CORRESPONDENCE. 63 



The fronfl of L. gihha is eleven inches long, and four broad ; of the 

 hybrid thirteen inches long, and five broad ; and of B. corcovademe 

 twenty-six inches long and seven broad. The spores of the hybrid are 

 smaller and more irregular in shape than those of B. corcovadeiise : some 

 of them have been sown, and are now in the prothallus stage. A well 

 known fern-grower, who has seen the plants, said that he obtained a very 

 similar hybrid, about six years ago, between L. gihha and B. hrasUiense, 

 (a species allied to, if not identical with, B. corcovadensc,) which he exhi- 

 bited at a meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society under the name of 

 L. hyhrida. He has since lost it. The correctness of his explanation 

 was, of course, disputed at the time, but this independent production of 

 what is nearly the same species seems to couhrm it very strongly. — 

 W. B. Grove, B.A. 



@Ic;iiiini(is. 



The British Association. — It is expected that the meeting for 1879 

 will be held at Sheffield. 



A Course op Instruction in Zootomy by Professor Huxley, assisted 

 by Mr. T. J. Parker, is announced as in preparation, and will be published 

 in parts, by Messrs. Macmillan and Co. 



The Great Meteor of Nov. 23rd. — Capt. G. L. Tupman has been 

 investigating the path of this remarkable object. In Hymoiis' Meteoro- 

 logical Magazine for January, he wiites : — " I have made out its path 

 very satisfactorily from a gi'eat many fairly accordant observations. It 

 began as an ordinary shooting star, ninety (nautical) miles high, five 

 miles north of Derby, became wonderfully brilhant fifty miles over 

 Liverpool, and biu'st at the height of twenty-six miles, fifteen miles 

 N.N.W. of Great Orme's Head. From no less than twenty-five estima- 

 tions of its duration, the velocity was between eighteen and nineteen 

 miles per second." 



The "Times" and Meteorology. — The energy of the Thnes in 

 pubhshing daily a map showing the principal elements of the weather at 

 six P.M. on the preceding evening was specially noticed in the evidence 

 given before the Royal Commission on Meteorological Observations, 

 whose report (Blue Book, 1877, price 2s. 4d.) should be studied by all who 

 are interested in the progress of meteorology. The publication now 

 before us (The 'Times' Register of Events in 1877) is another step in the 

 same direction. One page is given to each day. In a narrow column on 

 the right-hand side we have the leading British and Foreign events 

 printed in bold capitals. On the left-hand is a map showing the condition 

 of the weather over these islands at eight a.m., together with the 

 "Remarks" of the Meteorological Office thereon. At the end of each 

 week the curves of the self-registex-ing instrtmaents at Kew Observatory 

 are given. Useftd and full summaries of the Parliamentary Session and 

 the year generally are given at the end of the volume. We would suggest 

 that another year the publication should be deferred (if necessary) for 

 another week or so, that the averages and totals for the year (barometric 

 pressure, temperature, rainfall, &c.) might be added. 



Ilpord Fossils. — The very fine collection formed by the late Dr. 

 Richard Payne Cotton, F.G.S., has, we learn from Nature, been 



