Fuly 22, 1886] 
20 feet above the floor. It is expected that the mounting will 
be completed in April 1887, and that the glass will be brought 
to Mount Hamilton and put in place some time during the sum- 
mer following. The total cost of the equatorial and dome will 
will be about 164,850 dols. ; the cost of the dome being 56,850 
dols. ; the mounting, 42,000 dols. ; the visual objective, 53,000 
dols. ; the additional photographic lens, 13,000 dols. 
WE have received a copy of the address of Sir William 
Manning, as Chancellor of the University of Sydney, at the 
annual commemoration. The report which it contains is one 
of progress in almost every direction. The death of Prof- 
Smith, who had long held the Chair of Experimental Physics, 
Jed to a re-arrangement of duties, a Professorship of Physics 
being substituted, with a wider and different range of teaching 
in Physical Science, including portions of the duties before dis- 
charged by the Professor of Mathematics as Professor also of 
Natural Philosophy. The list of private benefactions appended 
to the address is a remarkable one, It amounts to 317,414/. 12s. 6d. 
Of this, one amount, the Challis Bequest, is estimated at 
180,000/., and is anticipated to reach about 200,000/. As this 
noble donation has only recently fallen into possession, its 
application has not yet been fixed; the only point determined 
about it is that no part of it shall be used on buildings of any 
kind, but the capital shall be kept intact to produce an income 
for direct educational purposes. Another highly important gift 
is the Macleay Natural History Collection, valued at 25,0007. 
A building has been erected to receive the collection, and an 
endowment of 6000/. for a Curator has been promised. The 
other gifts include one of 30,000/. for the library. The amount 
of the donations since 1879 exceed a quarter of a million sterling 
—a magnificent sum for any community, however wealthy, to 
contribute in a few years to a single educational institution. 
On Thursday last week the Photographic Exhibition, pro- 
moted by the Glasgow Town Council, was opened in the Cor- 
poration Galleries with a numerously attended conversazione. It 
is the fullest exposition, historical, practical, and scientific, of 
the art of photography which has yet been given. By means of 
an admirable series of examples it illustrates the development of 
photography from the earliest attempts of Wedgewood, Niepce, 
Daguerre, Fox-Talbot, and numerous other discoverers, to the 
latest products of those who are acknowledged at the present 
day as masters of the art. In the department of photo-litho- 
graphy the numerous methods of photo-engraving and photo- 
type-printing are fully represented by means of exhibits from the 
principal workers in that line. One of the most interesting 
sections is that which illustrates the applications of photography 
to the various branches of science, divided into its relations to 
geography, ethnology, microscopy, meteorology, and astronomy. 
In the last of these, the greatest of the recent triumphs in celes- 
tial photography by the Brothers Henry, of the Paris Observa- 
tory, are admirably shown ; and there are also splendid examples 
of a similar kind from the Royal Observatory, as well as from 
Mr. A. Ainslie Common and others eminent in that field. The 
apparatus range from the primitive appliances of Daguerre to 
the latest ones of Messrs. Mason and Co., Glasgow ; Mr. Stan- 
ley, London ; and Mr. Marion, of the same city. Mr. James 
Paton, the curator of the galleries, has superintended the arrange- 
ments forthe exhibition, which are of a most satisfactory nature. 
WE regret to learn of the probable early recall of the Commis- 
sioner of the Philippine Forest Department, and the practical 
‘suspension of the work in which he is engaged. ‘The step is 
much to be regretted on many grounds, and it is to be hoped 
the Spanish Government will re-consider its decision in the 
matter. Until recently our knowledge of Philippine vegetation 
was extremely scanty, notwithstanding the collections made by 
the late Mr. Hugh Cuming. Even these it remained for Don 
NALTORE 
2715 
Sebastian Vidal, Commissioner of Forests there, to place in 
accessible form, the materials for his recently-published ‘‘ Phane- 
rogamz Cumingiane Philippinarum”’ having been collected 
whilst engaged in working up his collections at Kew some two 
or three years ago. The extensive collections recently made by 
the Forest Department, a portion of which has been transmitted 
to Kew for determination, has, we believe, yielded a consider- 
able proportion of novelties, including a number of genera not 
hitherto known from the islands, Information respecting these 
additions will probably be forthcoming in due course, as already 
we have an outline of the flora at the hands of one of the Kew 
staff. The above, together with the fact that the large island of 
Mindanao, and several others, is practically unexplored, shows 
how much yet remains to be done in this direction. From an 
economic stand-point, and for the development of the natural 
resources of the islands, the work of the department is an im- 
portant one. The demand for timber, owing to the exhaustion 
of the forests in various directions, is assuredly forcing the 
forestry question into the foreground. As an example of how 
little we know of the Philippine flora, we may mention the St. 
Ignatius’s bean, of which until recently nothing was known 
beyond the fact that it finds its way into the markets of this 
country as a source of the deadly poison strychnine, and was 
said to be sold in the market at Manila. Now, we believe, the 
plant has been discovered, and information respecting it will 
doubtless be shortly forthcoming. Such matters as these 
naturally engage the attention of the Forest Department, and it 
will be a matter for sincere regret if the work so well begun 
should come to a sudden termination, just at a time when its 
importance is beginning to be realised. 
A PHILIPPINE correspondent, writing on May 24 last, informs 
us that the great volcano, Mayon, in the south of the Island of 
Luzon, is in eruption. He remarks :—‘‘I tried the ascent, and 
climbed to about 5005 feet, when incandescent stones and ashes 
obliged me to come quickly down. I crossed a patch of forest 
—Litsea verticillata, Myrica vidaliana, and Vaccinium abun- 
dant—half burnt and covered with ashes. The sight was mag- 
nificent, but not much botanical work to be done there. I never 
saw anything like it as a sublime scene of devastation ; ashes 
and stones and smoke everywhere, and a fearful noise like heavy 
artillery all around.” ALyrica vidaliana, it may be remembered, 
was described only about a year ago, from specimens collected 
at this very spot. At present it has not been found elsewhere, 
though it probably exists on other volcanic peaks in the island. 
THE Melbourne Argus of June II gives some particulars of the 
eruption of Mount Tarawera, in New Zealand, which was 
briefly reported by telegram. The first news of the outbreak 
was received at Auckland from the telegraphist at Rotorua on 
the morning of June 10. He said :—‘‘ We have all passed a 
fearful night here. The earth has been in a continual quake 
since midnight. At 2.10 a.m. there was a heavy quake and a 
fearful roar, which made every one run out of their houses. A 
grand yet terrible sight for those so near as we were presented 
itself. Mount Tarawera, close to Lake Rotomahana, suddenly 
became an active volcano, belching out fire and lava to a great 
height. The eruption appears to have extended itself to several 
places southward. A dense mass of ashes came pouring down 
here at 4 a.m., accompanied by a suffocating smell as from the 
lower regions. An immense black cloud, which extended in a 
line from Tapeka to Pairoa Mountain, was one continued mass 
of electricity all night, and is still the same. The thunder-like 
roaring of three or four craters, the stench, and the continual 
quaking of the earth, had the effect of completely frightening 
people.” Things became so threatening that the telegraphist 
deemed it prudent to abandon his post; but he afterwards 
returned, At Wairoa the schoolhouse was fired by the light- 
