Feb. 26, 1880] 



NATURE 



411 



Geology, (5) Botany, (6) Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, 

 (7) Physiology, (8) Hum in Anatomy and Physiology. 



The Cambridge botanic Gardens Syndicate have procured 

 plans for a Curator's House and Syndicate Office, to be placed 

 adjoining and overlooking the entrance froin Panton Street to 

 the Garden-. Mr. W. M. Fawcett, the architect, estimates its 

 cost at 620/. 



A real compulsory matriculation examination at entrance is 

 absolutely neede<l, otherwise those who are endeavouring 

 usly to hring about ijjpr ivements will find their life worn 

 out in elementary teaching an 1 examination. If Senior Wranglers 

 can be spared to exa nine thousands of arithmetic papers and to 

 lecture upon arithmetic in Cambridge year after year, it can be 

 onlv because they too tamely continue to do it, finding that the 

 Philistine spirit of modern days provides no better pay for them 

 if they preferred higher work. Either this lecturing is super- 

 fluous, or their pupils have never been to a good school till 

 eighteen. Why -hould any student be entered on the books of 

 a university if he does not know at the least the elementary 

 principles of number and of grammar ? 



A memorial is being signed in various parts of the country 

 to the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, praying 

 that the Senate will grant to properly qualified women the right 

 of admission to the exaoiinations for University Degrees, and 

 to the Decrees conferred according to the results of such 

 exa dilations. 



Oxford. — The examiners in the Burdett-Coutts Geological 

 Sch larslnp hive elected Mr. II. N. Ridley, B.A., of Exeter 

 College, to the vacant scholarship. 



The following scence scholarships have been awarded, after 

 examination in Chemistry, Physics, and Biology :— Mr. T. II. 

 WaUer and Mr. [. H. Makinder, from Epsom College, to 

 Namral Science Studentships at Christ Church ; Proxmie, Mr. 

 G. C. Chainhres, irom Dulwich College ; Mr. Alfred Shacketon, 

 from Bradford Grammar School, to a Natural Science Exhibition 

 at New College. 



Dr. Gladstone, finding that several teachers were unable to 

 obtain ad mission to the lecture delivered by him in the Board 

 Ro m of the London Sch 10I Board in October last, on the 

 Apparatus for Illustrating Object Lessons, has consented to 

 repeat the lecture at the following schools on the dates named : — 

 Westmoreland Road, Walworth, S.E. (near Walworth l-oad 

 Stanon), on Tuesday, March 2; Saffron Hill, Cross Street, 

 Farringd >n Koad, E.C. (near Farringdon Street Station), on 

 Tuesday, March 9. Each lecture will commence at 7.30 o'clock. 

 The apparatus recommended and described by Dr. Glad tone 

 are all of the cheapest and commonest kind, such as a clasp- 

 knife, frame-saw, two tin basins, tobacco-pipe, magnifying alas, 

 &c. Such lectures are well adapted to encourage the teaching of 

 science in schools. 



The report drawn up by M. Paul Bert, acting as referee of 

 the Parliamentary Committee of the French Chamber of Depu- 

 ties on Primary Instruct! >n, has been published as a separate 

 volume, and is selliug largely. 



THE new law on the organisation of the Superior Council of 

 Education in France has rendered this body a representative ne. 

 Not only the several a c denies, but also the several faculties 

 have been inve-ted with the rUht of appointing delegates. The 

 Faculties of Sciences have res >lved to send delegates to Paris, in 

 order to hear the projession de Jui of several candidates, and to 

 interrogate them on their opinion on the different t pics venti- 

 lated by teaching bod es. This example will be shortly followed 

 by other faculties. M. Gerard, Profes-or of Philosophy to the 

 Faculties of Nancy, having sent a circular summoning the 

 Faculties des Lettre- to send a delegate to Paris, their appointed 

 meeting is to take place at Easter, during the usual holidays. 



