Feb.. 1894. NEWS OF UNIVERSITIES, ETC. 157 



extent of the collection may be gathered from the following enumeration of the 

 more important series included in it : (i) A complete herbarium of British plants, 

 comprising about 2,000 species and varieties, and about 10,000 specimens. (2) A 

 European collection, comprising many thousand species from France, Germany, 

 Switzerland, Austria, Roumania, Russia, Norv/ay, Sweden, &c. (3) Several 

 thousand species from North America. (4) A very fine collection from the Bombay 

 Presidency. (5) About 1,500 species from Natal, the Transvaal, and other plants 

 of South Africa. (6) A small collection from Australia. Of the above collections 

 that from Russia is of quite exceptional value and interest. It comprises species 

 from all parts of the Russian Empire — from St. Petersburg, Lapland, and the 

 Crimea, through Siberia to Kamskatka and Turkestan, also from the Trans- 

 Caucasus and the Caspian region. The Spanish collection is an extremely fine and 

 valuable one — probably one of the best in existence. In order to hand over the 

 collection to the town in as complete and accessible a form as possible, Mr. Fisher 

 is himself arranging and labelling the collection, a work which will take many 

 weeks of continuous application to complete. 



The Royal Irish Academy has issued its Proceedings for 1893 (ser. 3, vol. iii., 

 no. i). Among other papers, it contains a list of the Hepaticas of the Hill of Howth, 

 by D. McArdle, and two papers by J. E. Duerden ; the first on some new and rare 

 Irish Polyzoa, and the second on the Hydroida collected by the Royal Irish Academy 

 Survey of the south-west coast of Ireland, 1885, 1886, and 1888, both of which will 

 be of importance to others besides British marine zoologists. Dr. V. Ball has an 

 interesting article on the volcanoes and hot springs of India, to which we allude in 

 another place. 



We have received the first and second parts of vol. iii. of theAdes de la Societe 

 Scientifique du Chili (Santiago, 1893). Among other papers in this number are 

 Lataste's " Rhythme vaginale des Mammiferes," Germain's " Coleopteres du Chili," 

 and Grez's "Los jeroglificos de la Piedra de la Batalla," and "La Piedra del 

 Olimpo," an interesting account of the picture-writings of the aborigines of Chili, 

 with plates of the inscriptions. The concluding portions of Borne's paper on the 

 spider Latrodectus, will shortly appear as parts 4 and 5 of vol. ii., and will complete 

 that volume. 



The Royal Academy of Denmark have published Oversigt over der K. Danske 

 Videnskab. Selsk. Forhandlinger, 1893, no. 2, which contains an interesting 

 biological study of the leaf of the South American Vellosiacea, by E. Warming, and a 

 systematic description of the larval forms of the water-insect Acilius, by F. Meinert. 

 J. Lange continues his contributions to the Flora of Spain. 



The Wisconsin Academy have just issued vol. ix., part i, of their Transactions. 

 As a contribution to our knowledge of lake faunas, the paper by C. D. Marsh on the 

 Cyclopidse and Calamidas of Central Wisconsin will be of importance. The other 

 Natural History papers are mostly lists of local faunas and floras. 



At the fourteenth annual meeting of the Biological Society of Washington, the 

 officers for 1894 were elected, as follows : — President, Professor C. V. Riley, U S. Ento- 

 mologist ; Vice-Presidents, Dr. F. Baker, Superintendent of the National Zoological 

 Park, Mr. B. E. Fernow, Chief of the Forestry Bureau, Mr. R. Rathbun, of the 

 U.S. Fish Commission, and Mr. C. D. Walcott, of the Geological Survey ; Recording 

 Secretary, Mr. F. V. Coville, of the Department of Agriculture ; Corresponding 

 Secretary, Mr. F. A. Lucas, of the National Museum; Treasurer, Mr. F. H. 

 Knowlton, of the same institution. The Biological Sccioty is one of the oldest of 

 the scientific societies of Washington, and devotes its meetings to the discussion of 

 original scientific facts rather tlian to the popular exposition of biology. 



