May 14, 1 8 74 J 



NA TURE 



37 



IV. That all these orders have been subject to vertical con- 

 densation, under the need of vertical economy of space in the 

 bud (taken as type of close-packed forms). 



V. (a) That .sucii condensation operating on a 2-ranked or 



3-r.inkcd or 5-rankcd alternate order ( i-, — , — ) has produced 



subsequent orders of series A ( — , — , — , i, — > — > — , 

 V2 3 5 S 13 21 34 



55 ^9 144 / 



[b] That condensation of a 7-raiiked ( :i j or rarely of a 3- or 



4-ranked ( — , — I alternate order has produced subsequent 



^3 4' 

 orders of series B ( — , — , — , i, i, &c.) 

 \3 4 7 II 18 ■ ' 



[c) That condensation of a 9-ranked ( — j or rarely of a 4- or 



5-ranked( _, _j alternate order has produced subsequent 

 ^4 5 ' 



orders of series C ( — , — , — , i, i, &c. ). 

 V 4 5 9 14 23 / 



((/) That condensation of a 4ranked wliorled order (whorls of 

 two) has produced successive orders of series a, with spirals in 

 sets of 4, 6, 10, 16, 26, 42, &c 



(<■) Tliat condensation of a 6-ranked whorled order (whorls of 

 three) has produced successive orders of series J3, with spirals in 

 sets of 6, 9, 15, 24, 39, &c. 



(f) That condensation (if any) of an S-ranked whorled order 

 (whorls of four) would produce successive orders o( series7, with 

 spirals in sets of S, 12, 20, 32, &c. Higher numbers of ranks 

 would lead to higher series. 



The Structure of the Mucous Membrane of the ' Uterus and 

 its Periodical Changes, by John Williams, M.D., Assistant 

 Obstetric Physician to University College Hospital. Communi- 

 cated by Dr. Sharpey. 



On the Improvement of the Spectroscope, by Thomas Grubb, 

 F.R.S. 



The author refers to a statement appearing in the " Astro- 

 nomical Notices " for March, viz. that the spectral lines can 

 be rendered perfectly straight, simply by returning them (after 

 their first passage through a series of prisms arranged for 

 minimum deviation) by a direct reflection from a plane mirror ; 

 and further, that tliis has been accomplished in a spectroscope 

 in construction for the Royal Observatory. He then shows reasons 

 for doubting the accuracy of this statement. 



The remedy, or means of producing straight spectral lines, which 

 the author has alluded to is simply that of constructing the "slit " 

 with curved edges instead of rectilinear. There is but little 

 practical difficulty incurred in construction and no apparent ob- 

 jection to its use. It may be objected that for such variation of 

 prism power in use there should be a special slit. It is, how- 

 ever, only in spectroscopes arranged for high dispersion that the 

 curvature becomes objectionable ; in such there is seldom a 

 change required, and a single slit of medium balancing power 

 would probably remove all practical difficulty or objectionable 

 curvature of the lines. The author has found by trial, that when 

 two compound prisms were in use, giving a dispersion from A to 

 H of nearly 14°, that the spectral lines were straight in a field of 

 one degree when the radius of curvature of the slit was made 

 I 25 inch. 



Zoological Society, May 5. — Dr. E. Hamilton, vice-presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — The secretary read a report on the additions 

 that had been made to the Society's Menagerie during the month 

 of April 1S74, amongst which were a Vigne's Sheep (Ox'is 

 vigiiii), presented by Capt. Archibald ; a white-cheeked flying 

 squirrel (Plcro/nys Iciuogciiys], presented by Mr. A. Gower ; a 

 new kangaroo [IlalmatHrus hicliioms), deposited by Sig. L. M. 

 d'Albertis, and four bladder-nosed seals, presented by Capt. D. 

