74 Scientific Intelliyen.ce. 



from particular quarters. To these periods the author applies the 

 term anemonal, or periods belonging to the wind. They form the 

 divisions of a map, upon which the curves of the wind are exhibited. 

 The proportion of rain is also well shown by an ingenious method. 

 The author purposes publishing on the 1st of January, an anemonal 

 table, exhibiting the aerial currents, at Carlisle, Liverpool and London, 

 and we believe also, at Abbey St. Bathans, (from the observations of 

 our valuable correspondent Mr. Wallace), during January and 

 February, 1835, and a continuation of the present table on the 1st 

 of February. We must refer our readers to the work itself, which 

 is very moderate in price (4d.) because it would be impossible to give 

 an intelligible description without a plate, and because it appears 

 to promise very valuable assistance to meteorologists. 



Article IX. 



SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. 



I — Proceedings of the Ashmolean Society, of Oxford. 



June 26, 1835. — The following query was proposed by a member : 



In what way can we satisfactorily explain the mode in which spi- 

 ders carry their threads from one object to another at considerable 

 distances through the air ? 



Dr. Daubeny exhibited a specimen of the bromelia pinguis, a native 

 of the West Indies, which flowered this autumn in the open air in 

 the garden of Mr. Shirley of Eatington Park, near Shipston-upon- 

 Stour. This plant has rarely blossomed in Europe even under glass, 

 although a drawing of it in flower is given in the Hortus Elthamensis; 

 and the individual plant alluded to had been tried first in the pinery, 

 and afterwards in the greenhouse, but had never put forth flowers, 

 till it was taken out of doors, when it flowered, though the petals, 

 never properly expanded. 



A communication was also read by him respecting an electrical phe- 

 nomenon stated to have occurred in the garden of the Duke of Buck- 

 ingham at Stowe. 



The following was the statement drawn up by his Grace's direc- 

 tion, of the circumstance alluded to. 



" On the evening of Friday the 4th of September, 1835, during a 

 storm of thunder and lightning, accompanied by heavy rain, the 

 flower called cenothera macrocarpa, a bed of which is in the garden 

 immediately opposite the windows of the manuscript library at Stowe, 

 were observed to be br'lliantly illuminated by phosphoric light. 



" During the intervals of the flashes of lightning, the night was 

 exceedingly dark, and nothing else could be distinguished in the 

 gloom except the bright light upon the leaves of these flowers. 

 " Stowe, September, 23rd, 1835." 



A paper was read by Prof. Rigaud on Halley's Astronomise Come- 

 ticae Synopsis. 



Halley had begun his calculations of cometary orbits in 1695, and 

 appears to have completed them in 1702 ; but it was not till 1705 



