Maech 2U, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



523 



fraction pattern, consisting of a central band 

 with, a series of fainter ones ranged symmetri- 

 cally on each side. The most distant of these 

 resembled faint stars, and were of course due 

 to the more intense part of the stars' spectrum. 

 The distance of one of these bands from that 

 symmetrically situated on the other side gave 

 the data for the determination of the wave- 

 length. The measurements were made directly 

 with a micrometer. 



Remarks on the Articles of Mr. E. J. Wil- 

 czynski: By PAUL Harger. Being rather a 

 spirited attack upon the validity of some of 

 Mr. Wilczynski's assumptions in connection 

 with his work on Solar Rotation. 



Researches on the Arc Spectra of the Metals 

 III. Cobalt and Nickel III: By B. Hasselberg. 

 One of the regular series of papers dealing 

 with the measurement of lines and the elimina- 

 tion of impurities. 



Preliminary Table of Solar Spectrum Wave- 

 lengths : By Henry A. Rowland. Minor Con- 

 tributions and Notes. Reviews of Recent Astro- 

 physical Literature. Bibliography of Recent 

 Astrophysical Literature. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB. 



At the regular meeting of February 9th, 

 about 200 persons present, the scientific pro- 

 gram consisted of a lecture by Mr. Henrj' A. 

 Siebrecht, entitled ' Orchids ; Their Habitat, 

 Manner of Collecting and Cultivation,' hand- 

 somely illustrated with lantern slides by Mr. 

 Cornelius Van Brunt, colored by Mrs. Van 

 Brunt. 



Mr. Siebrecht in his paper referred] to the 

 hardships undergone by the orchid collector, 

 and paid a tribute to the energy displayed by 

 three friends of the speaker, Carmiole, an Ital- 

 ian, who had come to New York when the 

 speaker was a boy; Fostermann, who died 

 about two years ago, the victim, like most col- 

 lectors, of disease contracted in that enterprise ; 

 and Thieme, who had made three trips for Mr. 

 Siebrecht, and who went last to Brazil in search 

 of the Cattleya autumnalis, but was never heard 

 from. 



Mr. Siebrecht referred also to three trips of 



his own in quest of orchids, to the West Indies, 

 Venezuela, Brazil and Central America. He 

 then exhibited the lantern views, which were of 

 remarkable beauty and evoked frequent ap- 

 plause. They included numerous representa- 

 tives of the chief tropical genera cultivated, 

 also with views of interiors showing the Cat- 

 tleya house in full blossom, etc. Slides show- 

 ing numerous species native to the Eastern 

 United States followed. 



Mr. Siebrecht then described the culture of 

 orchids and classed their diseases, as chiefly 

 because too wet, when the ' spot ' closes the 

 stomata, or too dry, when they collect insects. 

 He referred to their insect enemies at home, 

 the 'Jack-Spaniard,' which eats the marrow 

 from the bulb, and Cattleya-fly, now introduced 

 into English houses. He mentioned the ravages 

 of Cladosporium and the great difficulty with 

 which orchids of the genus Phalssnopsis are 

 preserved from fungal diseases. 



The subject was further discussed by the 

 President, Dr. Britton, Mr. Samuel Henshaw 

 and Mr. Livingston, the latter referring to his 

 recent experience as an orchid collector. A 

 slide was exhibited, made from a photograph 

 taken by Mr. Livingston, showing his orchids 

 packed upon oxen and so carried down from 

 the mountains to Magdalena. 



Mr. Henshaw spoke of his visit to Mr. Sie- 

 brecht's nursery in Trinidad, and of the growth 

 made there by Crotons, as much in one year as 

 here in four or five. In those gardens they 

 divide their plants by rows and edges of Crotons, 

 which are sheared off as we would trim a privet- 

 hedge. Mr. Henshaw also paid a deserved 

 tribute to Mrs. Van Brunt for the wonderful 

 success of her coloring of the orchid slides. 

 Edward S. Burgess, 



Secretary. 



SCIENCE CLUB OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WIS- 

 CONSIN. 



At the meeting on February 22, 1897, Profes- 

 sor F. H. King, in a paper ' The Movements of 

 Ground Waters,' referred first to a world-wide 

 zone, probably extending as deeply below the 

 surface of the earth as rock fissures exist, and 

 which is interpenetrated with water incessantly 

 in motion. These movements were classified as 