 Gray and Capt. Alexander Gray. — Mr. Sclater made some 

 remarks on the cassowary, living in the Society's Gardens, 

 hitherto called Kaup's cassowary, which, it appeared, ought to 

 bear the name Cassitajtus papucnsis. — Mr. Sclater announced 

 that H. M. Government had consented to send a Naturalist to 

 Kerguelen's Land to accompany the Astronomical Expedition 

 shortly proceeding there, and that the Kev. A. E. Eaton had 

 been selected by the Royal Society for the post. — Mr. Blandford 

 exhibited and made remarks on a series of heads of the Ibex of 



Persia, which he considered to be referable to Capra cr^agrus. — 

 Mr. A. H. Garrod read a paper on the anatomy of the Columba^, 

 in which a new arrangement of th.at group of birds was pro- 

 posed, based upon certain points not hitherto sufficiently investi- 

 gated. — A communication was read from Dr. Julius Haast, con- 

 taining the description of a new species of Eitphysetcs (Etiphysctes 

 poltsi), a remarkably small catodont whale, which had occurred 

 on the coast of New Zealand. — A communication was read from 

 Mr. Frederick Moore, containing a list of Diurnal Lepidoptera 

 collected in Cashmere by Capt. R. B. Reed, 12th Regiment, 

 with descriptions of new species. — A communication was read 

 from Mr. A. G. Butler, containing a complete list of the known 

 Diurnal Lepidoptera of the South Sea Islands. — Mr. Howard 

 Saunders read a paper on the Grey-capped Gulls, in which several 

 species hitherto confounded were distinguished. — A paper was 

 read by Dr. A. Giinther, F. R.S., entitled A contribution to the 

 fauna of Savage Island, in which several new lizards peculiar to 

 tie ishnd were disciibed, and other animals found in i 

 were mentioned. — A communication was read from Dr. J. S. 

 Bowerbank, F.R.S., containing the sixth part of his " Contribu- 

 tions to a General History of the Spongiadce." — Mr. R. B. 

 Sharpe read a paper on a small collection of birds made in 

 Bulama, one of the Bissagos Islands, West Africa, by Lieut. 

 Bulger. 



Chemical Society, May 7.— Prof. Odling, F.R.S., pre- 

 sident, in the chair. — A paper On the action of ammonia on 



[ phenylic and cresylic chloracetamide, was read in French by 

 the author. Dr. D. Tommasi. — Researches on the action of 



j the copper-zinc couple on organic bodies ; Part VII. On the 

 chloride of cthylidene and ethylene," by J. H. Gladstone, 

 F.R.S., and A. Tribe, F.C.S. The authors find that these two 

 isomerides behave differently when treated with the couple, the 

 latter splitting up into ethylene and chlorine, whilst the former 



gives zinc chlorethy late, - ^,,, f Zn. — Mr. Charles E. Groves 



then read a note On the preparation of ethyl chloride and its 

 homologues. He finds that when hydrochloric acid is passed 

 into a boiling solution of zinc chloride in alcohol, the latter is 

 completely converted into elhyl chloride ; other alcohols, such as 

 the methylic and amylic, under similar treatment yield the corre- 

 sponding chlorides. — On a new mineral from NewCaledonia, by 

 Mr. A. Liversidge. 



Geological Society, April 29. — ^John Evans, F.R. S., pre- 

 sident, in the chair. — The following communications were read : 

 — On the Gault of Folkestone, by F. G. H. Price. The author 

 divided the Gault into two great sections, Upper and Lower Gault, 

 v/hich he again subdivided into eleven well-defined zones, 

 mostly named after characteristic ammonites. Each of these 

 zones or beds is numbered, commencing with No. XL, the zone 

 of Ammonites ittterruplus, which bed forms the base of the Gault, 

 reposing upon the Folkestone beds of the Upper Neocomian. 

 He found the thickness of the deposit at Copt Point to be 99 ft. 

 4 in. — On the Cretaceous Rocks of Beer Head and the adjacent 

 cliff-sections ; and on the relative horizons therein of the War- 

 minster and Blackdown fossiliferous deposits, by C. J. A. Meyer. 

 The author remarked that in advancing westward from the Isle 

 of Wight the cretaceous rocks diminish steadily, although un- 

 equally, in thickness, and change slightly both in mineral cha- 

 racter and fossil contents, while the base of the series rises 

 gradually in the cliff-sections. The chalk-cliffs of Beer Head, 

 the most westerly chalk promontory in England, owe their pre- 

 servation, in his opinion, partly to a local synclinal arrangement 

 of the strata. The cretaceous rocks of the district include the 

 following, in descending order : — 



Upper Chalk (in part) ? 



Medial Chalk. 



Lower Chalk. 



Chalk Marl. 



Chloritic Marl. 



Upper Greensand. 



Gault. 



(?) 

 Royal Astronomical Society, May 8. — Sir G. B. Airy, 

 vice-president, in the chair. — Prof. Otto Struve read a paper On 

 the irregularities in the proper motion of Procyon. He said 

 that last year Prof. Auwers ot Berlin had expressed grave doubts 

 as to the possibility of the minute companion of Procyon being 

 sufficiently large to account for the observed irregularities in the 

 motion of the principal star ; he had calculated that it would be 



