86 



NATURE 



[May 24, 1888 



Sir H. E. Roscoe will resign the chair, and Sir F. J. Bramwell, 

 President-elect, will assume the Presidency, and deliver an 

 address. On Thursday evening, September 6, at 8 p.m., there 

 will be a soiree ; on Friday evening, September 7, at 8.30 p.m., 

 a discourse on "The Electrical Transmission of Power," by 

 Prof. W. E. Ayrton ; on Monday evening, September 10, at 

 8.30 p.m., a discourse on "The Foundation Stones of the 

 Earth's Crust," by Prof. T. G. Bonney ; on Tuesday evening, 

 September 11, at 8 p.m., a soiree. On Wednesday evening, 

 September 12, the concluding general meeting will be held at 

 2.30 p.m. Excursions to places of interest in the neighbourhood 

 of Bath will be made on the afternoon of Saturday, September 8, 

 and on Thursday, September 13. 



The fourth session of the International Geological Congress 

 will be opened on Monday evening, September 17, and will last 

 during the whole of the week. The meetings will be held in 

 the rooms of the University of London, Burlington Gardens. 

 The Honorary President of the Congress will be Prof. Huxley ; 

 the President, Prof. Prestwich ; the Vice-Presidents, the 

 Director-General of the Geological Survey, the President of the 

 Geological Society, and Prof. McK. Hughes ; Treasurer, Mr. 

 F. W. Rudler; and General Secretaries, Mr. J. W. Hulke and 

 Mr. W. Topley. Up to the present date 395 geologists have 

 signified their intention of being present. Of these 210 are 

 British, and 185 foreign. The number of countries represented 

 is 22. 



The Linnean Society holds its centenary celebration to-day. 

 The following is the programme of the proceedings: — At 

 2.30 p.m. the President will receive the visitors. At 3 p.m. the 

 President will take the chair. After introductory remarks by 

 the President, and the formal business of the anniversary meet- 

 ing, the Treasurer will lay before the meeting an account of the 

 financial condition of the Society during the last century ; the 

 Secretaries will lay before the meeting a history of the Linnean 

 books, herbarium, and other collections ; the President will 

 deliver the annual address. The following Eulogia will be pro- 

 nounced : On Linnaeus, by Prof. Thore Fries, the present 

 occupant of the Chair of Botany at Upsala ; on Robert Brown, 

 by Sir Joseph Hooker ; on Charles Darwin, by Prof. Flower ; 

 on George Bentham, by Mr. W. T. Thiselton Dyer. The 

 Linnean Gold Medal, instituted by the Society on the occasion of 

 its centenary, will be presented to Sir Joseph Hooker (botanist), 

 and Sir Richard Owen (zoologist). (In subsequent years the 

 presentation will be alternately to a botanist and zoologist. ) At 

 6.30 p.m. the annual dinner will be held at the Hotel Victoria, 

 Northumberland Avenue, the President in the chair. To- 

 morrow (May 25th), at 8.30 p.m., the President and Officers will 

 hold a reception of the members and visitors in the Rooms of 

 the Society, when the Linnean collections and relics will be 

 exhibited. 



The late Mr. Cooper Foster, of Grosvenor Street, for many 

 years senior surgeon to Guy's Hospital, was famous among 

 horticulturists as a collector and grower of Hymenophyllums, 

 Trichomanes, and Todias, popularly known as Filmy Ferns. 

 With very few exceptions, the whole of these plants are ex- 

 tremely difficult to cultivate. The conditions under which they 

 grow naturally are not easily imitated. Mr. Foster, however, 

 contrived to keep a very rich collection of species, many of them 

 unknown in gardens except at Kew, where the collection of Filmy 

 Ferns is perhaps unique ; and even Kew did not possess several 

 kinds which Mr. Foster possessed. When it is remembered that 

 these extremely delicate plants wei - e cultivated in one or two small 

 greenhouses at the back of a house in Grosvenor Street, Mr. 

