1866. | Astronomy. 565 
nodules by Sir W. Herschel, is sufficient to indicate the propriety of 
the less distinctive name granules selected by Messrs. Dawes and 
Huggins. Hitherto observation has chiefly been confined to the 
appearance of the granules on those parts of the sun in which the 
Influence of disturbing forces is apparent, as in the areas of the 
spots. In these regions only is it that the objects assume that 
lengthened form from which has been derived the comparison to 
straws or willow-leaves; and here only, if anywhere, do they 
present the appearance of interlacing, which has been compared by 
some observers to thatching. 
In a paper referred to in the last Chronicle, Mr. Huggins 
presented the results of some observations of the bright granules 
on those parts of the sun which are free from spots. 
The granules are to be observed over the whole surface of the 
sun excepting the areas containing spots, and they may be seen 
occasionally unchanged from their normal figures in the penumbra 
and umbre of spots. Observed with powers of about 100 
diameters they present an appearance aptly described by Mr. 
Stone’s epithet rice-grains; but when higher powers are applied 
the granules present less regularity of figure and size. Besides 
oval and nearly round granules, irregular masses may be observed. 
The granules do not appear to be flat discs, but bodies of con- 
siderable thickness. 
These bodies would appear to average about 500 miles in 
breadth, and from 500 to 600 miles in length ; some however are 
smaller, and occasionally a granule some 1,000 or 1,200 miles in 
diameter may be seen: ‘Their distribution over the solar surface is 
very singular. On many parts of the sun they lie in groups, the 
components of which are separated by small intervals. These 
groups vary in form, in some places being round or oval cloud- 
like masses (mistaken probably for single granules by some 
observers) ; elsewhere they are long irregularly formed bands. On 
one occasion Mr. Huggins observed near the centre of the sun’s 
disc “a long oval border of tesselated bright matter, enclosing an 
area over which the granules were sparsely distributed.” To such 
groups, and to the varying brightness of the material between 
groups and granules, the coarse mottling of the solar surface 
visible when the sun is observed with low powers is to be attributed. 
Mr. Huggins considers that, except in the penumbree of spots, the 
granules are not superposed on each other as long as they remain 
separately recognizable. 
What are these bright bodies? Are they, as their appearance 
suggests, recently condensed incandescent clouds, or, as Mr. Dawes 
considers them, merely “ ridges, waves, hills, or knolls (or whatever 
else they might be called)” on the surface of comparatively large 
luminous clouds? Whence, also, “the gencral approximate 
