SEPTBMIiER, 1903.] 



KNOWLEDGE, 



207 



the spectrum colours with great distinctness (red nearest 

 the sun), and appeared in the north-west, about thirty 

 degrees from the sun and at the same altitude. From the 

 time that I first noticed this (I had previously been 

 looking in a different direction) the light diminished in 

 brightness, and finally, after about fifteen minutes, faded 

 away. The corresponding portion of the sky on the other 

 side of the sun, i.e., thirty degrees from the sun in a south- 

 westerly direction, was not visible from my position, but I 

 was unable to observe anything similar above or below the 

 sun. There was no actual cloud where the light appeared, 

 though there was just below it. The temperature was 

 about 60^ Fah., and on return to camp the barometer 

 gave a reading of 24'56" (altitude 5183 feet above sea). 



I trust some reader of Knowledge will be able to 

 explain this, and that some other Indian reader may 

 record his impressions of this phenomenon. 



K. D. FlET.D, LT.K.A. 



Kashmir. 



i^otcs. 



Astronomical. — The interesting variable, or " new " 

 star near the Ring Nebula in Lyra (designated 10, 1903 

 Lyrte), which was discovered some time ago by Herr E. 

 Silbernagel, has been fully investigated at the Lick 

 Observatory. Photographs taken by Prof. Keeler in 1899 

 .show the star to have been then of the 17th magnitude, 

 but in April of the present year it had risen to the 12th 

 magnitude. A spectroscopic investigation made with the 

 small slitless spectrograph shows the i^resence of bright 

 lines, but in sjiite of this the spectrum has little similarity 

 with that of novae The observations leave little doubt 

 the star is a variable, and not a nova, and that it belongs 

 to the class of variables which exhibit bright lines of 

 hydrogen at maximum. The spectrum is, in fact, almost 

 an exact counterpart of that of 11 Draconis. The position 

 of the star (1900) is 18h. 50m. 27s. + 32° 42' 21". 



The issue of " Bulletins " from the Lowell Observatory, 

 Flagstaff, Arizona, is inaugurated by an interesting account 

 of the observations of the projection on the terminator of 

 Mars, which excited such general interest towards the end 

 of May. From the micrometric measurements it appears 

 that the projection, which was three hundred miles in 

 length on May 26th, but had almost disappeared on the 

 following day, travelled over the surface of the planet at 

 the rate of sixteen miles an hour. It, therefore, could not 

 have been the illuminated summit of a mountain, and Mr. 

 Lowell concludes that it was an enormous cloud. He 

 further expresses the opinion that it was not a cloud of 

 water vapour but a cloud of dust, and he states that other 

 jjhenomena of tlie planet bear out this supposition. 



Additional evidence of the physical connection of the 

 two compiments of 61 Cygili is furnished by a s]K'ctro- 

 scopic investigation of their movements in the line of sight 

 which has been made by Mr. Adams at the Yerkes 

 Observatory. The mean results are (52 and 63 kilometres 

 per second, towards the sun, for the two stars, and this 

 agreement, together with the similar proper motions of 

 the two stars, indicate that they are unquestionably physi- 

 cally connected. Tlicir real motion in i-efereuce to the 

 sun, under the assumption of a parallax of 0"'-i and a 

 proper motion of 5"-2, would be about 80 kilometres, or, 

 in space, when corrected for the sohir motion, about 64 

 kilometres per second. — A F. 



Botanical. — One of the most mteresting instances of 

 irritability in plants is met with in Masdevallia muscosa, 

 a diminutive orchid of no horticultural value, but remark- 

 able in the sensitiveness of its labellum. The plant has 

 been known for many years, and the {Kjculiar character of 

 the labellum was the subject of an elaborative paper in 

 the first volume of the Aimals of Botany, by Prof. 

 F. W. Oliver. It was exhibited at the Royal Society's 

 Soiree on June 19th, and may still be seen in flower in 

 Kew Gardens. Its irritability may be compared to that 

 of the Venus Fly Trajs. In this, it will be remembered, 

 the parts that receive the stimulus are the three bristles 

 found on each half of the leaf-blade, and it seems to be 

 conveyed from them to other points where the movement 

 actually takes place. In the orchid it is the crest of the 

 small triangular labellum that receives the stimulus, but 

 the movement occm'S at the narrowed base of this organ, 

 called the neck, and the labellum is caused to spring 

 upwards against the column, forming with other parts of 

 the flower a small chamber having only a veiy narrow 

 ojjening at the top. The purpose of the sensitive labellum 

 is evidently to aid in the cross-fertilization of the flower. 

 An insect on touching the crest is at once made a prisoner 

 l)y the springing up of the labellum, but it eventually 

 escapes by crawling through the aperture at the top of its 

 prison. In doing this, however, it is obliged to brush 

 against the pollinia, which it carries away, transferring 

 them to the stigma of another flower while it is struggling 

 to escape fi-om a second term of captivity. 



It is not uncommon for peduncles or pedicels to elongate 

 a little after the flowering period, and during the ripening 

 of the fruit ; but to have a pedicel, which at the flowering 

 stage is scarcely more than a quarter of an inch long, 

 growing to a length of six or seven inches is a very imusual 

 occurrence. This, however, takes place in a small parasitic 

 orchid, Bidijinoplexis pallens, which is now to be seen in 

 flower at Kew. The whole plant is usually less than six 

 inches high, and the flowers are small, brownish whit^?, 

 and unattractive. The elongated pedicels are quite erect, 

 and the remarkable growth in length is accompanied by a 

 considerable increase in thickness ; but it has been observed 

 that only the pedicels of flowers which have been fertilized 

 possess this peculiarity. The plant is mdely spread in 

 India, and is found also in Perak, growing in the bottoms 

 of tropical valleys, usually under clumps of bamboos, on 

 the roots of which it appears to be parasitic. The growth 

 of the pedicel is supposed to bo for the purpose of carrying 

 the fruit well al)ove the decaying vegetable matter in which 

 the plant grows. — S. A. S. 



Zoological. — In the article on giant tortoises puli- 

 lished a few months ago in Knowledge, it was stated 

 that the earliest known meml)ers of the group date from 

 the Pliocene (or possibly the late Miocene). Recently, 

 however, these reptiles have been carried back to a much 

 earlier period in the earth's history by the discovery of the 

 remains of a species in the upper Eocene formation of 

 the Fayum district, Egypt. Tlie i-emains of the species 

 in question have been described by Dr. C. W. Andrews in 

 the ])ul.)lications of the Cairo Survey Department, and 

 named Tcdiulo aiinnon. In addition to thus carrying 

 b;ick the e.vistence of giant land tortoises to such a com- 

 paratively remote epoch, the discovery has a wider inteivst. 

 For if creatures of such an essential modern type date 

 from strata of undoubtedly Eocene age, there may be 

 something to be said in favour of the view of the Argentine 

 palii'ontologists as to the early Tertiary age of the marama- 

 liferous beds of the Santa Cruz district of Patagonia, a 



