March 30, 1871 | 

NATURE 
425 

diversified configuration of the earth’s surface, formed, 
as it is, of seas and continents of lands, &c., all which 
physical conditions having different powers of radiating 
and absorbing heat, also have the power of causing great 
local disturbances in this aérial ocean.” . 
It is probably due to a mistake on the part of the printer 
that the pressure of the air in the latitude of Paris at the 
level of the sea has risen to 147,304 lbs. per square inch, 
but we cannot quite account for the statement on p. 39, 
that the earth revolves daily on its axis “from east to 
west,” or again on p. 12, where common salt is made to 
consist of sodium and chlorine in “ egva/ proportions.” 
The lines of force in a magnet have often been likened 
in shape to a double egg-cup, but we doubt if any of our 
readers have ever seen anything so charmingly aprofos as 
the following similitude. “They (the lines of force) also 
unite and cross over the equator of a magnet in the same 
manner that the peripheral nerves of animals decussate 
over the pons Varolii, and again separate to the opposite 
hemispheres of the brain.” The whole book is written in 
an absurdly inflated style, such as, for instance, p. 88— 
“The intensified electricity in these regions will rather 
pour its fitful beams over the serrated edge of the circular 
icy continent,” &c.; or p. 59—“ The blood and the nerves 
and the muscles that composed his (man’s) fabrication (!) 
moulder into dust, which, in the crucible of time, yields up 
protoplasm for vegetation.” On the last page electricity 
“ carries faithfully the thoughts of men far along the pro- 
foundly silent abysses of the deep blue sea.” Space, how- 
ever, compels us to take leave of Dr. Berwick’s “ bright. 
plateau of cultivated intellectual existence.” 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 
The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 
by his Correspondents. No notice is taken of anonymous 
communications. | 
Botanical Museums 
IN your excellent article on Botanical Museums, one point ap- 
pears to have been overlooked, and to which, with your permis- 
sion, I should like to callattention. I allude specially to the 
want of an extensive series of carefully prepared specimens and 
dissections illustrative of the principal modifications of form and 
structure to be met with in plants. To the ordinary student of 
botany, especially to the beginner, a series of herbarium speci- 
mens conyeys about as much information as a similar collection 
of postage stamps would do. It is not until the pupil has 
made some considerable progress that he is in a position to 
make use of herbarium specimens with advantage to himself for 
anything more than superficial examination. The supply of 
fresh specimens in a large town like London is necessarily limi- 
ted, if not in point of numbers, at least in variety. Would it 
not therefore be advisable in any future re-organisation of our 
botanical museums, to meet this want so far as it is possible to do 
so? <A collection, such as I am alluding to, should comprise 
specimens selected and displayed in such a manner as to show the 
principal variations in the structure and form of the several 
organs of plants from the lowest to the highest. It should 
illustrate, so far as circumstances will allow, the comparative 
anatomy and physiology of plants much in the same way as the 
Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons illustrates 
the peculiarities of animal life. In such a museum the system 
should be subordinated to the plants, not the plants to the 
system, Iam quite aware that in all three establishments to 
which you call attention some specimens of the kind I refer to 
are to be found. In the Edinburgh Botanical Museum also are 
to be seen models and preparations made under the superin- 
tendence of Professor Balfour by several of his pupils. It is 
such specimens as these that for educational purposes it is so de- 
sirable to multiply and collect together in a separate department. 
Where, from the nature of things, such as the delicacy or minute size 
of the organ or what not, it is not possible to prepare a satisfac- 
tory specimen for reference, large models in wax or papier maché 
might be substituted with advantage. What teacher who has 
had to initiate the tyro into the complexities of the sphenoid 

bone or the disposition of the ovules, the structure of the anther, 
the development of the flower, the arrangements of the flowers 
in grasses, &c., but has longed for Brobdignagian models whereon 
to demonstrate the peculiarities of their formation. The organs 
themselves are often so small, and require so much practice with 
the use of the dissecting needle before they can be seen by the 
student, that it is very desirable to aid his preliminary labours as 
much as possible ; to give him, at least, a general idea of what he 
is to look for in the living specimen. For want of this pre- 
liminary help specimens are often wasted by the inexpert pupil, 
who becomes disgusted because he is unable to see for himself 
what his books or his teachers tell him he ought to see. A good 
collection of microscopical preparations should also be provided 
to illustrate such points as require the use of the compound 
microscope. Probably the British Museum would be the most 
fitting place wherein to exhibit such specimens side by side or in 
conjunction with those illustrative of fossil plants. If some such 
plan as that hinted at in your article were adopted, we should 
have the general collections at Kew in conjunction with the gar- 
dens and Economic museum, the historical and structural col- 
lections at the British Museum, and the Trade Museum at South 
Kensington, I cannot conclude this letter without adverting to 
the facilities which exist at Kew for the determination of un- 
known plants, and particularly of plants cultivated in gardens. 
Thanks to the admirable arrangements made by former and by 
the present curator of the herbarium and their assistants, the 
determination of an unknown plant becomes, comparatively, an 
easy matter. MAXWELL T, MASTERS 
Gardener's Chronicle Office, March 27 

Occurrence of Glutton near St. Asaph 
A cave has long been known to exist close to Plas Heaton, the 
property of Mr. J. R. Heaton, but as it was filled with brown 
earth nearly to the roof, and the entrance obstructed by large 
blocks of limestone, it could not be explored without some labour. 
Mr. Heaton has recently commenced opening it, and, among a 
large number of bones, has been rewarded by finding part of a 
jaw, which has been determined by Mr. Boyd Dawkins to be that 
of a glutton, This is a discovery of very great interest, 
as occurring in the district where we have already found 
the remains of reindeer, elk, &c., upon which the glutton 
principally feeds. The cave is situated on very much higher 
ground than any of the other bone-bearing caves of the 
district, and runs down into the hill with the bedding of the 
rock. Where the other end may be there is as yet no evidence 
to show, but it promises to be a cave of great extent, and, judg- 
ing by the festoons of stalactite already arrived at, of great 
beauty also. Its chief interest, however, lies in the strong pro- 
bability, from its size and position, that it will contain a very 
full record of the early natural history of the district, and the 
first results certainly encourage further exploration. 
T. McK. HuGHE; 
Splendid Meteors 
On Saturday evening last, March 25, at about half-past nine 
local time, I happened to be observing some stars in the eastern 
quarter of the heavens, when I was astonished by the sudden 
appearance of a brilliant meteor with a long tail, or streamer, of 
a reddish hue. The colour of the ball itself was a vivid bluish 
white. It seemed to start from near e Virginzs, or a little to the 
right of that position, and to take a leisurely course in a straight 
line towards the north under Arcturus, a Corone Borealis, and 
e Herculis, till I lost it behind some houses not far from the 
northern point of the horizon, if anything, a little to the east of 
that point. I was most struck with the leisurely pace at which 
it moved, so different from an ordinary falling star, the velocity 
appearing to slacken as it proceeded, like that of a railway train 
after it has passed a spectator. Just when passing under 
Arcturus, the globular head broke up, not unlike one of the fire- 
balls of a rocket, into a string of five or six luminous beads, 
getting smaller and smaller towards the tail. The entire length 
of the meteor seemed to be fore-shortened as it receded towards 
the horizon. Judging without a watch, I estimated the interval 
between its appearance and disappearance to be about nine 
seconds. At the same time a second meteor of inferior dimen- 
sions and briefer duration took a somewhat parallel course 
between Lodtes and Ursa Major. EDWIN SMITH 
Forest Road, Nottingham, March 26 
