248 



NATURE 



{Jan. 27, 1876 



" History of Creation." But, according to a recent reviewer* •f 

 the said work, . this is what he says of the "true nature of 

 Lichens " : — " Every Lichen is really composed of two distiiict 

 plants : of a low form of Ftmgus (Ascomycetes), which lives as a 

 parasite upon the former (?), and upon the nutritive substance 

 prepared by it. The green cells, containing chlorophyll (Gonidia), 

 which are found in every Lichen (?), belong to the alga. But the 

 colourless threads (Hyphse), which, densely interwoven, form the 

 principal mass of the body of the Lichens, belong to the parasitic 

 fungus. ^^ (Vol. ii. p. 95.) Now, says the reviewer in question, 

 "This doctrine, so dogmatically put forth .... is adopted 

 but by a few outside of the extremely Hypothetical school 

 of German botanists ; and by the best Cryptogamists of this 

 country and of the Continent is considered a pure Delusion : " a 

 verdict much nearer the truth, it must be confessed, than the 

 assertion that Prof. Schwendener has "cleared up" the "true 

 nature of Lichens." Among "the best ci7ptogamists of this 

 country " who have expressed themselves as unconvinced by, or 

 opposed to, the dogmata of Schwendener and his admirers, 

 regarding the " true nature of Lichens," are Berkeley, Thwaites, 

 and Cooke — than whom we have certainly no botanists better 

 quahfied or entitled to form or to offer opinions on such a subject. 

 The views of Berkeley and Thwaites are referred to in Nature 

 (vol. X. p. 541) as having been expounded before the Royal 

 Horticultural Society ; while those of Cooke are set forth vigo- 

 rously in his recent " International Scientific Scries " volume on 

 " Fungi." See also what the sagacious President of the Lin- 

 ncean Society (Bentham) says on this subject — ex cathcdrd, and 

 therefore summing up judicially— in his anniversary address for 

 1873 (Proceedings of the Society for May 1873, p. 28) : — "There 

 is one part of Sachs' book + (says he) which is an illustration 

 of a very common readiness to take at once as proved 2.xs.y paradox 

 or theory opposed to general belief, when a new discovery ap- 

 pears to afford some plausible argument in its favour. In the article 

 Lichens ... he adopts, as an established fact, Schwendener's 

 view that Lichens are Fungi parasitical upon Algee ... a series 

 of conclusions founded on a very small number ot facts . . . They 

 require much observation and study before the conclusions 

 derived from them can be taught as an established Theory. And 

 whatever be the result, the Group of Lichens is so distinct in its 

 vegetative characters, and at the same time so extensive and 

 varied a one, that it seems more methodical to treat it, as hereto- 

 fore, as a distitict class, X than to absorb it in that of Fungi, notwith- 

 standing the close affinity shown by its reproductive organs." 



But other German botanists themselves, not inferior in status 

 or experience to Prof. Schwendener, regard, as Bentham does, 

 the Hypothesis that Lichens are the product of a union of Parasitic 

 Ascomycetes with Algoe as far from being proved. For instance, 

 Prof. De Bary, of Halle, and Dr. Stizenberger, of Constance, 

 point this out in the Botanische Zeitung for 1870 (pp. 42 and 53). 

 If, by artificial cultivation, such a Union could be made to produce 

 a Lichen, the Theoiy might be held as proven. But this has not 

 yet been effected, and I venture to think and say it never will be. 



There are several difficulties in the natural history of Lichens 

 with which the Schwendenerians have to deal, and which they 

 have not yet, so far as I know, explained away. For instance, 

 the case of Athalhne Lichens that have neither Hyphse nor 

 Gonidia — neither fungoid nor algoid elements — assuming Hyphse 

 to be necessarily fungoid and Gonidia to be algoid ; Lichens that 

 are represented only by Apothecia, which are avowedly lichenoid : 

 though they too may be claimed for the Algre, inasmuch as 

 Archer has a recent paper " On Apothecia occurring in some 

 Scytonematous and Sorisophonaceous^ Algae in addition to those 

 previously known." § 



In short, the mantle of Bayrhoflfer appears to have fallen on 

 Schwendener ; and his Parasitic Theory is merely the most recent 

 instance of German transcendentalism applied to the Lichens ! 



