CORRESPONDENCE OLEANINaS. 337 



A Hybrid Fern. — In the February number of " The Midland 

 Naturalist." (p. 52,) an account was given of a supposed hybrid fern, 

 which had produced spores. These spores, after being sown, appeared 

 to produce prothalha, but it has since turned out that the latter had 

 sprung from other spores accidentally introduced, as often happens to 

 fern-growers. — W. B. G. 



SiGXS OF Early Winter. — A flock of fieldfares, (Turdus pilaris,) the 

 first I saw this season, numbering about twenty, flew over Handsworth 

 Parish Church about nine o'clock on Tuesday morning, •2Sth October- 

 last. The temperature fell during the day, and in the evening, 

 at half-past nine o'clock, there was a heavy snow storm. — TV. R. H., 

 Handsworth Wood, 21st November, 1878. 



^tc:iniii(is. 



The British Association. — The meeting at Sheffield next year will 

 begin on August 20th, and not on the earher day previously announced. 



"The Art of Scientific Discovery" is the title of an important 

 new book (648 pp.) by Mr. G. Gore, LL.D., F.R.S., of Bii-minghain, just 

 published by Messrs. Longmans and Co. 



The Sphagnace-e, or Peat Mosses of Europe and North America, by 

 Dr. Braithwaite, an octavo volume, illustrated with twenty-nine plates, 

 is announced by Messrs. Hardwicke and Bogue. 



Mr. CH.iRLES R. Thatcher, the well-known conchological collector, 

 started a few months ago on an extended foreign collecting tour. He 

 was attacked suddenly by fever, and died a few days after his an-ival at 

 Shanghai. 



The Rev. M. J. Berkeley, M.A., F.L.S. — A portrait of this 

 eminent fungologist, painted by Mr. Peele, at the instance of a niunber 

 of Mr. Berkeley's friends, was recently presented on their behalf to the 

 Linnean Society by Sir Joseph Hooker. 



Do Leaves absorb Water ? — The Rev. Geo. Henslow read a paper- 

 on this subject at the Linnean Societj- on the 7th November, in which hs 

 replied to the question affirmatively, and detailed the experiments he 

 had made. He pointed out that the practical issue of what he proved 

 is that syringing is not merely beneficial to plants in that it cleanses 

 them and cools the au- about them, but that the water is actually 

 absorbed by the leaves. 



The Royal Society ISIedals for the present year have been awarded as 

 under :- — The Cople\' Medal to M. Jean Baptiste Boussingault, for his 

 long-continued and important researches and discoveries in Agricultural 

 Chemistry; a Royal Medal to Mr. John Allan Broun, F.R.S., for his 

 investigations in Magnetism and Meteorologj', and for his improvements 

 in methods of observation ; a Royal Medal to Dr. Albert Giinther, 

 F.R.S., for his contribution to the Zoology and Anatomy of Fishes and 

 Reptiles ; the Rumford Medal to M. Alfred Comu, for various optical 

 researches, and especially for his recent re-determination of the velocity 

 of propagation of light ; and the Davy Medal to M3I. Louis Paul 

 Cailletet and Raoul Pictet, for their researches, conducted independently 

 but contemporaneousl}', on the condensation of the so-called permanent 

 gases. 



