Dec. 30, ] 



NA TURE 



213 



new species of Scitaminece from the Malayan peninsula, includ- 

 ing a new genus, Lmcia. — Prof T. Camel has a note on the 

 fruit and seeds of the cacao. — P. Severino describes the variety 

 purpurea of Aceras anl/iropophora, and the micro-chemical re- 

 actions of the purple cells. — Two teratological papers complete 

 the list : on viviparity and prolification in Hpilanlhei caulirrhiza, 

 by Dr. F. Tassi ; and teratological notes (on Aegle sepiaria, 

 Lysimachia epkemerttm, and Saxifraga crassi/olia), by C. 

 Massalongo. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 



Royal Society, December 16. — " On a Varying Cylindrical 

 Lens." By Tempest Anderson, M.D., B.Sc. Communicated 

 by Prof. A. W. Williamson. 



The author has had constructed a cylindrical lens in which the 

 a.'iis remains constant in direction and amount of refraction, 

 while the refraction in the meridian at right angles to this varies 

 continuously. 



A cjne may be regarded as a succession of cylinders of 

 different diameters graduating into one another by exceedingly 

 small steps, so that if a short enough portion be considered, its 

 curvature at any point may be regarded as cylindrical. A lens 

 with one side plane and the other ground on a conical tool is 

 therefore a concave cylindrical lens varying in concavity at 

 different parts according to the diameter of the cone at the cor- 

 responding part. Two such lenses mounted with axes parallel 

 and with curvatures varying in opposite directions produce a 

 compound cylindrical lens, whose refraction in the direction of 

 the axes is zero, and whose refraction in the meridian at right 

 angles to this is at any point the sum of the refractions of the 

 two lenses. This sum is nearly constant for a considerable 

 distance along the axis so long as the same position of the lenses 

 is maintained. If the lenses be slid one over the other in the 

 direction of their axes, this sum changes, and we have a varying 

 cylindrical lens. The lens is graduated by marking on the 

 frame the relative position of the lenses when cylindrical lenses 

 of Unown power are neutralised. 



Lenses were exhibited varying from o to - 6DCy, and from 

 o to + 6DCy. 



Linnean Society, December 16. — W. Carruthers, F.R.S.. 

 President, in the chair. — II.R.H. the Prince of Wales waselected 

 an Honorary Member of the Society. — Messrs. A. Bawtree, 

 F. Justen, T. N. Mukharji, F. W. Oliver, and R. V. Sherring 

 were elected Fellows, and G. Nicholson an Associate, of the 

 Society. — The President announced that Sir George MacLeay, 

 K.C.M.G., had presented to the Society a portrait of the late 

 Rev. W. Kirby, the distinguished entomologist, and the manu- 

 scripts and correspondence of his father, Alexander MacLeay 

 (elected F.L..S. 1794), formerly Secretary to the Society. For 

 these acceptable donations, a special vote of thanks was ac- 

 corded by the Fellows. — Prof. F. O. Bower exhibited a series 

 of photographs illustrating the vegetation of Ceylon. — Mr. E. A. 

 Heath showed a stormy petrel, Procellaria pchn^icn, which was 

 picked up alive in Kensington Gardens on December 9 ; the 

 bird evidently having been driven inland by the great storm of 

 the previous day. — Mr. D. Morris drew attention to the fresh 

 leaves, and the fibres extracted therefrom, of Agave salmdyckia 

 and A. Lxlli. — Mr. W. T. Thiselton Dyer showed one of the 

 volumes of " Honzo Zufu" (" Illustrations and Brief Descrip- 

 tions of the Plants of Japan"), by Iwasatti Tsanemasa, which 

 consists of ninety-six volumes containing 2000 coloured figures. 

 Only two or three copies of this important botanical work are 

 known to be complete, as a great part of it only exists in the 

 original native hand-work. — The President exhibited a spike of 

 maize from an ancient Peruvian grave, also samples of prehistoric 

 wheat from ancient British and Romano-British burial-mounds in 

 Wiltshire. — Mr. G. J. Romanesreadapaper on the sense of smell 

 in dogs, a report of which we hope to give in a future number. — 

 Mr. C. T. Druery gave a communication on a new instance of 

 apospory in Polystichum angulare, var. pulcherritmtm. lie 

 infers that the formation of the prothallus is preceded by a very 

 different series of phenomena from those already recorded. In 

 the one case the prothalli are simple extensions of the cellular 

 substance of the tips of the pinnules commencing at points quite 

 beyond the venation, and produce no root-hairs unless brought 

 into contact with the soil. In the other case, however, the 

 prothallus is a direct outgrowth of the tip of a veinlet, and at 



once produces root-hairs in abundance long before it assumes 

 any other characteristic of a prothallus, .and finally the re- 

 sulting prothallus is much thicker in substance. — A paper 

 was read on apospory and allied phenomena, by Prof F. O. 

