Jan. 17, 1878] 



NATURE 



221 



and exhaustive paper in the last volume of the Memoirs of the 

 Royal Astronomical Society) to be I I'll I years. While if we 

 ask the magnetic men the length of the cycle of iheir needle 

 manifestations, they (as in Mr. Allan Broun's first paragraph on 

 p. 183) declare it as confidently to be lo'5 years. 



Wherefore I would request to be kindly informed if the 

 maxima of the two cycles do approximately agree just now, 

 where will they be, relatively to each other, after a dozen cycles 

 hence? And the answer may or may not assist in clearing up 

 certain apparent anomalies in the Edinburgh earth-thermometer 

 observations. PlAZZi Smyth 



15, Royal Terrace, Edinburgh, January u 



On the Insects of Chili and New Zealand 



In Mr, McLachlan's note " On Some Peculiar Points in the 

 Insect P'auna of Chili" (Nature, vol. xvii. p. 162), I see, with 

 surprise, the remark that "the large islands of New Zealand 

 furnish us with no indication whatever of forms parallel with 

 those found in Chili," for it is well known that many Lepidoptera 

 belonging to European genera do occur in New Zealand, although, 

 perhaps, neither Argynnis or Colias. Amongst a small number 

 of Lepidoptera from New Zealand which lately came into my 

 hands, I notice species of the following European genera : — 

 Se<ia, Cloantha, Nonagria, Helio'hU, Ilybernia, Lareniia, 

 Fidonia, CiJaria, Coremia, Campto^ramma, Asthena, Acidalia, 

 Scoparia. Except in the case of Sesia tipuiforme, it is not 

 probable man has had any hand in the introduction of them. 

 None, except the Sesia, are identical with European species, 

 although several approximate, and the causes which have led to 

 the existence of Agynnis and Colias, in Chili, are probably the 

 same as those which have planted the insects I have named in 

 New Zealand. 



In Mr. Darwin's " Origin of Species," Chapter XII., we find 

 a suggested Explanation of the Presence of the Forms of the 

 Northern Temperate Zone in South America and New Zealand 

 in the occurrence of alternate glacial epochs at the North and 

 South Poles, and although the observations especially refer to 

 plants, they are applicable to the insects which would, doubtless, 

 accompany them in their supposed migrations. Perhaps it is 

 not an entirely satisfactory explanation, and with his usual can- 

 dour, Mr, Darwin admits that it does not meet all difficulties. 

 In describing the wanderings of the plants, Mr. Darwin uses 

 terms (figurative of course) which endow them with extra- 

 ordinary if not voluntary powers of locomotion, as, indeed, 

 they would seem to require in reality, for effecting such won- 

 derful migrations, and as regards insects Mr. McLachlan goes 

 further, and suggests that some of them "mistook the points of 

 the compass and went southward." 



Now the pertinacity with which the Lepidoptera adhere to 

 particular plants and stations, and prefer death to change of 

 either, is a much more noticeable character than their ability to 

 emigrate, and seems to me a serious bar to the acceptance of a 

 theory involving great changes of food and a double journey 

 across the equator ; possibly some of the polyphagous species 

 might survive it, but even these, according to Mr. McLachlan, 

 appear to have got a little muddled in their reckoning. Most of 

 the Insects I have named are eminently select in their diet, and 

 bow are we even to conceive of the wingless female of Hybernia 

 performing the vast journey ? 



I do not know that we have evidence that change of climate 

 induces migration of the Lepidoptera, There is a large colony of 

 Bryophilaperla, which has been stationed on an old wall here 

 for the last twenty years, and although there are miles of similar 

 lichen-covered walls in the neighbourhood, I have never seen a 

 specimen fifty yards from head-quarters, and even under the 

 threat of a new glacial epoch, I do not think it would consent to 

 move on. 



In saying there are no indications of similar forms on the 

 northern portions of the Andes, I am not sure whether Mr, 

 McLachlan refers to Lepidoptera or Trichoptera, so I will 

 mention that I have received several species of Colias captured 

 on the eastern Cordillera of New Granada. The genus probably 

 ranges through the whole chain of the Andes. 



