May i6, 1901] 



NATURE 



69 



We are glad to see that the London County Council has this 

 year again arranged special beds of plants in Battersea, Ravens- 

 court and Victoria Parks, with a view to encourage the study of 

 botany among pupils in elementary and secondary schools. At 

 each of these parks about twenty beds are arranged near the 

 paths, each bed containing specimens of a distinct order of 

 plant and each plant being labelled with its common name and 

 its Latin name. In order to further assist the teaching and 

 study of plants, arrangements have been made by which teachers 

 may obtain orders from the Council's Technical Education Board 

 which will enable theai to secure specimens suitable for teaching 

 purposes. 



Outdoor work by students appears to be carried on in con- 

 nection with several institutions on the other side of the Atlantic. 

 We notice in Science, for instance, that the biological depart- 

 ment of the University of California has just commenced a 

 systematic biological survey of the coast of that state. Tem- 

 porary headquarters are established at .San Pedro, and the work 

 during this summer will be carried south from Pt. Conception 

 toward San Diego. A gasoline launch, which has been obtained 

 for the season, will be fitted out with apparatus for dredging, 

 sounding and making observations on temperature, salinity, 

 specific gravity, &c. The work will be carried on by the 

 members of the department and graduate students, together with 

 a number of investigators who have already interested them- 

 selves especially in the west coast faunas. -A party of students 

 from Harvard University will undertake, this summer, an ex- 

 pedition to Venezuela for botanical and zoological research. We 

 see also that the Mining School of McGill University will this 

 year carry on its summer work in British Columbia. The class 

 has just left Montreal to go out to the Pacific coast, visiting 

 the various collieries along the line of the railway and on Van- 

 couver Island. The party will then go into southern British 

 Columbia for the purpose of studying the mineral deposits of 

 the Slocan, Trail Creek and Boundary Districts, and, returning 

 by the Crows' Nest Pass route, will visit the coal mines at 

 Fernie Hethbridge, reaching Montreal again about the middle 

 of June. 



At a meeting of the Court of Governors of University Col- 

 lege, Liverpool, on Saturday last, the following resolution was 

 passed : — " That, while gratefully acknowledging the advan- 

 tages which have accrued to University College, Liverpool, by 

 its association with the Victoria University, this Court is of 

 opinion that a University should be established in the city of 

 Liverpool, and will welcome a scheme with this object upon 

 an adequate basis." In moving this resolution, Mr. Robert 

 Gladstone, who presided, remarked that the success of the 

 college showed the need for a University. The fees from 

 students had increased from 700/. in its first year to 9500/. this 

 year. Within the last few years 22,000,000/. sterling had been 

 given by private individuals in the United States towards 

 founding Universities and colleges. Was it not the duty of the 

 wealthy people of this country to follow that excellent example? 

 If they did not they could hardly complain if trade passed away 

 and our prosperity diminished. We had already had a blow 

 from German chemists. The great indigo industry in India, 

 which had made the fortunes of many people and been a great 

 source of trade, was threatened with extinction by chemical 

 discoveries made in Germany. It was a misfortune they were 

 not made in this country, as they might have been if we had 

 been better provided with means of investigation. He hoped 

 that the people of Liverpool who had been indifferent to the 

 progress of the college would awake to a better state of mind, 

 and that by their assistance they might succeed in putting Liver- 

 pool in as pre-eminent a place with regard to learning as she 

 now enjoyed with reference to commerce. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



LONDO.V. 



Royal Society, March 28. — " Further Observations on 

 Nova Persei, No. 2." By Sir Norman Lockyer, K.C.B., 

 F.R.S. 



In continuation of previous papers, the observations of the 

 Nova made at Kensington are brought to midnight of March 25. 

 Since the last paper of March 7, estimates of the magnitude of 

 the Nova have been made on ten evenings, visual observations 

 of the spectrum on eight evenings, and photographs of the 

 spectrum on four evenings. 



NO. 1646, VOL. 64] 



Since March 5 the magnitude of the star has been gradually 

 decreasing, but between the nights of the 24th and 25th the 

 light of the Nova decreased very suddenly, dropping from 4'2 

 to 5'5 in twenty-four hours, and becoming only just visible as a 

 naked-eye star. 



The colour of the Nova has undergone some distinct changes 

 since the observation on March 5 last, when it was shining with 

 a clarety-red hue. On the gth and loth it was observed to be 

 much redder, due probably to the great development of the red 

 C line of hydrogen. 



On the 23rd and 24th the star was noted as yellowish-red, 

 while on the 25th (after the sudden drop in magnitude) it was 

 very red, with, perhaps, a yellow tinge. 



On March 6 the photographs were very similar to those 

 obtained in the earlier stages, the only apparent difference being 

 in the relative intensity of the bright hydrogen lines as opposed 

 to those having other origins, most of which have been shown 

 to be probably due to iron and calcium. The hydrogen lines 

 have sensibly brightened, while the others have become much 

 feebler. 



ooMiiles. 



'960 Miles. 



Fig. I.— Light curve of H/3 (6-inch objective prism). 



The photograph of March 10 shows a further dimming of the 

 bright lines other than those of hydrogen. 



On March 25, when the next good photograph was taken, 

 the spectrum had undergone great modifications. The hydrogen 

 lines are still very bright, though they do not show the structure 

 which they did in the photographs taken between February 25 

 and March 10. The bright lines other than those of hydrogen, 

 which are seen in the earlier photographs, have now disappeared, 

 and other lines become visible. The continuous spectrum has 

 also greatly diminished. 



Approximate determinations of the wave-length of these 

 new lines have been made by Mr. Baxandall by comparison 

 with lines of known wave-length in the spectra of o and e 

 Persei photographed with the same instrument. 



The lines at \ 3870 and 4650 are perhaps identical with 

 those observed by von Gothard' in the spectrum of Nova AurigK 



1 Asi. Phys. Jour., vol. xii., iSo:, p. 51.! 



