48 



number of exquisite examples showing not only the nodes 

 but verticils of the linear leaves so characteristic of the 

 plant. These specimens place the correctness of my pre- 

 vious inference beyond all possibility of doubt, and finally 

 settle the point that asterophyllites is not the branch and 

 foliage of a calamite, but an altogether distinct type of 

 vegetation having an organisation peculiarly its own." 

 The author said that he had obtained the plant in almost 

 every stage of its growth, from the youngest twig to the 

 more matured stem, and that the genus would be the sub- 

 ject of his next, or fifth, of the series of memoirs now in 

 course of publication by the Royal Society. 



" On a large Meteor seen on February 3, 1873, at 10 p.m.," 

 by Professor Osborne Reynolds, M.A. 



On the 3rd of February (that is yesterday), at lOh. 7m. 

 (as afterwards appeared) by my watch (which was 7 minutes 

 fast), I was walking from Manchester along the east side of 

 the Oxford Road (which there runs 30"" to the east of south), 

 I had just reached the corner of Grafton-street, when I saw 

 a most brilliant meteor. I first became aware of it from the 

 brightness of the wall on my left, i.e., on the north-east, 

 which caused me to turn my head in that, the wrong, direc- 

 tion; the first effect was that of a flash of lightning, but it 

 continued and increased until it was equal to daylight. On 

 lifting my head I saw directly in front of me, what had 

 previously been hidden by the brim of my hat, a bright 

 object, apparently fixed in the sky, as though it were coming 

 directly towards me ; hnmediately afterwards it turned to 

 the west, and passed just under the moon (which it com- 

 pletely out-shone). I was very much startled when I first 

 caught sight of it, owing doubtless to the rapidity with 

 which it was increasing in size, and the directness with which 

 it seemed to be cominsf. The next instant I saw that it 



