August 15, 1889] 



NATURE 



367 



apparently merely to split the bark in the usual way. But, at a 

 heiglit of about 20 feet from the ground (as I judged), some- 

 thing in the nature of an explosion must have taken place. Not 

 only is the bark stripped absolutely clean off in large sheets 

 from the level of the ground up to a height of about 30 feet, 

 some of the sheets having been shot to a considerable distance, 

 but where the explosion seems to have occurred, and for a con- 

 siderable height above and below, the solid timber is burst open 

 and broken into shivers, and the tree, which was a very fine 

 ■one, is broken short across at the point where the greate-t 

 amount of splintering has taken place. Here, too, a consider- 

 able branch seems to have been wrenched off by the explosion. 



The other tree is at a distance of perhops 30 yards, and was, 

 if anything, a still finer one. The appearances here are pre- 

 cisely similar, except that the lightning, which I imagine was 

 conducted along the wet surface of the twigs and smaller 

 branches at the top of the tree down to the junctions of the 

 main branches with each other and the stem, here appears to 

 have struck into the wood, tearing the bark up into rough fila- 

 ments, which still remain attached to the surrounding bark. 

 Most of this tearing occurs at the angles where the main 

 branches join ; but I noticed two places, each about the size of 

 a five-shilling piece, each of which was at some distance above 

 an angle. One such "bruise" appears also in the first-men- 

 tioned tree, some distance above the broken bough where the 

 main body of the electricity appears to have entered. The 

 " explosion '' in the second tree was at a less height than that 

 in the other. 



It has been suggested that a good deal of the splintering may 

 havebeen caused by th^ trees, weakened by the stroke, having been 

 broken short off by the storm of wind which presumably raged at 

 the time. I do not think this a probable explanation, for the 

 following reasons. The trees are well within a considerable 

 wood, where the effect of such a gale would not be fully felt, 

 while the two tops are now lying almost at right angles to one 

 another ; not parallel as one would expect if the same gale of 

 wind had overthrown them. It appears most probable that a 

 violent explosion occurred, not exactly in the middle of the stem, 

 but rather to the side remote from that to which the tops have 

 fallen. I think it will be found that all the appearances agree 

 with this explanation. 



The destructive nature of the strokes cannot be adequately 

 described by words : long splinters, of wedge-shaped section, ai-e 

 sticking up everywhere at the place of fracture, while many feet 

 below it a pen-knife can be inserted easily in numbers of crevices 

 which run up and into the stem along the radial lines which are 

 always formed in the growth of oak timber, and which have 

 here been split open. 



Some black stains on the soil at the foot of the trees are 

 pointed out as the effect of the "fire." It will be seen, how- 

 ever, that these are caused by the tannin in the oak sap staining 

 the iron-impregnated clay soil. 



I have seen numbers of lightning-struck trees, but have never 

 seen anything to compare with these, and I much hope that 

 soire one, with more knowledge of lightning and its effects than 

 I have, will take the train to St. Albans, with a photographic 

 apparatus, and fee and judge for himself, and give us some 

 explanation. If he will write to my father (Rev. Dr. Griffith, 

 Sandridge Vicarage, St. Albans, Herts), with a couple of days' 

 notice or so, he will be happy to do all in his power to help, 

 and will no doubt drive him to the spot. 



Readers of Nature may possibly remember a former letter 

 of mine, written, if I recollect aright, in the autumn of 1879, 

 describing a sparrow and her nest, flung out of a crevice in a 

 chimney struck by lightning — the bird almost entirely plucked. 

 The bird I placed in spirits, and deposited in the Cavendish 

 Museum at Cambridge. The barking of these trees reminded 

 me of the plucking of that bird. 



