VIII. 



MISCELLANEOUS NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



Head at Watford, 26th April, 1898. 



Meteokologt. 



Meteor seen at Kensworth. — On -Friday, the 2 1 st of January, 

 about 5.40 p.m., wlien walking out in a direction S.S.E., my 

 attention was suddenly attracted by a light on the right. Turning 

 round I saw a most brilliant meteor travelling from E.N.E. to 

 W.S.W. on a course at an angle of about 30° to the earth. The 

 head, of a yellowish white, appeared to be the size of a large 

 cannonball viewed a few feet distant, and was followed by an 

 elongated tail displaying some of the colours of the rainbow. The 

 meteor was visible for about a second or two, then seemed to go 

 out, then again became visible, and finally descended over the crest 

 of the hill apparently a few fields off. — \_Miss'\ S. Grace Jones, 

 The Grove, Kensworth. 



Botany. 



Fly-Orchis at Cheshiint. — The fly-orchis [Ophrys muscifera) has 

 been found at Cheshunt by my son, E. W. Paul. I note that in 

 Pry or' s ' Flora of Hertfordshire ' it is not recorded as found at 

 Cheshunt, and as we have no Chalk it is somewhat interesting how 

 it reached here. It was on the edge of a stream which flows from 

 the top of the ridge between Cheshunt and Brick endon or Bayford, 

 and it must have been carried over so as to come into the water- 

 transport of our chalkless brook. — George Paul, High Bank, 

 Cheshunt. 



Zoology. 



An Egg ^vithin an Egg. — The other day my cook, in cutting open 

 a hard-boiled egg, found a second diminutive egg inside it. The 

 shell of this I am sending to you herewith for exhibition to the 

 Natural History Society and for preservation in its Museum. I 

 believe that instances of such a kind are not really uncommon, 

 but it would be interesting to know the exact effect that the inner 

 egg would have on the chick which would be hatched from the 

 outer egg. Perhaps some monstrosities or " freaks " may be due 

 to such a cause. — \_8ir'\ John Evans, [K.C.lJ., F.R.S.,'] Nash 

 Mills, Kernel Hempstead. 



