02 OORKliSPONDENCK (JI.KANllXGS. 



Dates OF Flowerixc., etc., AnoTTNr>NoTTiN(;HAM, with Soil, Aspect, &c. 

 — ri/ss/Zar/o Farfiird (Coltsfoot), February 20th, on both north and south 

 sides of sandy railway embankment. Primnln verix (Primrose), Feb. 

 oth, in wooded dale, clay soil. Moln oilanita. March .")tli. in wooded 

 dale; damp; clay soil. Apricot, in bloom. March I'ith, wall facinj^ 

 east. Hed.t,'e, in leaf. Feb. '21th, on ed<,'e of wood, and sheltered from 

 north and north-west. First lark heard, Feb. 1st.— H. F. Joh.nsox, 

 Nottingham. 



6 lr;iniiiq .5. 



The SciENXii-ic Roll. — Si.\ numbers, constituting Part 1. of this 

 new publication, have now been issued, the subject dealt with beinj^ 

 " Climate." The tirst number of Pait II. will be issued in May ne.xt, 

 and will be devoted to " Aqueous Vapour.'' The conductor of 

 the " Scientific Roll "" (Mr. Ale.xander Ramsay, F.G.S.) recjuests that all 

 communications be addressed to him at 10, Bouverie Street, London, E.G. 



The Minor Pl.anets. — We now know 220 tiny orbs — ii.stewiili as they 

 are called — which circle round the sun in paths which lie between the 

 orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Certain astronomers make it their 

 business to look for these minute members of the solar system, but all 

 of any size seem to have been discovered, for during 1881 only one new 

 minor planet was observed, and this by Herr Palisa of the Vienna 

 Observatory. Setting aside the two or three largest of the asteroids, 

 the diameter of these little planets varies from five to fifteen miles. 

 The conditions of existence (supposing it to be possible) on one of 

 these small asteroids, and the scientific phenomena which would be 

 seen by a dweller on one, are full of fascinating problems. 



Fossils in Meteors. — Our readers will remember that the late Sir 

 AVyville Thomson, in his presidential address to the British Association 

 at Glasgow, hinted at the possibility that the tirst germs of life might 

 have been brought to the earth by or on a meteor ! More recently a 

 German doctor named Halm professed, — and professes, for he refuses 

 to believe anything to the contrary, — to have discovered traces of many 

 species of fossils in sections of meteors which he has e.xamined under 

 the microscope. All the meteoric masses hitherto discovered are irony 

 or stony masses, indubitably of igneous origin, and although the 

 microscopic structure of the minerals composing these meteors is often 

 curious and complex, yet no microscopist skilled in the examination of 

 rocks has ever hinted at having seen anything, which by any possibility 

 could be considered organic. Dr. Hahn, however, has been sending 

 specimens and papers describing them over all Europe, and he appears 

 at last to have begun to disseminate his discoveries in the New World. 

 The American Journal called •' Science " (Vol. II., p. 410) has an 

 extraordinary account of an interview between Dr. Hahn and Mr. 

 Darwin. Of course no such interview or conversation took place. 



EozooN Canadense — IS IT A Fossil ? — In a work lately published by 

 Professors King and Rowney, they make afresh onslaught on the organic 

 nature of the famous Euzooii, stating that from their researches 

 among metamorphic rocks they are led to the belief that the various 

 markings, tubes, etc., to which the name A'o^ooh has been applied, are 

 all of a mineral origin, resulting from changes which have taken place 

 since the formation of the rocks containing them. The authors give 

 numerous illustrations of structures resembling Eo:oon. which they 

 have seen in serpentine and allied rocks ; rocks which it is a luiitled 

 can contain no true fossil remains, being of an igneous nature. 