Douglas, Isle of Man, January 2 Edwin Birchall 



Macrosilia cluentius 

 In Nature (vol, viii. p, 223) I have spoken of a Sphinx 

 which, with its proboscis of 0*25 metre length, would be capable 



of obtaining nearly all the ■ nectar of AnajrtBcum sesquipedale. 

 Lately my brother, Fritz MUller (Itajahy, Prov. St, Catharina, 

 Brazil), sent me the wings of another specimen of the same 

 species, and Dr. Staudinger, of Dresden, stated by comparison 

 of these wings with the Sphingidpe of his collection tfiat the 

 name of the species is Macrosilia cluentius, Cramer. 

 Lippstadt, January 9 Hermann Muller 



Meteor 



I TAKE the liberty of forwarding the following; particulars 

 relative to a meteor which I saw on Sunday last at 4h. 24m, p.m., 

 that is to say, about twenty minutes after sunset. As, however, 

 the day had been very fine, there was not only full daylight in 

 the west, but only a trace of twilight in the north-west direction, 

 in which I saw the meteor. I may add that the sky was slightly 

 overcast by watery clouds in that direction : — 



Point from which seen, Salthill, near Kingstown ; direction 

 in which seen, north-west ; elevation above horizon, io° to 15° ; 

 length of luminous "tail," 5° to 6°; inclination from vertical, 

 about (towards south) 10°; time, 4h, 24m. P.M. ; colour of tail 

 and of globe of explosion, light blue. 



Judging from the elevation and from the fact of its being 

 visible notwithstanding the strong twilight and the interposed 

 clouds, I conclude that this meteor must have been remarkably 

 brilliant and that it exploded over or beyond the West Coast of 

 Ireland. It is for these reasons that I take the liberty of ciUing 

 attention to it, as others may have seen it under more favourable 

 conditions. P. W. ReiLLY 



Royal College of Science for Ireland, 

 Stephen's Green, Dublin, January 15 



Philadelphia Diplomas 



In Nature, vol. xvii. p. 183, there appears a note by Dr. C. 

 M. Ingleby on the " Philadelphia Diplomas." Permit me to 

 say that the only institutions in Philadelphia legally authorised 

 to grant medical diplomas are the University of Pennsylvania, a 

 school which has long ago celebrated its centenary, and the 

 Jefferson Medical College, The so-called University of Phila- 

 delphia is a hybrid concern, the medical department of which is 

 under the management of the Eclectic Medical School. 



January 10 Richd. C- Brandeis 



Great Waterfalls 



I SHALL be much obliged if you, or any of your readers, can 

 inform me in what book I can find accounts of any of the follow- 

 ing great waterfalls : — Tlie Tequendama Fall, near Sta. Fe de 

 Bogota, South America ; the Cauvery Falls, near Seringapatam, 

 India ; the Alatau Falls, Alatau Mountains, Central Asia ; the 

 Guava, or Guayra Falis, on the Alto Parana, South Brazil ; 

 Falls of the Rio Grande, near Guadalajara, Mexico. These 

 great falls, five of the most remarkable in the world, ars shortly 

 noticed in books of geography, but I have hitherto been unable 

 to obtain any detailed particulars or description of them. 



Eliham, January 7 Arthur G. Guillemard 



BIOLOGICAL NOTES 



Self-fertilisation of Plants.— This subject, around 

 which the genius of Mr. Charles Darwin has thrown a 

 halo, seems likely to give rise to further controversy. 

 The Rev. G, Henslow, in a communication laid before 

 the first meeting this session of the Linnean Society, 

 gave an exposition of the views he had arrived at ; these 

 in many respects being at variance with those promul- 

 gated by Mr. Darwin. The author acknowledged how 

 indebted he stood towards the latter, whose vast store- 

 house of facts and close reasoning necessitated constant 

 reference to his writings ; but the author's own deductions 

 therefrom, and additional researches, nevertheless, con- 

 firmed him in hesitating to accept some of Mr. Darwin's 

 conclusions. According to Mr. Henslow, the chief facts 

 and bearings of the self-fertilisation of plants may thus be 

 summarised : i. The majority of flowering plants are 

 self-fertile. 2. Very few are known to be physiologically 

 self-sterile. 3. Many are morphologically self-stenle. 4. 

 Self-sterile plants become self-fertile by {a) withering of 



