ArRiL 1, 1901.] 



KNOWLEDGE. 



73 



IGOl. which nip inseparably associated wiOi the lianios ol' 

 Tyoho Brahe and Kepler. Tliis hope, liowevcr, was 

 not realised, for in the course of ,i few days it was seen 

 that the star was distinctly on Uie down grade. Still 

 Xova Persei ranks as the brightest star of its class whicli 



VoL.xxn-.] LONDON : APRIL 1,1901. [No. 186. 

 CONTENTS. 



• PAQj; 



The New Star in Perseus. Jiv A. Fowi.eh, f.r.a.s. 



(Illustrated) ... ' 7M 



The White Nile— From Khartoum to Kawa.— I. The 

 Desert Railway. Khartoum, and Omdurman. By 

 Harky F. WiTnEiiBT, F./.S., M.ii.o.r. (Illustrated) .'.. 7-"> 



Flowering Plants, with Illustrations from British 

 Wild-Flowers. — II. Concerning Leaves. By R. 

 LtoTD Prabqeb, b.a. rilliLtti-ttted) 79 



Notes 82 



Where Four Mountain Ranges Meet By i:. Walter 



MirSDKB, F.R.A.S. (Ill vstrated ) ... ... ... 84 



Where Four Mountain Ranges Meet. [Piute.) 

 Constellation Studies. — IV. Bootes and Hercules. By 



E. Walter JlArxDER, t.r.a.s. {Illu.ilratedj ... ..". 85 



Notices of Books 87 



Books Received ... 88 



Letters : 



SrxsEi Phekomekon. By E. E. Markwick (C'ul.) ... 88 

 " Mks. Qcickly'sTablb of Green Fields." By H. Alc.ar 



andJoHN Jambs Coultox .S8 



A CrRiois EiBCTROGBAPH {Illustrated). By William 



GODDBN- 89 



Tub Xebulab Htpothesis. By H. Chbistoimier. Note 



by E. Walter Maunder 89 



Is Hr.MAS Life Possible ox Other Planets!- By 



E. Llotd Jones. Xote by E. Waltee Macnder . . 90 

 HrMAN Finger-Prints. By AV. H. S. Monck PO 



British Ornithological Notes. CoTKluctetl by Habrt F. 



WiTHERIlV, F.Z.S., M.n.o.r. ... ... ... ... ... 90 



Pre-Historic Man in the Central Mediterranean, liy 



John If. Cooke, f.l.?., f.g s., etc. . . 91 



Microscopy. Conducted by 51. 1. Cboss 93 



Notes on Comets and Meteors. By W. F. Denning, 



F.B.A.S 94- 



The Face of the Sky for April. By A. Fowler, f.e.a.s. ... 95 

 Chess Column. By C. D. Locoes, b.a 95 



THE NEW STAR IN PERSEUS. 



By A. Fowler, f.r.a.s. 



On the early morning of February 22nd, Dr. Anderson, 

 of Edinburgh, observed a star of magnitude 2.7 in the 

 Milky Way in the constellation Perseus, in a region 

 where no star had been jireviously know-n to exist. 

 Another " new star " — to be henceforth known as Nova 

 Per.sei, in accordance with the usual custom — had, there- 

 fore, appeared in the heavens, and, thanks to Dr. Ander- 

 son's speedy transmission of the news to the Hoyal 

 Obser\'atory at Edinburgh, the whole astronomical world 

 was soon actively interested in the new arrival. 



At the time of discovery the star already surpassed 

 in brightness all the novse that had been observed since 

 1866, and the fact that on the evening of the 22nd it 

 had reached the first magnitude encouraged the hope 

 that it might even rival the famous new stars of 1572 and 



CASSIOPEIA 



Wfi 



'NOVA PERSEI' 



Ftb 28''' IJOI !_1jj m 







:^^ PERSEUS 



.4»it. 



AURIGA-^J^ %• «»/3Ai|.i 



13 WM 



:;.:"- /5 ■ 



• t- 



^ •♦PleiaHes 



TAURUS 



FlO. I.— Chart shon-lnii position of Nova Pcrsci. 



has appeared for iieaily three centuries, and is almost the 

 onl}' one during this period which has been ccrt.iiniy 

 observed before attaining its greatest brilliancy. 



One of the first questions which naturally arises is 

 .how long was the star bright before its discovery? The 

 wonderful photographic " star traps " organised by Prof. 

 Pickering at Harvard and Arecjuipa, by which all the 

 principal stars visible every fine night are duly regis- 

 tered, give a very definite answer to this question. The 

 Harvard plates taken on the 19th of February gave 

 no indications of any star as bright as the 11 th magni- 

 tude in the place now occupied by Nova Persei, so that 

 at that time there was certainly no star of a ten-thou- 

 sandth part of the luminosity of that which was seen 

 three days later. It is, of course, impossible to say what 

 the actual brightness was before this amazingly sudden 

 and tremendous outburst of energy took place, and 

 equally impossible to believe that there was no body at 

 all in that part of space prior to the conflagration. 



During the early stages of visibility of the new star 

 the weather in this country was by no means favourable, 

 and many who wished to carry on investigations hatl to 

 be contented with occasional glimpses. A few such 

 glimpses at Kensington on the night of the 22nd showed 

 that the star was of at least first magnitude, but 

 no photographs could be taken there before the 2.5th. 

 At Edinburgh, however. Dr. Copeland and his assistants 