W. Lauder Lindsay 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 



The Binary Star y Corona Australis.— Professor 

 Scbiaparelli has measured this star during the past year 

 with the 8-inch Merz-equatorial of the Observ-atory of 

 Brera, Milan, where its meridian altitude is less than 8° ; 



* In the Scotsman (Edinburgh) for December 3, 1875. 



t " Lehrbuch der Botanik," of which a well-known English translation 

 has now been published. 



* The Italics are mine. 



§ " Quart, Journal of Microscopical Science," January 1875. 



an interval of twelve years had elapsed since the last pub- 

 lished measures by Powell. The first micrometrical 

 measures were made in 1834 by Sir John Herschel, and 

 from 1847 to 1858 Jacob had given much attention 

 to observations of this star. From the forty-two years' 

 observations thus available, Professor Scbiaparelli has 

 calculated an orbit which agrees unusually well with 

 observation, and may be written as follows : — 



Peri-astron passage, 1882774; node, 49° 9'; node to 

 peri-astron on orbit reckoned in the direction of motion, 

 255° 24'; inclination, 68" 38' ; excentricity, 0-6989 : serai- 

 axis major, 2"'4o ; period of revolution, 55'582 years; 

 mean annual motion, — 6°"477. 



At the calculated peri-astron passage in the autumn of 

 1882, the distance of the components which was i""45 last 

 summer v/ill have diminished, according to the above 

 orbit, to o'"3. Professor Scbiaparelli states that obser- 

 vations are already difficult in his latitude, and will soon 

 become impracticable ; the star must therefore be left to 

 the southern observatories, whence measures may be 

 looked for during the interesting period in its revolution 

 now at hand. 



It will be seen that y Coronas Australis has the shortest 

 revolution of any southern binary, and is fourth on our 

 list in respect of rapid motion. 



The Solar Eclipse of 1876, March 25. — It is quite 

 possible that this eclipse, which is given as an annular 

 one in the Ephemerides, may be total for an instant on 

 the North Pacific Ocean in longitude 140° 16' west of 

 Greenwich, and latitude 35° 39' north, or near this posi- 

 tion it may prove one of those rare phenomena, charac- 

 terised in our text-books as " total without continuance." 

 The central line traverses the southern and largest island 

 of the Sandwich group, where the eclipse will be annular 

 for a few seconds. At a point in longitude 155° 56' W., 

 latitude 19° 28' N., the echpse commences at gh. 30m. a.m. 

 local mean time, at 130° from the sun's north point towards 

 the west (direct), and the annulus is formed according to 

 the Nautical Almanac elements at loh. 49m. ids., and 

 continues ten seconds. This point is a little south of 

 Kaavaroa, by the Admiralty Chart, and close to the spot 

 where the monument to Capt. Cook was erected ; the 

 central eclipse leaves this island, Hawaii, near Manienie, 

 also marked on the Admiralty Chart of this group. The 

 eclipse will be central and annular also in Vancouver 

 Island and British Columbia. The central line appears 

 to enter Vancouver at Refuge Cove, Sydney Inlet, leaving 

 it at Orange Point, Duncan Bay, whence its course is to 

 George Point, British Columbia. In Vancouver Island 

 the annulus may continue seven or eight seconds, being 

 formed about oh. 27m. P.M. local mean time. At New 

 Westminster, British Columbia, calculation gives a large 

 partial eclipse commencing at iih. 22m. a.m., and ending 

 at 2h. 3m. P.M. local times, magnitude 0-95 ; here the 

 first impression of the moon upon the sun's disc is made 

 at 127° from his north point towards the west. For 

 further information on the track of the central line over 

 these parts the large Admiralty Chart of Vancouver 

 Island and vicinity should be consulted ; the above 

 names of points traversed by the central eclipse are taken 

 from it. 



On the central line this eclipse must prove one of very 

 considerable and unusual interest. 



Bessel's Treatises. — The first volume of the collec- 

 tive edition of the more important astronomical and other 

 memoirs by the illustrious Konigsberg astronomer has 

 been issued under the editorship of Dr. Rudolf Engel- 

 mann, of Leipsic. It is a handsomely printed volume in 

 quarto, of nearly 400 pages, and doubtless will find its 

 way into the library of every earnest student of the 

 science. 



Amongst the contents of this first volume may be men- 

 tioned Bessel's early work, undertaken at the instigation 

 of Olbers, the reduction of Harriot's and Torporley's 