 Foster's success appears still more remarkable. After his death 

 the Filmy Ferns were removed to his son's residence at Binfield, 

 Berks. Recently, however, Mrs. Foster offered the whole 



collection to Kew, and it has lately been transferred lo these 

 Gardens, special accommodation having been provided for it in 

 the house (No. 3) where the bulk of the Kew collection is 

 grown. Among the most noteworthy of the plants comprised in 

 the Cooper Foster collection are Trichomanes reniforme, a 

 magnificent specimen a yard across, bearing hundreds of fine 

 healthy leaves ; T. parvulum, which has a compact cushion-like 

 mass of tiny palmate leaves ; T. alabamense, Hymenofhylhim 

 ceruginosum, H. chiloense, H. eruentum, H. flextwsum, H. 

 Fosterianum, H. pectinatum, H. pulcherrimum, and some grand 

 masses of H. demisstim. This magnificent gift to the national 

 gardens at Kew will no doubt receive the appreciation from the 

 public which its intrinsic beauty, scientific interest, and actual 

 pecuniary value deserve. 



Mrs. Emma W. Hayden has given to the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences of Philadelphia in trust the sum of $2500.00, to 

 be known as the Hayden Memorial Geological Fund, in com- 

 memoration of her husband, the late Prof. Ferdinand V. Hayden. 

 According to the terms of the trust, a bronze medal and the 

 balance of the interest arising from the fund are to be awarded 

 annually for the best publication, exploration, discovery, or re- 

 search in the sciences of geology and palaeontology, or in such 

 particular branches thereof as may be designated. The award 

 and all matters connected therewith are to be determined by a 

 Committee, to be selected in an appropriate manner by the 

 Academy. The recognition is not to be confined to American 

 naturalists. 



According to the Colonies and India, the appointment of 

 Superintendent of the Botanical Gardens, Singapore, has be- 

 come vacant owing to the death of Mr. Cautley in Tasmania. 



M. Herve Mangon, Member of the Paris Academy of 

 Sciences, and President of the French Meteorological Councils 

 died on the 16th inst., at the age of sixty-seven. He was 

 Minister of Agriculture in the Brisson Cabinet, and was a high 

 authority on drainage and agricultural improvements. 



The Pilot Chart of the North Atlantic Ocean for May show, 

 that, generally, fine weather prevailed over that ocean during 

 April. Storms accompanied by electric phenomena occurred 

 about once a week north of the 46th parallel. A cyclonic storm 

 of great strength was generated on April 15 in about 35 N. and 

 6o° W. , moving across the Banks from the 16th to the 18th, in which 

 the wind reached force II. There was also a gale of consider- 

 able strength to the north-eastward of the Azores during the 

 second week of April, and a " norther " was felt in the western 

 part of the Gulf of Mexico on the 13th. Considerable fog 

 was met with off the Grand Banks, and southwards. The 

 amount of ice encountered was unusually small, and was con- 

 fined for the most part to the south-east coast of Newfound- 

 land. Although it has been delayed in its southward movement 

 by the unusual prevalence of south-easterly winds, it is now 

 liable to appear in quantity, and to constitute a source of danger 

 for several months. Careful observations of the Gulf Stream 

 and the equatorial current are now being made at certain points 

 by the United States steamer Blake. 



A sodium salt of zincic acid has at last been obtained in the 

 crystalline state by Messrs. Comey and Loring Jackson, of 

 Harvard University {Berichte, 1888, 1589). Every analyst is 

 aware that zinc hydrate is soluble in potash or soda, and although 

 it has been presumed that zincates of the alkalies or compounds 

 of the alkaline oxides with zinc oxide are formed under these 

 circumstances by replacement of the hydrogen of the hydrate by 

 potassium or sodium, no such compounds have hitherto been 

 isolated. Messrs. Comey and Jackson, however, find that when 

 a concentrated solution of zinc or zinc oxide in soda is shaken 

 with alcohol the mixture separates on standing into two layers 



