1 
casual reader of his letter would form the impression that, but for 
Edinburgh, ipecacuanha would not have been introduced into 
India, and that, consequently, the Kew establishment cannot be 
relied upon for the dissemination of useful plants among the 
British possessions abroad, which is, I imagine, one of ‘‘the 
works and applications for which a nation provides and supports 
its collections of living plants.” 
My report having been quoted with such an object, I wish to 
state that the success of ipecacuanha cultivation in India had 
been practically settled before any of the plants propagated at 
Edinburgh had arrived in that country, In the year 1866, and 
long before Government had begun to show any official interest 
in the matter, Dr. Hooker sent an ipecacuanha plant to the Cal- 
cutta Botanical Garden, the offspring of which, in Sikkim, 
amounted, in the month of September, 1871, to nearly 400— 
quite a sufficient number to assure a successful start to propaga- 
tion on alarge scale. The subsequent arrival in India of con- 
siderable supplies from Edinburgh has, indeed, made assurance 
doubly sure; but the fact remains that to Dr. Hooker is India 
indebted for the first beginning of this important cultivation. 
If the establishment at Kew stood in any need of a testimonial 
as to the valuable assistance rendered by it in the introduction 
into India of plants of economic or horticultural interest, it would 
not be difficult to furnish a list sufficient to fill a good many 
columns of NATURE of the names of plants and seeds sent—many 
of them quite unsolicited—from Kew to Calcutta within the last 
ten years, to go no farther back. 
GrorGE KING, 
Superintendent Calcutta Botanical Garden 
Nice, Nov, 26 
The Great Meteoric Shower 
As you will most probably have received from many other 
correspondents a general description of the magnificent spectacle 
on last Wednesday evening, I will confine my remarks princi- 
pally to those observations which bear directly on the most im- 
ortant point at issue, viz., whether this meteor stream can be 
identified with the well-known comet of Biela, Having searched, 
during the autumn, on every available occasion for a glimpse at 
the approaching comet, and the almost unvarying cloudiness of 
the early morning sky having rendered even the negative value 
of the observations well-nigh useless, I read with delight the 
rediction of Dr. Weiss, and felt the greatest interest in its 
ulfilment, 
Immediately I had noticed that a meteoric shower was in pro- 
gress on the evening of the 27th, I directed the two assistants of 
the observatory, who have had considerable experience in tracing 
the paths of meteors during the last few years, to devote their 
whole attention to the accurate determination of the radiant 
point. In the meantime, with the assistance of three of the 
students of the philosophy class and of the meteorological assis- 
tants of the observatory, I noted the rate per minute, the velocity, 
direction, magnitude, &c., of the falling bodies. 
The Radiant was found to be on the line joining y and 51 An- 
dromede, and twice as far from 51 as from y. This gives as 
the R.A., 26° 37’, and N,. Decl. 43° 48', agreeing very well 
with the prediction, 
The Epoch is somewhat in advance of that predicted ; but 
this cannot be wondered at, as the comet has not been seen since 
1852, and, in three complete revolutions round its orbit, it could 
scarcely have been expected not to have been subjected to con- 
siderable unknown perturbation, either from planets whose 
masses are imperfectly known, or perhaps from some neighbour- 
ing meteor-stream, 
The time of the maximum was about 8h, rom. p.M., but the 
numbers did not much diminish before 9 p.m., G.M.T. Be- 
tween Sh. 47m, 30s. and gh. om, the computer of the observatory 
counted 512, which gives 40 per minute for one observer, and there- 
fore at least 100 per minute invisible, From 9 to 10 o'clock, at 
which time the sky became clouded, and remained so till morn- 
ing, the mean rate was about 53 per minute, and almost,constant 
from minute to minute, though varying much during each 
minute. At certain moments they were exceedingly numerous. 
