November 9, 191 1] 



NATURE 



55 



graphers of all classes in order to make this exhibition, the 

 first of its kind, a success. All communications should be 

 addressed to Senor Don Salvador Raurich, Calle Gran Via 

 Diagonal, 462, 2°, Barcelona, Spain. 



The Magnitudes of Eighty-eight Stars in Coma 

 Berenices.— In No. 43 (vol. iv., 7) of the Mitteilungen 

 der Nikolai-Hanptsternwarte zu Pidkoxva Herr Beljawsky 

 gives the resulting magnitudes obtained from the measures 

 of two plates exposed in March last on the Coma Berenices 

 group. The magnitudes were determined by comparison 

 with stars of the Pleiades group, taken on the same plates 

 between exposures on the Coma Berenices group. Com- 

 paring his final magnitudes 

 with those obtained by 

 Pickering, M. Beljawsky 

 finds that there is a distinct 

 connection between the differ- 

 ence Beljawsky-Pickering and 

 the spectral class of the stars 

 concerned ; the difference in- 

 creases from class A (0-38) to 

 class K (0.84), and the in- 

 crease is probably due to a 

 difference in the_ scale of 

 photographic magnitudes. 



houses are divided so as to have both a hot and moist 

 and also a cooler and drier portion. 



The new botanical block is entirely devoted to laboratory 

 accommodation, and does not contain any lecture-rooms or 

 museum galleries. The facilities for botanical w-ork in the 

 University are added to by the experimental grounds and 

 greenhouses on the Behrens Estate, Fallowfield, which 

 supply both the need . of economic botany and zoology. 

 Here experiments in plant breeding have been in progress 

 for some time past, as well as investigations on conditions 

 of cultivation, as affecting the development or prevention of 

 certain plant diseases, and the testing of varieties of culti- 

 vated plants supposed to be immune to disease. 



THE ISKW BOTANICAL 

 LABORATORIES OF 

 THE UNIVERSITY 

 OF MANCHESTER. 



''pHE new botanical labora- 

 tories of the University 

 of Manchester were opened 

 by Dr. D. H. Scott, F.R.S., 

 on Friday last, November 3. 

 The new block of buildings 

 consists of four main floors 

 with two mezzanines, and is 

 planned so as to give ade- 

 quate accommodation for the 

 various branches of botanical 

 science. 



For palaeobotany, the study 

 of which is so closely 

 associated with the name of 

 the late Prof. Williamson, 

 the first professor of botany 

 of the Owens College, a room 

 is set apart on the ground 

 floor, close to the entrance on 

 the south side of the build- 

 ing ; while on the north is a 

 well-lighted laboratory for 

 thirty junior students, con- 

 nected directly with the larger 

 elementary laboratory in the 

 main building, which is cap- 

 able of seating forty more 

 students. On the first fioor 

 is a large research labora- 

 tory, opening into the senior 

 laboratory. 



The second floor is devoted 

 entirely to the Cryptogamic 



Department, which owes its endowment to the munificenl 

 legacy of the late Prof. Barker. In addition to providing 

 facilities for researches of a purely scientific nature, the 

 Barker Laboratory will be available for inquiries connected 

 with agriculture, such as investigations into diseases of 

 plants caused by fungi and bacteria. 



On the third floor the laboratory for plant physiology 

 occupies the gable end of the building, being designed so 

 as to possess both north light for microscope work and 

 south and west light for experiments requiring direct sun- 

 light. Such experiments can be made either in the labora- 

 tory itself or in the greenhouses, which occupy the whole 

 f^xtent of the south front of the top floor. The green- 



NO. 2193, VOL. 88] 



New ilotanical Laboratories, University of Manchester. 



[E. Vincent IV'anf. 



At the opening ceremony on Friday, November 3, the 

 Vice-Chancellor (Sir Alfred Hopkinson) welcomed the 

 guests, and after referring to the need there had been for 

 securing adequate accommodation for the teaching of 

 botany in the University, and the steps taken by the 

 council of the University to meet the requirements of the 

 growing department, invited Dr. Scott to open the new 

 building. A ceremonial key was presented to Dr. Scott by 

 the architect, Mr. Paul Waterhouse, and, after the door 

 had been unlocked, the building was declared open, and 

 was inspected by the visitors. 



Later in the afternoon Dr. Scott delivered a short address 

 to the friends and students of the University, and spoke 



