yune 29, 1876] 



NATUkE 



263 



ferous flower, based on a quinary type, and which, by sym- 

 metrical reduction {i.e., the fifth part of each whorl would be 

 suppressed) the remaining fours would, by further arrest, due to 

 adaptations to insect agency, form the normal flower. He also 

 disputed the tenability of Chorisis in the pairs of long stamens, 

 regarding their occasional union as indicative of evolutionary 

 advance and not retrogression ; as cohesion is a subsequent stage 

 to freedom, except in the rare cases of atavism indicated by solu- 

 tion and dialysi". The author called in question the justness of 

 Pfeflfer's view of the corolla of primula, being an outgrowth of 

 the Androecium, by showing (a) the position of the stamens to 

 be explained by the staminodia of Samolus, (b) that the corolla 

 appearing subsequent to the stamens is no anomaly, (c) that the 

 fibro-vascular bundles are ten in number, of which five are inter- 

 mediate, and {d) that phyllo tactical aestivation were those of true 

 leaves ; so that all these facts conspired to render the theory 

 untenable. Mr. J. G. Baker read a paper on a collection of 

 ferns made by Mr. Wm. Pool in the interior of Madagascar. 

 Altogether 1 14 species have been obtained, of which fifteen are 

 entirely new and twenty- eight prove to be varieties of already 

 known forms. Some examples, e.^., Asplenium trichomanes, 

 Nephrodium felix-mas, and Aspidium aculeatum, are thoroughly 

 temperate types. — Mr. Francis Darwin read an account of some 

 researches of his on glandular bodies on Acacia spheerocephala 

 and Cecropia peltata, serving as food for ants. The structures in 

 question were discovered by Mr Belt (Nicaragua), and subse- 

 quently further observations made by Fritz Miiller (Brazil), while 

 Mr. Darwin has more particularly entered into their minute 

 composition. In Acacia they are of two kinds (a) nectar- 

 secreting glands situate at the base of the petiole, {b) small, 

 somewhat flattened, pear-shaped bodies, which tip six or seven 

 of the lowermost leaflets of the bipinnate leaves. In Cecropia 

 cylindrical bodies are developed in flat cushions at the base of 

 the leaf-stalk. Mr. Darwin shows the microscopical structure of 

 all of these to be homologous in kind, cellular, protoplasm, and 

 containing oil globules. He infers, moreover, they bear a 

 relation to the serration-glands of Reinke, in certain cases after- 

 wards being converted into stores of nutriment, which un- 

 doubtedly the ants live on, and in their turn protect the trees 

 from the ravages of the leaf-cutting ants. — A notice of the lichens 

 of Madagascar collected by Mr. W. Pool, by the Rev. J. M. 

 Cerombie, was taken as read. — Prof. Wyville Thomson, of the 

 Challenger Expedition, addressed the meeting, giving the results 

 of two communications by him ; one on new living Crinoids 

 belong to thelApiocrinedae, the other on some peculiarities in the 

 mode of propagation of certain Echinoderms of the Southern 

 Seas. 



