ARY 20, 1923] 
NATURE 
93 

i D. a R. Crombie for their paper « on ‘‘ An Investiga- 
tion of the Ionised Atmosphere around Flames by 
means of an Electrified Pith Ball’’; and a Hepburn 
_ medal to Basil A. Pilkington for his paper on “ A 
_ Readily-Destructible Material suitable for the Con- 
_veyance of Confidential Communications.” 
In connexion with the work of the School of 
_ Meteorology of the Royal College of Science, Sir 
Napier Shaw, professor of meteorology at the College, 
will give a course of ten lectures on ‘‘ Forecasting 
Weather,” at the Meteorological Office, South 
_ Kensington, during the current term, The lectures 
are on Fridays at 3 p.M., beginning on Friday, January 
19. Admission is free by ticket to be obtained 
from the Registrar of the Imperial College of Science, 
South Kensington, S.W.7. 
OwineG to the exceptional demand for tickets for 
his lecture on January 23, Prof. W. M. Flinders 
Petrie has consented to repeat the lecture on ‘‘ Royal 
Burials in Egypt” on Saturday, February 3, at 
_ 2.30 P.M., at University College, London. The lecture, 
which will be illustrated by lantern slides, will have 
special reference to the recent excavations in Egypt. 
The proceeds will be devoted to the St. Christopher’s 
Working Boys’ Club, which is connected with the 
Union Society and Women’s Union of the College. 
A leaflet containing full particulars as to the prices 
of the tickets can be obtained by sending a stamped 
addressed envelope to Dr. Walter Seton, University 
College, London (Gower Street, W.C.1.). 
THE council of the Geological Society has this 
year made the following awards :—Wollaston Medal, 
Mr. W. Whitaker; Murchison Medal, Dr. J. Joly; 
Lyell Medal, Mr. G. F. Dollfus; Bigsby Medal, 
Mr. E. B. Bailey ; Wollaston Fund, Mr. H. H. Read ; 
Murchison Fund, Mr. T. H. Withers; Lyell Fund, 
Dr. W. T. Gordon and Dr. W. N. Benson. 
Wuat is claimed to be the first deliberately 
_ organised radio-telephone conversation between Great 
Britain and the United States is recorded in the 
_ Times of January 16. In the early hours of the 
morning of January 15, Mr. H. B. Thayer, president 
of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, 
succeeded in addressing a party of press representa- 
_ tives and others at the New Southgate (Middlesex) 
works of the Western Electric Company, Limited, 
from his office at 195 Broadway, New York. Com- 
munication was maintained for two hours. The 
demonstration was carried out by the American 
Telephone and Telegraph Company and the Radio 
Corporation of America, which had installed a 
transmitting apparatus for the purpose at Rocky 
Mount, Long Island. The transmitter was connected 
with New York by telephone wires. The power 
used is stated as “ several hundred " kilowatts and 
the wave-length was approximately 5350 metres. 
At New Southgate a special receiving set with eight 
valves was employed, with an indoor frame aerial 
about six feet square. It is stated that most of the 
_ words spoken by Mr. Thayer and others who followed 
NO. 2777, VOL. 111] 

him were heard both by means of head telephones 
and also by a “ loud-speaker’’ so clearly that it 
was possible to recognise one of the speakers by his 
intonation. The success of this experiment in 
transmitting the spoken word from the New to the 
Old World is a noteworthy step in the progress of 
practical radio-telephony. 
THE annual general meeting of the Institute of 
Metals will be held on Wednesday and Thursday, 
March 7 and 8, at the Institution of Mechanical 
Engineers, Storey’s Gate, Westminster, S.W.1, com- 
mencing at 10.30 A.M. each day. The council is 
arranging a special ballot on February 22 for the 
election of members in time for this meeting, and 
candidates who are elected will enjoy the privileges 
of membership for the extended period ending June 
30, 1924. With the view of developing the member- 
ship of the Institute Overseas, the council has recently 
appointed a British Empire Committee on which the 
Overseas Dominions are represented by distinguished 
metallurgists in London possessing an intimate know- 
ledge of Overseas conditions. A local section of the 
Institute has just been formed in Swansea as a 
sequel to the autumn meeting of the Institute held 
there in September last. Thus the Institute now 
has sections in Birmingham, Newcastle-on-Tyne, 
London, Sheffield, Glasgow, and Swansea. 
A sPECIAL exhibit of epiphytic ferns belonging to 
the genus Platycerium and some species of the genus 
Polypodium has been arranged in the Tropical Fern 
House at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. These 
ferns live mainly in the air attached to tree trunks, 
and they have developed either specially modified 
bases to their leaves—as,°for example, Polypodium 
Heracleum, P. conjugatum, and P. Meyenianum—or 
special ‘‘ shield’ or ‘‘ collecting” leaves, as in P. 
quercifolium, P. Vidgeni, and P. rigidulum var. Whitet, 
which serve to collect the humus and detritus washed 
down the trunks. In the case of the Stag’s Horn 
Ferns (Platycerium) the collecting leaves are special- 
ised organs which wrap round the tree trunks, and 
the roots grow out into the pockets so formed. The 
shield-like base of the frond of Polypodium Heracleum 
remains green, as does also the whole shield-leaf in 
Platycerium grande and P. Veitchii, while in Poly- 
podium quercifolium etc., Platycerium alcicorne, P. 
athiopicum, and P. Willinckii, etc., the shield-leaf 
turns brown and functions only as a collecting leaf, 
the frond which remains green and bears the sporangia 
or reproductive bodies being a separate frond. The 
Bird’s Nest Fern, Asplenium Nidus, and other ferns 
which tend to make pockets with their leaves may be 
compared with these Polypodiums and Platyceriums, 
and are also exhibited near them. 
UseEFut work is being done by the various trade 
and technical committees of the British Empire 
Exhibition to be held at Wembley in 1924. It is to 
these committees that the executive council and the 
management committee have delegated the task of 
organising representative exhibits of the particular 
