October 19, 1905] 



NATURE 



62- 



existing diversity in the amount of rate levied for educa- 

 tion by local authorities, and the varying relation which 

 this amount bears to the total local rates in each area. 

 All the members of the committee are officially connected 

 with the Civil Service. 



The London County Council School of Marine Engineer- 

 ing in High Street, Poplar, has been established to enable 



vigai 



County Council Scho 



#t^ 



«:*' 



persons in the engineering and shipping industries of the 

 Poplar and neighbouring districts to acquire an intimate 

 knowledge of the principles which underlie the worlv on 

 which they are engaged, instruction being given in physics, 

 chemistrv, and mathematics, 

 as well as in the more prac- 

 tical subjects dealt with in 

 the drawing offices, chart 

 room, and engineering labor- 

 atories and workshops. The 

 nautical day school is 

 equipped witli modern nau- 

 tical instruments and sea- 

 manship models, and a por- 

 tion of the roof of the 

 building is arranged so as to 

 form an observing terrace for 

 meteorological and astro- 

 nomical observations. Pro- 

 vision is also made for the 

 thorough teaching of the 

 principles of electrical 

 engineering, and in the 

 chemical laboratories students 

 have opportunities of making 

 investigations in connection 

 with the calorific value of 

 fuels, methods of purifying 

 feed waters, and other sub- 

 jects. The accompanying , 

 illustration shows the navi- ** 

 gation room of the school. 



Prof. R. MeldoL.^, F.R.S., Fig. ,. -Diagrams of 



distributed, on October ii, 



the prizes and certificates gained during the session 1904-5 

 bv the students of Herokl's Institute, the London School 

 of Leather Manufacture. The report of the director of 

 the school, Dr. J. Gordon Parker, was read at the meet- 

 ing, and showed that during the year a large amount of 

 research work has been done, and the staff of the institute 

 has contributed in no small degree to the important 

 investigation connected with the deterioration of book- 



NO. 1877, VOL. 72] 



binding leather carried out by the Society of Arts c6m- 

 mittee on bookbinding leather.' Prof. Meldola, replying to 

 a vote of thanks, reminded those present that in other 

 countries there is a direct relationship between technical 

 institutions and the industries. In this country, un- 

 fortunately, there is too often indifference or open hostility. 

 Manufacturers have suffered through their unwillingness to 

 modify old procedure and to face new sets of conditions, 

 but it is gratifying to know that 

 hostility to technical instruction i? 

 fieing overcome. 



\{)CIE1\E>> AXD ACADEMIES 

 London. 

 Royal Society, M^y 11. — "On the 

 (.vtology of .\pogamy and Apospory. 

 — II. Preliminary Note on Apospory." 

 Hv Miss L. Digby. Communicated 

 by Prof. J. 13. Farmer, F.R.S. 



Apospory is the direct vegetative 

 process which leads from the sporo- 

 phyte to the gametophyte without the 

 intervention of spores. 



The fronds of Ncphroditim pseiido- 

 inits, Rich., var. cristata apospora, 

 Druery, were layered in pans of earth, 

 and soon showed aposporal growth. 

 Ibis arises from the surface and edge 

 (if the pinnule, and assumes pro- 

 llialloid characters. These prothalli 

 have no cushion : the embryo is u 

 vegetative outgrowth. 



The nuclear divisions of prothal[u» 

 and embryo have been studied-, and the 

 calculated number of chromosomes is 

 forty-three and forty-one respectively 

 (see Fig.). This approximation un- 

 doubtedly proves that there is 110 

 rcdiiclion during the transition from the sporophyte to the 

 gametophyte. A similar result has been obtained in 

 Atliyriuin Filix-faeiniiia, var. clarissima, Jones. 



The apogamous prothalli of Nephrodiiim psetido-inas 



,ng, Popla 



1 prothallu 



1 embryo. 



cristata apospora show no nuclear migration, whereas 

 about 73 per cent, of those of Nephrodium pseudo-mas, 

 Rich., var. polydaclyla, Wills,' exhibit this phenomenon. 

 This is easily explained. Whereas in the former the 

 nuclei of the aposporously developed prothalli have already 

 the full complement of somatic chromosomes, in the latter 



' J. B. Farmer, J. E. S. Moore, and L. Digby, " Prdimin-iry Note on 

 Apogamy," Kry. Soc. Proc.^ vol. l.\-\i., 1903, pp 453 to 457. 



