214 Miscellanies , 



Observations at Hudson^ Ohio, were made under direction of Prof. 

 Loomis, at my request. The following results were published by him 

 in the Ohio Observer, of May 5, 1842. " On the morning of the 19th 

 I rose to observe, and it was perfectly cloudy. For the morning of the 

 20th, a watch of eight students was organized, but this time also the 

 sky was overcast. For the morning of the 21st no regular watch 

 was kept, but a company of students, who were riding all night in an 

 open waggon, made such observations as they were able. About one 

 o'clock, A. M. they began to observe, and continued about an hour, 

 when so few were seen, that they did not pay their whole attention to 

 it. After the moon set, which was at 3 A. M., they renewed their 

 watch, though not uninterruptedly. From this time to morning most 

 of the meteors were seen. They observed only the eastern half of the 

 heavens, and saw in all about twenty meteors. The sky was remark- 

 ably clear all night. If the entire heavens had been observed, the 

 number of meteors seen would probably have been somewhat less than 

 twenty per hour. This number certainly cannot be considered very 

 extraordinary." 



From the foregoing observations, it may be concluded that there was 

 no unusual exhibition of shooting stars at this place, or at Hudson, O., 

 on the morning of April 21, 1842. It will be remarked, that the morn- 

 ing of the twentieth was the anniversary of the meteoric shower of 

 April, 1803 ; but whether any uncommon display of shooting stars was 

 visible on that morning, we had no opportunity to determine. 



New Haven, Conn., May 17, 1842. E. C. Herrick. 



7. Botanical Necrology, 4*c. — Besides the irreparable loss sustained 

 in the death of the great De Candolle, we have to mourn the decease 

 of several distinguished botanists during the past year, vi^. 



Mr. Lambekt, senior Vice President of the Linnsean Society ; author 

 of a magnificent work on the Pines, and proprietor of a very large 

 herbarium, comprising the plants of Ruiz and Pavon, of Pallas, and also 

 of Pursh, who published his Flora under Mr. Lambert's liberal pat- 

 ronage. 



Peof. David Don, late Curator of the Lambertian herbarium. Libra- 

 rian of the Linnsean Society, and since the year 1836, Professor of 

 Botany in King's College. This celebrated botanist, and estimable 

 man, died on the 8th of December last, at the age of 41 years. Mr. 

 Don's place as the botanical editor of the Magazine and Annals of Nat- 

 ural History, has been taken by Prof. Balfour, the successor of Sir 

 Wm. Hooker, in the botanical chair at Glasgow. 



M. GuiLLEMiN, one of the botanical editors of the Annales des 

 Sciences Naturelles, Aide-Naturaliste in the National Museum at the 



