153 Royal Society. 



separate by disarticulation, and their remains are found arranged in 

 spiral lines upon the outside, so as to give the short, thick rhizome 

 the aspect of a piece of a palm stem. As in Ntiphar, the roots are 

 produced in bundles at the bases of the petioles, and fall off suc- 

 cessively upwards as the new ones are developed, leaving very con- 

 spicuous scars. The internal structure of the stem is quite Mono- 

 cotjdedonous in its character, presenting no trace of the arrange- 

 ment of the vascular bundles into rings of wood, no true woody 

 fibres, and no cambium layer. The vascular bundles, which are 

 composed exclusively of spiral, annular and reticulated ducts sur- 

 rounded by elongated parenchymatous cellular tissue, are isolated 

 and arranged just as in Monocotyledons, such as the Palms ; and the 

 outer part of the stem exhibits a cortical parenchyma, much more 

 like that of the herbaceous rhizomes of the rush-like plants, than 

 any other known structure ; it bears not the least resemblance to 

 the bark of Dicotyledons. The results of the investigation show 

 that Victoria, like Nuphar, has a stem of essentially Monocotyle- 

 donous structure. The paper was accompanied by drawings illus- 

 trating the general and microscopic anatomy of the stem. 



2. " On the Meteorology of the English Lake District, including 

 the results of Observations on the Fall of Rain at various heights, 

 up to 3166 feet above the Sea-Level :" Fifth paper, for the year 1851. 

 By John Fletcher Miller, Esq., F.R.S. &c. 



The author states that the results for the past year do not seem to 

 call for any particular remarks, and as it appears desirable, as a 

 general rule, to defer all attempts at deduction until after the com- 

 pletion of the observations, the Tables for 1851 are presented, with- 

 out many notes or comments, in continuation of the series which 

 have previously appeared in the Transactions of the Society. The 

 table for January, 1851, is given as an exam])le of the daily fall of 

 rain in the district during an excessively wet month, and al?o as 

 showing the form of permanently registering the returns from the 

 various stations, when sent in at the close of each month. He re- 

 marks that the quantity of 38'86 inches precipitated on '* The Stye" 

 in January 1851, is, he believes, without a parallel in the temperate 

 zone. 



3. " Formulization of Horary Observations presumed a priori to 

 be nearly of a Periodic nature." By S. M. Drach, Esq., F.R.A.S., 

 F.R.G.S. CommunicatedbyColonelSabine,R.A.,Treas.,V.P.R.S.&c. 

 Referring to his former publications on the subject (Proceed. Roy. 

 Soc. March 1842, Phil. Mag. 1842-51), the author empirically re- 

 solves the formula 



Jit — W + SAi sin it -}- Yai cos i7 = H + 2R; sin (it + 1//,), 

 k being the effect observed at the hour-angle t, thus obtaining from 

 the 24 hourly observations all values up to 2=12. This method 

 giving the values of A. «.,R for the different months, he believes 



that by it the law of change connected with the sun's motion in 

 longitude and declination will be most readily deduced. The for- 

 mula is exemplified by calculations and results of the diurnal varia- 

 tion of magnetic declination for each month at the various Colonial 



