me, by parcels post from Pau, some boxes 

 of flowers gathered on the Pyrenees ; some of these, 

 wood anemones, were very remarkable in this respect. 

 They arrived quite flaccid and drooping, apparently 

 hopeless ; but on placing their stems in water in a 

 tall narrow flower vase, they plumped out and 

 revived completely, the water in the vase visibly and 

 measurably sinking. C. C. may study the physical 

 action effecting this by taking a strip of calico, which 

 is simply a collection of vegetable fibres, dipping one 

 end in a tumbler half filled with water, and hanging 

 the other end outside. Or he may take a lesson 

 from another agglomeration of vegetable fibres, viz. 

 a piece of blotting-paper. 



Students of fossil corals should forthwith 

 procure "The Morphology of the Carinse upon the 

 Septa of Rugose Corals," by Mary E. Holmes, M.A., 

 published by Bradlee Whiddon, Boston, U.S.A. 



ASTRONOMY AND METEOROLOGY. 

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



SUCH unfavourable weather was experienced 

 along the greater portion of the central line of 

 the total eclipse of the sun on the 19th of August, 

 that good observations were only made at one station, 

 Petrovsk, where Professor Glusenapp made six 

 drawings, and took two photographs of the corona. 

 The weather was perfect at Tomsk, in Siberia, but 

 the observers were not in possession of instruments 

 that would bear comparison with those used at the 

 stations in European Russia. 



In the observations of solar phenomena made at 

 Rome, from April to June, Professor Tacchini has 

 issued, he states that both spots and faculee were 

 considerably more numerous in May than they were in 

 April, and both were still more numerous in June. It 

 appears from this, then, we are on the eve of another 

 outbreak of solar activity, so observations of solar 

 prominences with a spectroscope will now be most 

 interesting. 



The report of the Chicago Observatory contains an 

 account of the work done in 1885 and 18S6. During 

 these years 130 new double stars were discovered and 

 measured. Observations of Jupiter have also been 

 made, and of the spots and markings on the planet. 



In November, there will be no occultation of any 

 star above the fourth magnitude. 



November the 21st, Mercury will be at the least 

 distance from the Sun at 1 hour, morning. 



Mercury is a morning star in the last week of the 

 month. 



Venus is a morning star throughout the month in 

 Virgo. 



Mars will be in Leo till the 22nd, when it enters 

 Virgo. 



Jupiter is a morning star, situated in Libra. 



Saturn will be in Cancer throughout the month. 



Meteorology.— At the Royal Observatory, Green- 

 wich, the lowest reading of the barometer for the 

 week ending 17th September, was 29 '54 in. on 

 Monday afternoon, and the highest 30-04 in. at the 

 end of the week. The mean temperature of the air 

 was 53'9 deg., and 3-7 deg. below the average. 

 The general direction of the wind was west-south- 

 west. Rain fell on five days of the week, to the 

 aggregate amount of 0*55 of an inch. The duration 

 of registered bright sunshine in the week was 19*2 

 hours, against 23^4 hours at Glynde-place, Lewes. 



For the week ending 24th of September, the lowest 

 reading of the barometer was 30 '04 in. at the 

 beginning of the week, and the highest 30*30 in. on 

 Monday morning. The mean temperature of the air 

 was 53*6 deg., and 2'9 deg. below the average. 

 The general direction of the wind was north-north- 

 east. No rain was measured during the week. The 

 duration of registered bright sunshine in the week 



