June 29, 1893^ 



NATURE 



2^5 



giving a fluted cliaract^r to the base of the wing. Many other 

 peculiarities were noted in these evanescent toys, but they soon 

 vanished. 



■ But here is the chief wonder. There grew in the same situa- 

 tion some dozen or twenty small herbaceous plants of about the 

 same general character which would all seem equally liable to 

 exhibit such a phenommon. There were species of Aster, 

 Solidago, Chrysopsis, Pycnanthemum, Polygonum, Ludwigia, 

 j Sericocarpus, &c.,and with these in cansiderable but not specially 

 : marked abundance, Cuitila Mariana. The first frost-works seen 

 i were attached to this plant, which was supposed for a while to 

 ! be an accident ; but soon it was perceived that such was n it the 

 I case, and an examination of hundre Is; of cases revealed the fact 

 I that they were exclusively confined to this species. No sign or 

 semblance of them could be found on any other plant. They 

 were, therefore, so far as observation went, a specific char- 

 acter, and it is this alone which prompted Mr. Ward to give the 

 above account in the hope that others might be able to confirm 

 or invalidate this induction by a wider one. 



This plant persists after frost with all its branches, sere 

 leaves, and empty seed vessels intact, sj that its identity 

 was as complete as in midsummer. The bark, which re- 

 mained firm everywhere else, was seen to be longitudinally 

 "split into strips at the zone occupied by the frost-work, 

 but as it could be seen between the several ice sheets, these rifts 

 must have been covered by their bases. In other words, it can- 

 not be doubted that the liquid matter out of which they were 

 formed had passed through these longitudinal openings and been 

 isited by molecular accretions in the symmetrical forms 

 rfed. It was inferred from this that they might con- 

 -01 entirely of the juices of the plant, but on placing 

 theai on the tongue nothing distinguishable from pure 

 'li-tilled water could be detected. As the upper part of the 

 IS was dead and dry and the roots perennial, the conclusion 

 that the water had by some agency been pressed or drawn 

 u,) through the cambium layer of the roots from the soil and 

 forced out through these apertures in the bark. The action of 

 fr ist in the ground might account for the required pressure, and 

 (lie whole would be thus explainable on physical principles. But 

 ; explains too much, since no reason can be assigned why the 

 |ih-nomenon should not be universal and not confined to a single 

 -pecies. 



.Since making these observations Mr. Ward has been to some 



iiins 10 ascertain whether the phenomenon has been witnessed 



I'.heis, but so far the inquiry has proved futile. It seems 



ible, tberefore, that this is the first time that Cunila Mariana 



been discovered to be a frost-weed. Helianthenmni 



uieltse, however, behaves in a similar way. That plant 



nut common . in the dittany and there has not been 



ippoitunity to observe it at tlie proper season. The 



' inent in the first edition of Gray's -Manual, 1848, where the 



line "frost weed " is given to this species, that " late in autumn 



crystals of ice shoot from the cracked bark at the root, whence 



"'■ popular name," repeated in. all subsequent editions 



copied into many other books, is doubtless founded on earlier 



M Jed oliservations, but is not found in Nuttall or Pursh. A 



: figure also appears in Mr. Wm. Hamilton Gibson's recent 



ik entitled " Sharp Eyes."i This figure is somewhat fanciful, 



i.^ a vignette constituting the first letter of this chapter of his 



' ; and aiming to show all the parts of the plant in addition 



:ie frost, work. ■ Although it is, according to this representa- 



), a.much less definite and less beautiful object than the dittany 



:)St- flowers," there can be no doubt that the principle on which 



as formed is the same. The author's description of it as 



v^hioned into .all sorts of whimsical feathery curls and flanges 



1 ridges." indicates at once the inadequacy of his figure to do it 



ice, and the-close analogy between it and the "frost flower" 



' '■ini!a. 



: UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



i'liOF. Jebb, M. p., in presenting the prizes and certificates on 



sjay to the students who successfully passed the last Cam- 



'■^^i lOcll exlminatiort at Eas.bjurne centre, observed that 



•".yyCarS !fgo eJcamihations were believed to be a panacea for 



■vety 'feihicalional defect. Now a reaction ha 1 set in, and some 



>eat so far as to hold that success in examinations afforded no 



rii^tworthy criterion of merit. The truth, of course, lay between 



* -Vew York, iBjz. Aracle " The F'rost Ffoiver," pp. aio, 211. 



these two extremes. An examination was not an infallible test, 

 and was more favourable to some temperaments than to others :■ 

 but, when well managed, was a sound test. An examiner must 

 have at least three qualifications : he must know a great deal 

 more than the subject in which he examined, or he would not 

 have a proper sense of intellectual proportion and perspective ; 

 he must have a certain measure of acuteness to enable him to 

 penetrate disguise or simulated knowledge ; and, above all, he' 

 must have common sense in order to take proper account of 

 particular circumstances of each case. The two older Universities, 

 in the early part of the century, were said to be no longer in. 

 touch with the nation, and were regarded rather as great schools' 

 reserved for the education and, equally perhaps, the amusement 

 of a select few ; but now they had spread a ne work of examin- 

 ation, and were diffusing their influence over the country, 

 becoming what they were in the Middle Ages, really national, 

 but national in the higher sense, in the desire that every one 

 who sought it should have the means of a liberal education, and 

 that the best things which literature or science had to show 

 should be placed within reach of all. 



Mr. Robert Holt, late Assistant Lecturer in Engineering 

 at University College, Liverpool, has been appointed Professor 

 of Engineering at the People's Palace, London. Mr. Holt has 

 held both Whitworth and National Scholarships, as well as one 

 of the research scholarships founded by the Commissioners of 

 the Exhibition of 185 1. 



At a council meeting of the University College of Wales, 

 Bangor, on June 21, a scheme for the supervision and residence 

 of women students of the college next session was carried by a 

 large majority. 



Lord Herschel has been appointed to succeed the late 

 Earl of Derby as Chancellor of the University of London. 



Oxford has conferred the degree of D.C.L. upon Sir John 

 B. Lawes, Bart., F.R.S. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIAL. 



Meteorohgische Zeitschri/t, May. — Rainfall probability and 

 cloud in the United States, by W. Koppen. The author has 

 submitted the rainfall charts published by the United States 

 Government to a thorough investigation. The following are 

 the generalised results as regards the distribution of rainfall : — 

 (l) There is a district of continental summer rains, enclosed on 

 both sides by littoral winter rains, which, corresponding to the 

 contrast of the yearly oscillation of temperature, are much m ire 

 marked in the west than in the east. (2) A district of isobaric 

 summer rains, in the south-east, with equatorial sea-winds in 

 summer, and with anticyclonic weather in winter. (3) 

 Transition districts, in which both rainfall maxima occur near 

 each other, while the minimi occur in spring and autumn. 

 Maxima after the equinoxes are nowhere very well marked, but 

 the April and May rains of Colorado and Kansas and the 

 autumn rains on Lake .Superior are indications of them. With' 

 regard to the seasonal distribution in the tropical zone, the 

 differences of temperature play only a small part compared to 

 that of extra-tropical regions ; this result naturally follows from 

 the small variation of temperature in the tropics. — On the 

 dynamics of the atmosphere, by M. MiiUer. This first part 

 deals chiefly with the causes of the inversion of temperature 

 with height, and with the cold experienced in the centres o£ 

 areas of high barometric pressure. He deals especially witt* 

 three causes of inversion : — Tlie cooling of the lower strata by 

 radiation, the effects on the higher strata by dynamic heating 

 or cooling analogous to those caused by the action of Fohn 

 winds, and the transference of warm air to the higher regions 

 by horizontal winds coming from warmer parts. Vari us cases 

 are separately considered from data afforded by mountain 

 stations, such as Bin Nevis, and from discussions by Dr. Hanij 

 and others. Particular attention is also given to the formalioo 

 and motions of clouds, as furnishing visitile evidence of th« 

 processes in action in the higher strata of the atmosphere. > 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 



Royal Society, June 8. — "Preliminary Report of the Joirit 



Solar Eclipse Committee of the Royal Society, the Royal 



Astronomical Society, and the Solar Physics Committee on tHe 



NO. I 235 VOL. 48J 