Thus, at gh. 19m. nine appeared at the same instant at a point 
near ® Andromede. yh | ; 
A very peculiar feature of the display was the parallel motion — 
of many stars that became visible at the same time. Thus, at 
gh. 16m. five burst out close by y Andromede, and travelled — 
eastward together ; at 9.25 four went together from y Androme- — 
dee to the Pleiades, 
More than nine-tenths of the meteors were very faint, and the ~ 
larger ones seldom attained to any very considerable magnitndia } 
Most had tails ; the almost invariablescolour being a white star 
with a greenish-blue trail. The tails of those falling S.E. were 
observed to bend somewhat towards the E., and to be straight 
only during the first half of their path. The ratio of the num- 
bers falling S.E., to those falling N.W., wasas 3 to 2, but this 
excess may in part be accounted for by the position of the 
Radiant. More of the larger meteors went S. than N., and 
more W, than E. The track of the larger bodies rarely, if ever, 
exceeded 50°, and their velocity was very noticeably less than 
that of the 13th and 14th November shower, as might be ex- 
pected, if their absolute velocities are comparable, the Radiant — 
for November 27 being so far removed from the apex of the 
earth’s way. S. J. Perry 
Stonyhurst Observatory, Dec. 1 
ALTHouGH it is probable that you will reeeive full accounts of - 
the meteoric shower of Wednesday, November 27, yet the fol- — 
lowing notes, imperfect though he be, may have some interest. 
I was prevented by indisposition from observing it myself, but — 
the numbers were noted by Captain Brinkley, grandson of the — 
great astronomer, and his sons :— ? 
“Mr. Charles B., at 3 P.M., observed a bright meteor; — 
Capt. B., at 4.35, another; at 5.20 the young men came in to 
announce an extraordinary display ; and Capt. B. noted 34 in — 
Im, 30s. ; Capt. B., looking north at 5.40, marked 95 in 5m. ; — 
Mr. John B., looking south at same time, marked 147 in 5m.; — 
the radiant point was a litle 5.E. of the zenith; Mr. J.B, ato, — 
marked 26 in Im, ; Capt. B., at 12, marked only 7in 5m, Many — 
were large, and left trains.” 
It was remarked that the night was unusually light, while ~ 
clear. A very thick fog appeared before the dawn of Thursday, 
Castleknock, Dublin, Noy. 29 Tea 
A Fine display of shooting stars was observed here on Wed- — 
nesday, 27th inst. I first noticed them at 7.20 P.M., Greenwich — 
time, and watched them till about 8, when the sky became 
obscured. They were occasionally seen again till 9.30. When 
first observed they appeared to radiate from the zenith,.and to be. 
more numerous towards the north-west and south-west ; many — 
passed over the constellation Cygnus. A. W. Scorra 
St. David's College, Lampeter, Nov. 30 
Durinc the recent star-shower, my attention was given espe: — 
cially to observations connected with the flight of individual 
meteors, As on many previous occasions in the presence of rare 
natural phenomena, I was keenly mortified with the deficien 
of my own scientific training ; but I send a few gleanings, if — 
anheweps a useful grain can be found amongst them. The © 
rightness obviously increased with the distance traversed, but — 
in many cases no increase of brightness was perceptible for the 
first third of the course, The extinction was not instantaneous 
but only very rapid, the distance traversed towards extinction 
being perceptible though very small; perhaps because the 
velocity seemed to diminish as the brightness increased. The 
trainin many instances was forked, being brightest on its edges, 
the luminosity of which lasted for some time after the inter- — 
mediate space was dark, This seems incompatible with the 
hypothesis that the train is a mere optical result, or that the 
brightness of the train arises, as in lightning, from incandescen| 
particles of the atmosphere. In one or two instances the bright- _ 
ness of the train was granular, resembling the light of a partially — 
resolved nebula, or of the Galaxy, Ina few instances the path: 
of the meteors appeared to show remarkable deflections. On 
notably, at 6h, 25m., close to Vega, resembled an ‘'S” drawn 
out nearly straight. a 
The course of a body passing with great velocity though an 
elastic medium tends to follow the direction of least resistance, — 
It is only in poetry that t 
“The lightning falls with never a jag.” 
