378 



NA TURE 



[February i8, 1892 



while approving of the suggestions made in the report, is of 

 opinion that the'Government ought to take an early opportunity 

 of dealing with the question of technical and secondary educa- 

 tion in a comprehensive measure, and that, for the efficient 

 supervision of technical education, wider administration areas 

 than the parish are required. 



The ceremonies in connection with the tercentenary celebration 

 of Trinity College, Dublin, will begin on the morning of July 5, 

 and conclude on the evening of July 8 next. Invitations were 

 sent to most of the Universities and learned Societies in 

 Europe, America, and the colonies, during last term ; and 

 replies have been received from many sending representatives, 

 including Aberdeen, Athens, Bern, Cambridge, Christiania, 

 Edinburgh, Erlangen, Giessen, Heidelberg, Johns Hopkins, 

 Lausanne, Leyden, Madras, Naples, Smithsonian Institute, 

 Sydney, Toronto, &c., and acceptances are daily arriving. A 

 large number of acceptances have also been received to the 

 numerous personal invitations. Among the men of science 

 who intend to be present are Sir F. Bramwell, Geo. Darwin, 

 Thisellon Dyer, J, Evans, D. Ferrier, M. Foster, Sir A. 

 Geikie, H. Hertz, J. W. Judd, Ray Lankester, Sir J. Lister, 

 Sir J. Lubbock, Baron Nordenskiold, Sir J. Paget, Lord 

 Rayieigh, Sir G. Stokes, and Sir W. Turner. While the 

 programme of the celebration has not yet been finally approved 

 of, it will probably include the following: — On the Tuesday 

 morning there will be a reception by the Provost of Trinity 

 College of all the invited guests ; then a short full choral 

 service in St. Patrick's Cathedral ; in the afternoon a garden 

 party ; and in the evening a civic ball. On Wednesday morning 

 there will be the presentation of addresses of congratulation 

 from the various Universities, and in the evening a grand 

 banquet, at which it is expected that over five hundred guests 

 or members of the University will be present. On Thursday 

 morning there will be a special Commencements for the con- 

 ferring of a number of honorary degrees ; after which there will 

 be an adjournment from the Senate House to the College Park 

 to witness the College races, held under the auspices of the 

 College Athletic Club ; in the evening there will be a special 

 amateur dramatic performance. On the Friday morning there 

 will be a gathering of the students to hear short addresses 

 from some of the distinguished visitors ; in the afternoon, a 

 concert given by the members of the University Choral Society ; 

 and in the evening, the students' ball. Numerous committees 

 are daily engaged working out the multifarious details. One of 

 these has been charged with the superintendence of the publica- 

 tion of an illustrated volume, which is to give the past and pre- 

 sent history of the College, the publication of which volume has 

 been undertaken by the firm of Messrs. Marcus Ward and Co. 



On April i, 1841, Sir William Hooker began his duties as 

 Director of Kew. In the year 1891, therefore, the establish- 

 ment might have celebrated its jubilee as a national institution, 

 and it seemed to Mr. Thiselton Dyer that he might fitly mark 

 the occasion by giving in the Kew Bulletin some account of the 

 origin and development of the Royal Gardens as a place of 

 botanical study. This intention he has now partly carried out, 

 the December number of the Bulletin — which has just been 

 issued — being entirely devoted to the subject. The narrative is 

 one of great interest, and has evidently cost the author much 

 hard work, as scarcely any authentic records exist of the 

 period before 1840, when the Gardens were a purely private 

 possession of the Crown. He has thus had " to fall back on local 

 traditions, on local histories, the statements in which are often 

 confusing and inaccurate, and on such scattered notices as could 

 be gathered from contemporary literature." In the present instal- 

 ment, the story is brought down to the year 1841. The history 

 of the last half-century will be given in another number, 



NO. II 64, VOL. 45] 



In pursuance of his botanical expedition to Persia, Herr J. 

 Bornmiiller arrived at Batoum on December 24. Thence he 

 intended proceeding to Teheran by « ay of Tiflis and Baku, 

 and then, as rapidly as possible, to the south of Persia. The 

 expedition is intended to extend over two years, and Herr Born- 

 miiller does not intend to collect more than from fifteen to 

 twenty sets of the plants obtained. Orders for sets should be 

 sent to Herr R. Huter, Sterzing, Tirol. 



Mr. James Britten and Mr. G. S. Boui.ger intend to 

 issue (to subscribers) in June next, their " Biographical Index 

 of British and Irish Botanists," reprinted, with additions and 

 corrections, from the fottmal of Botany, and brought down to 

 the end of 1891. As the promises of support at present re- 

 ceived will not cover expenses, they will be glad to receive the 

 names of additional subscribers, addressed to the care of the 

 publishers of the Journal of Botany. 



According to a telegram from New York, one of the finest 

 displays of the aurora borealis ever known in that latitude was 

 observed on the evening of February 13. The phenomenon 

 Ftretched over a great belt of territory from Iowa to the At- 

 lantic. A peculiar efifect was produced on the telegraph system, 

 and for intervals of three or four minutes at a time the wires 

 were so surcharged with atmospheric electricity that between 

 New York and Albany it was possible to send messages without 

 the aid of the regular batteries. The current, however, was 

 intermittent, and the effect unsatisfactory. For nearly two hours 

 ordinary business could not be transacted with any degree of 

 exactness. The aurora seemed to occupy the whole of the 

 northern heavens, and was beautifully marked, the colouring 

 being clear and distinct. People at first feared that a great fire 

 was raging. 



Dr. a. WoEiKOF, of St. Petersburg, who is engaged on an 

 investigation into the cause of the famine in Russia, writes to the 

 Meteorologische Zeitschrift that it is chiefly due to drought 

 from August to October 1890, which injured the winter crops ; 

 to partial and insufficient snow, which melted early in the 

 spring, and was followed by frost in April ; and lastly to droughts 

 and hot winds from May to July 1891. In the southt-rn portion 

 of the Government of Samara the prospects up to June 10 were 

 excellent, but the harvest was destroyed by two days of hot 

 winds, on June 14 and 15. And in the southern central 

 provinces also, where the winter crops had greatly suffered, a 

 moderate harvest was hoped for after the middle of July, but 

 four hot days, from July 13 to 16, quite destroyed the crops. 



The Journal of the Scottish Meteorological Society (third 

 series. No. 8) contains a very interesting paper on silver thaw at 

 Ben Nevis Observatory, by R. C. Mossman, The phenomenon 

 is somewhat common at that Observatory, and occurs during an 

 inversion of the ordinary temperature conditions, the tempera- 

 ture being considerably lower at the surface than at higher 

 altitudes, causing the rain to congeal as it falls. In the six 

 years 1885-90, 198 cases of silver thaw were observed, with a 

 mean duration of 4J hours in each case, and they nearly all 

 occurred between November and March, during times of perfectly 

 developed cyclones and anticyclones. An examination of the 

 weather charts of the Meteorological Office showed that for the 

 198 days on which the phenomenon was observed, the distribu- 

 tion of pressure was cyclonic on 137 days, and anticyclonic on 

 61 days. In anticyclonic conditions there was a cyclonic 

 area central off the north-west coast of Norway, while the 

 centre of the anticyclone was over the south of the British 

 Isles. In cyclonic cases, an anticyclone lay to the south, 

 over the Iberian Peninsula. The lowest temperature at 

 which the phenomenon took place was 18°, and was rarely 

 below 27°, Fully 90 per cent, of the cases occurred when 

 the thermometer was between 28° and 3i'''9, so that the 