 Bower. The term " sporal arrest" is applied to all cases 

 where such spores do not come to functional maturity. The 

 arrest is often, but not always, followed by substitutionary or 

 correlative vegetative growths : these take the form of buds, 

 siaiilar to the sporophyte which produced them, and then would 

 be termed cases of "sporophytic budding" ; but in other cases 

 the correlative growths may assume the characters of the oophyte 

 or prothallus. Where this happens, the phenomenon is termed 

 "apospory." This direct transition from the sporophyte to the 

 oophyte was induced some ten years ago in certain mosses, 

 by Pringsheim and Stahl ; and it is now described in detail in 

 two ferns, an Athyrium and a Polystichum. Both plants were 

 found some years ago growing wild, and the fact of the tr,ansi- 

 tion was recognised by Mr. Druery and Mr. Wollaston, and 

 has been already published by the Linnean Society. The present 

 paper describes these and similar phenomena in detail, and 

 shows how in the Polystichum a . least four different modes of 

 origin of the oophytes may be distinguished, two being in con- 

 nection with the sorus, while two are at points apart from the 

 sorus, and may even occur on fronds which bear no sori at all. 

 The latter part of the paper is occupied by comparing these phe- 

 nomena with others already known in higher and lower plants. 

 The general conclusion is that the whole phenomenon of 

 apospory is to be regarded rather as a sport than as a reversion 

 bearing deep morphological conclusions with it. 



Chemical Society, December 2. — W. Perkin, F.R. S., 

 Vice-President, in the chair. — Mr. Forbes Kickard was formally 

 admitted a Fellow of the Society. — The following papers were 

 read: — Bismuthates, by M. M. Pattison Muir and Douglas J. 

 Carnegie. — Tlie action of inorganic compninds on living matter, 

 by James Blake, M.D. — Morindin and morindon, by T. E. 

 Thorpe, F.R.S., and T. H. Greenall. — The hydration of salts : 

 cadmium chloride, by S. U. Pickering. — The decomposition of 

 sodium carbonate on fusion, by S. U. Pickering. — Derivatives 

 of tolylbenzene, by Thomas Carnelley, D.Sc. (Lond.), and 

 Andrew Thomson, D.Sc. (Edin.), — The amount of chlorine in 

 rain-water collected at Cirencester, by Edward Kinch, Royal 

 Agricultural College, Cirencester. — Some analogous phosphates, 

 arsenates, and vanadates, by John A. Hall, student in the 

 Laboratory of Owens College. — Agricultural experiments with 

 iron sulphate as a manure during 1S86, by A. B. Griffiths, 

 Ph.D. 



Royal Meteorological Society, December 15. — Mr. W. 

 Ellis, F.R.A.S., President, in the chair.— Mr. G. R. Farn- 

 combe, B.A., Mr. C. E. B. Hewitt, B.A., and Capt. S. Trott 

 were elected Fellows of the Society. — The following papers 

 were read : — On the proceedings of the International Congress 

 of Hydrology and Climatology at Biarritz, by Mr. G. j. Symons, 

 F. R.S. Ttiis Congress was held in October, and was divided 

 into three sections, viz. Scientific Hydrology, Medical Hy- 

 drology, and Climatology, Scientific and Medical. The total 

 number of papers read was 109. An Exhibition was also held 

 in connection with the Congress. The excursions were of 

 primary importance to the medical men, and extended over a 

 period of three weeks. The places visited were : Bayonne, Cambo, 

 Dax, Arcachon, Pau, Eaux-Bonnes, Eaux-Chaudes, Cauterets, 

 Lourdes, Bagneres-de-Bigorre, Luchon, Ussat, Ax, Montpellier, 

 Cette, Boulou, Amelie-les-Bains, La Preste, Banyuls-sur-Mer, 

 and Thues. — Report on the phenological observations for 1886, 

 by the Rev. T. A. Preston, M.A., F.R.Met.Soc. The weather 

 was, on the whole, very ungenial and everything much retarded ; 

 it was also very fatal to insect life, so that the com- 

 plaints on this head have been far less than usual. Bush 

 fruits were very abundant ; strawberries and peas were spoilt by 

 drought in many places ; stone fruits, except plums, were not 

 abundant ; plums were extraordinarily plentiful, so much so 

 that they realised nothing in the markets, the cojt of picking 

 and carrying often being more than they realised ; apples were 

 very poor, from the destruction of the bloom by heavy rain. 

 Hay was good and plentiful, and well harvested ; corn and 

 other grain were not up to an average : root-crops were, as a 

 rule, remarkably good. — h. criticism of certain points of Prof 

 Langley's researches on solar heat, by Prof S. A. Hill, B.Sc, 

 F.R.Met.Soc. These experiments were carried out at Mount 

 Whitney, in Southern Cahfornia, during 1881. — Account of the 