SUCJET/f.y AMI' ACADEMIES 



1 1 IN DON 

 Linnean Society, February 5.— Wm. Carruthers, F.R.S., 

 vice- p resident, in the chair. — Mr. Chas. Stewart exhibited and 

 explained a stained microscopic section of the ovary of Hya- 

 ciruhu ontnialis, showing the intercellular network in the cells 

 of the ovules. The nuclei bef ire dividing increase in size, and 

 there is a well-defined highly refraciile fibrous network which 

 becomes a/gregated at opp .si'e sides of the nucleus, forming two 

 star-shaped masses connected by fine fibres ; the latter rupture 

 when the stellate masses, becoming rounded, form the nuclei of 



the two new cells.— Dr. Francis Day presented for inspection 

 examples of Salm midae, some of which had been reared under 

 natural and others under unnatural conditions. A Salmo fonti- 

 ualis wh ch had parsed its existence in the Westminster 

 Aquarium, had the head preternaturally elongated and a very 

 narrow sub operculum, thus in striking contrast to examples 

 reartd fr >m the same batch of imported eggs, and kept in a wild 

 state in Cardiganshire. — Mr. R. Irwin Lynch brought under 

 notice pods of Acacia Iwmalophylla, wherein each end was 

 attached by a very long and bright red lunicle, which doubly 

 folded on the sides of the seed. The funicle is supposed to be 

 always detached with the seed, and from its brilliant colour to 

 serve as an attraction to birds, and so as-ist in the dis-emination 

 of the plant.— Mr. A. Hammond drew attention to a larva of 

 Ta-ypus maculatus. He mentioned that the coronet and 

 appendages of the thoracic and anal regions had been said to be 

 h miologous with the respiratory organs of the larva and pupa of 

 gnats, S:c. This he doubted, inasmuch as the former originated 

 from the ventral and n jt from the dor.-al surface, as did the latter, 

 and no trachea of any size could be traced in tbem. He also 

 stated his opinion that the two oval bodies in the thorax attri- 

 buted by I>e Geer to the air reservoirs were more probably 

 salivary glands similar to those previou-ly described by himself 

 in the larva of the crane fly.— Mr. C. B. Clarke then gave an oral 

 rhunie of the order Commelynacese, which order he had lately 

 worked out for De Candolle's " Prodromus." He defined the order 

 by the position of the embryo, as not surrounded by the albumen, 

 but closely applied to the embryostega, which is always remote 

 from the hilum. An important auxiliary character is that the 

 three segments of the calyx are always imbricated, so that one is 

 entirely outside the two others. Mr. Clarke divides the Com- 

 melynacea; into three tribes, as follows: — 1. Poller, fruit inde- 

 hiscent ; (2) Commelytua, capsule loculicidal, fertile stamens 

 3-2; (3) Tradescantiece, capsule loculicidal, fertile stamens 6-5. 

 The author remarked on the character of the two ranked seeds 

 on which the genus Dichospcrmum had been founded, but which 

 character is exhibited in species of various genera. He also 

 alluded to the manifest and imp- rtant change of colour in the 

 petals of several of the Commelynacea: (Aneilema versicolor, to 

 wit), where from a bright yellow when fresh, they become of a 

 deep blue when dry. — The Secretary afterwards read a paper on 

 the Salmonidas and other fish introduced into New Zealand 

 waters, by H. M. Brewer, of the Wanganui Acclim. Soc, 

 N.Z. The author herein gave data concerning the British 

 salmon (S. salar), Californian salmon (S quinnat), trout (S./ario), 

 sea trout (S.truita), American" charr (S. fontinalis), perch (Pcrca 

 Jluviatilis), tench (Tinea vulgaris), Prussian carp (Carassins 

 vulgaris), cat fish (Pimelodcs catus), white fish (Coregonus albus), 

 and lastly a New Zealand fish called by the natives Upukororo. 

 Physical Society, February 14. — An ual General Meeting, 

 Prof. W. G. Adams, president, in the chair. — The President 

 read the report for the past year, wbic'i howed that the position 

 and prospects of the Society are in every way satisfactory, and 

 that more papers were communicated during last year than on 

 any previous year. — The following list of Council and Officers 

 was elected for the ensuing year, and votes of thanks were given 

 10 the President, the Lords of the Committee of Council on 

 Education, and to the Treasurer, Demonstrator, and Secretaries. 

 President : Sir W. Thomson, LL.D., F.R.S. Vice-President 

 (who has filled the office of President): Prof. W. G. Adams, 

 M.A., F.R.S. Vice-Presidents: Prof. R. B Clifton, Dr. 

 Huogins, Lord Rayleigh, Dr. Spottiswoode. Secretaries : Prof. 

 Remold, and W. Chandler Roberts, F.R.S Treasurer: 

 Dr. Atkinson. Demonstrator : Prof. Guthrie ; and Me bers of 

 Council: Captain Abney, Walter Bailey, M.A., J. H. Cotterill, 

 F. K.S., Dr. Warren de la Rue, Major Festing, R.E., Prof. G. 

 C. Foster, Prof. Fuller, Dr. J. Hopkin-on, Dr. Shus'er, G. 

 Johnsione Stoney, F.R.S. Honorary Member: J. E. R. Clausius. 

 — After this business the meeting resolved itself into an o dinary 

 one, and the following New Members were elected :— Senor 

 Roig y Torres, of Barcelona, Mr. Mollison, Mr. Hare, Mr. J. 

 C. Lewis, Mis Caroline Martineau. — A paper on a quartz and 

 Iceland spar spectroscope, corrected for chromatic aberration 

 was then read by Dr. W. H. Stone ; the spectroscope consists of 

 two Iceland spar prisms and a quartz train. It differs in no 

 respect from those ordinarily made, except in the fact that the 

 object glasses of the telescope and collimator are doublets with 

 a positive lens of quartz and a negative of Iceland spar. The 

 latter has a dispersive power so far greater than that of quartz 

 that an approximation to achromatism may be easily obtained. 