A. F. Griffith. 



15 Buckingham Place, Brighton, August 8. 



A Brilliant Rainbow, 



From the veranda of this Club, several of the members, in- 

 cluding myself, have, within five minutes of the time of writing 

 this (6.30 p.m.), witnessed a phenomenon the parallel to which 

 we have never seen before — a most brilliant rainbow, the usual 

 parallel reflection, and another rainbow or reflection quite as 

 brilliant as the ordinary and usual reflection, at an angle 



which I sketched at the moment, but which, as I have no com- 

 passes, I cannot draw semicircular. The tide is out. and nothing 

 but little puddles of sea are hft. E. Burton Durham. 



Alexandra Yacht Club, Southend-on-Sea, August 11. 



THE 1 85 1 COMMISSIONERS' ESTATE AT 

 KENSINGTON. 



A NEW light has been thrown upon the proposals of 

 ■^*- the Commissioners of 1 851, to make grants for 

 provincial Museums, and to found Scholarships of science 

 and art, which were discussed in NATURE of July 18 

 (p. 265). As was then explained, the carrying out of these 

 proposals would necessitate the sale of a considerable 

 portion of the Commissioners' estate at Kensington Gore. 

 We also showed that public protests had been raised 

 during the last three months against any such sale ; further, 

 that State aid in co-operation with local effort has provided 

 the country with a system of science and art Scholarships 

 and grants for provincial institutions, and that the Com- 

 missioners are not in a position also to launch and 

 administer a corresponding system of grants and Scholar- 

 ships themselves, for the benefit of the country. But as 

 the Commissioners have published a notification of their 

 intention to proceed with their scheme, it is perhaps but 

 natural that, when it is attacked, they should defend their 

 position as ably as may be. The attack which has been 

 made upon their scheme is twofold in character, but it 

 aiins chiefly at the preservation of the inner gardens of 

 the estate from the degradation of being sold for and used 

 as a common site for private houses, to the unavoidable 

 detriment of the institutions upon the estate. 



As regards the scheme for grants and Scholarships, 

 Mr. Samuelson, M.P., gave notice of a question in the 

 House of Commons to Sir Lyon Playfair, the gist of it 

 being whether, in formulating their scheme, the Com- 

 missioners had examined, and taken account of, the 

 scheme (identical in direction) which has been for years 

 and is in operation under the Science and Art Depart- 

 ment. Sir Lyon Playfair transferred the answering of 

 this question to the Home Secretary, who stated accord- 

 ingly that the Commissioners' scheme was being prepared, 

 and would be printed in due course and laid before the 

 House of Commons. Under these circumstances, we 

 may postpone further remarks upon the Commissioners' 

 grants and Scholarships scheme until it is printed in a 

 complete form and submitted as promised. 



In the meantime, however, we must take notice of 

 another incident connected with the Commissioners and 

 their proposals. On July 19, Mr. Bartley, M.P., gave 

 notice of a question to be asked of Sir Lyon Playfair on 

 July 22. The question was, whether Sir Lyon would, as 

 a Commissioner of 1851, state the names of the different 

 persons, public bodies, and institutions which had sent 

 protests to the Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851, 

 against the proposed sale of part of the inner gardens of 

 their estate at Kensington Gore for private buildings. 

 Sir Lyon Playfair, however, was not in his place when 

 the question should have come on on the 22nd. It was 

 postponed to the 23rd ; and when the printed notice paper 

 i for that day appeared, it was found that an arrangement 

 had been made for the question to be answered, not by 

 Sir Lyon Playfair, but by his brother Commissioner, the 

 Home Secretary. The question was therefore asked of 

 that Minister, and, before the answer to it could be given, 

 Sir Lyon Playfair got up and asked whether the right 

 hon. gentleman was aware that a deputation of the 

 Mayors of nearly all the largest towns in England and 

 Wales, representing a population of more than 3,000,000, 

 had waited on the Commissioners to urge that the pro- 

 perty in South Kensington should be sold and realized, 

 in order to be applied to provincial Museums. Mr. 

 Matthews replied to both the questions in one answer. 