Royal Astronomical Society, June 9. — William Huggins, 

 D.C.L., president, in the chair. A paper by Prof. Simon New- 

 comb was read on a hitherto unnoticed apparent inequality in 

 the longitude of the moon. The inequality was, it appeared, 

 brought to light in the course of an investigation which has 

 recently been made by Prof. Newcomb, of the corrections to be 

 applied to Hansen's " Tables de la lune," in order that they may 

 be used for the determination of the longitudes of the transit of 

 Venus stations. Prof. Newcomb set himself to compare the 

 places derived from Hansen's Tables with the series of lunar 

 observations made at Greenwich and Washington between the 

 years 1862 and 1874. The residual errors of the moon's place 

 showed a systematic inequality which could not be got rid of by 

 any new assumption as to the value of the corrections of the 

 lunar elements. There can be no serious doubt about the exist- 

 ence of the inequality, because both the Greenwich and Wash- 

 ington observations agree in showing it, and a close investigation 

 shows that the crors are periodic and depend upon the moon's 

 longitude. In „rder to make the investigation more complete, 

 Prof. Newcomb has determined the corrections for the years 

 1847 to 1858, for which period the residual errors of Hansen's 

 Tables are given in the Greenwich observations of 1859. A 

 table of the resulting corrections is given in the paper, and it 

 appears that the period of the chief term of the new inequality i-i 

 l6| years with a probable error of half a year. The corre- 

 sponding period of the inequality in longitude is 27-4304 days T 

 0*0040 days, and there is a large preponderance of probability 

 against the real period being less than 27*42 days, or more than 

 27*44 days. No known term in the moon's longitude falls 

 within these limits. The moon's sidereal period is 27*32 days 

 and the anomalistic period is 27*55 days, so that the new term 

 falls half way between the two. The non-accordance of this 

 period with any term heretofore sought for, is the probable 



reason why this term has not before been noticed ; a term if un- 

 known would not be remarked unless its value was such as visibly 

 to effect the individual comparison of theory with observation, 

 and Hansen's tables as corrected are the first of which the 

 residual errors are so small that a term of l"*5 would be remarked 

 in the comparison with observations. Prof. Adams said that he 

 was at a loss to imagine what the cause of this inequality can be, 

 he was rather inclined to suppose that it may have something to 

 do vrith the effect of the figure of the earth on the motion of the 

 moon, but this was only an idea thrown out on the spur of the 

 moment. — Lord Lindsay exhibited an adaptation of the ordinary 

 altazimuth instrument designed to give a rough equatorial 

 motion ; to the base of the altazimuth pillar is fixed an iron bar, 

 through a hole in which a string or wire is attached to the object- 

 glass end of the telescope. The only adjustments that are neces- 

 sary are that the horizontal bar shall be placed approximately 

 north and south, and that the distance from the base of the alta- 

 zimuth pillar to the hole in the bar through which the string 

 passes shall be equal to the height of the pillar into the co- 

 tangent of the latitude of the place 01 observation. — Mr. Plumber 

 read a paper on photometric experiments upon the light of 

 Venus. By comparing the shadow of a wire cast by the light of 

 the planet with the shadow of a similar wire cast by a candle at 

 a known distance, and again by comparing the light of the 

 candle with the light of the full moon, he came to the conclusion 

 that the light of Venus at its greatest brilliancy was equal to 



— of the brightness of the full moon, and by a similar method 



799-5 ^ ^ 



found that the light of Jupiter at mean opposition was equal to 



2 of the light of the mean full moon. 



6430 ^ 



Chemical Society, June 15, Dr. J. H. Gladstone, F.R.S., 

 vice-president, in the chair. — A large number of communications 

 were read, this being the last meeting of the season. The first 

 paper, by Prof. Dewar, entitled "Chemical Studies," was 

 chiefly devoted to an account of several interesting lecture expe- 

 riments. — Dr. H. E. Armstrong then gave a short account of his 

 elaborate researches on the reduction of nitric acid and on the 

 oxides of nitrogen, part i., on the gases evolved by the action of 

 metals on nitric acid, made in conjunction with Mr. Accworth. 

 — Mr. C. T. Kingsett then read a paper on the composition and 

 formula of an alkaloid from Jaborandi. — There were also papers 

 on the simultaneous action of iodine and aluminium on ether and 

 compound ethers, by Dr. J. H. Gladstone and Mr. A. Tribe ; 

 on compounds of antimony pentachloride with alcohols and with 

 ethers, by Mr. W. C. Williams ; on the volatility of barium, 

 strontium, and calcium, by Prof. J. W. Mallet ; on the action of 

 chlorine on acetamide, by Dr. E. W. Prevost ; note on the per- 

 bromates, by Mr. M. M. P. Muir, and a communication on a 

 new and convenient form of areometer for clinical use, by Dr. 

 J. G. Blackley. 



Geological Society, June 7.— Prof. P. M. Duncan, F.R.S., 

 president, in the chair. — ^John Thos. Atkinson, Edmund Clark, 

 Frederick Deny, Walter S. Gervis, Thos. Jones, Baldwin Latham, 

 and Edward Sewell, were elected Fellows of the Society. — On the 

 British fossil cretaceous birds, by Prof. H. G. Seeley, F.L.S. 

 In this paper the author gave an account of the remains of birds 

 which have been collected from the Cambridge Upper Green- 

 sand. The bones are so fragmentary that the size of the animal 

 can only be given roughly as similar to that of the Diver, but 

 with a shorter neck. The affinities of the animal are strongest 

 with Colymbus. It also closely resembles Prof. Marsh's creta- 

 ceous genus Hesperornis, and like that genus may be supposed to 

 have had teeth. The species were described as Enaliornis Bar- 

 retti and E. Sedgzuicki. Some bones were also described thought 

 to indicate birds in which the extremities of the bones remained 

 unossified throughout life. — On two chimseroid jaws from the 

 Lower Greensand of New Zealand, by E. T. Newton, F.G.S., 

 of H.M. .Geological Survey. The two jaws which were the 

 subject of this communication form part of the collection of 

 fossils from the Lower Greensand of New Zealand deposited in 

 the British Museum by Dr. Hector. One of the specimens, a 

 right mandible, was referred by the author to Ischyodus brei'iros- 

 iris, Ag., a species from the Gault of Folkestone, hitherto known 

 only by name, no description or figure of it having been as yet 

 published. The second specimen, a small right maxilla, possess- 

 ing but one tooth, and this of a peculiar form, was compared with 

 the corresponding form in Ischyodus, Edaphodon, Elasmodus, 

 Ganodus, Chimcera, and Callorhynchus. ResCsons were given for 



