124 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XXI. No. 526 



The ultimate crystals of each fern-like flake were prisms and 

 hexagonal plates. The parts formed by prisms and very small 

 hexagonal plates corresponded to the rachis and basal portions of 

 pinnae, while the expanded portions of pinnae and pinnules were 

 represented by hexagonal plates alone. The terminal plates 

 were the largest. They diminished in size as they approached 

 the axils, where they were replaced by delicate elongate prisms. 



These fern flakes are simply modifications of star-flakes. Each 

 fern-flake is one ray of a star, the point of attachment to the twig 

 or wire corresponding to the centre of the star. Their attach- 

 ment to a fixed support was a condition of unusual development, 

 some being more than one-half inch in length. The completed 

 star would have been gigantic compared with a star-flake formed 

 in a snow cloud. 



Some of these fern flakes were still further modified so as to 

 represent a half ray, resembling one-half of a fern froud divided 

 longitudinally. Perhaps in such a one the axis of the fern-flake 

 represented the line of demarcation between still air and moving 

 air. 



This was a kind of snow-cloud hanging on the trees, formed 

 under the concurrence of particular conditions of temperature, 

 moisture, and atmospheric movement. The conditions that fa- 

 vor the fringe-like, or one-sided, arrangement of frost must be 

 very unusual. W. P. Shannon. 



Greensburg, Ind. 



meeting of the Royal Microscopical Society on Nov. 19, 1890, by 

 Professor Bell, who said that it had been sent by Professor Exner 

 to Dr. Sharpe, by whom it was lent for exhibition on that occa- 

 sion. I examined this photograph with much interest at the close 

 of the meeting and took the opportunity of making a sketch of 

 it in my note-book at the time. Tliis sketch undoubtedly shows 

 the letter R to be the right way about, with the church facing 

 towardsthe left; andalthough after a lapse of twoyears it might 

 not have been possible to trust entirely to memory in the matter, 

 it is impossible to suppose that 1 made otherwise than a true copy 

 of the picture which I held in my hand. I therefore infer that 

 the photograph to which Dr. Daliinger refers must have been 

 printed the reverse way to the one which I saw as above stated. 



R. T. Lewis. 



Ealiug, London, S. W., England. 



AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. 



On the Use of the Compound Eyes of Insects. 



Mt personal knowledge of Dr. Daliinger enables me to accept 

 without hesitation his statement in Science of Jan. 6 (p 11) that 

 the wood-cut on page 908 of "The Microscope a«id its Revela- 

 tions" corresponds in every particular with the photograph from 

 which it was taken. I should, however, like to put myself right 

 with your readers by explaining that the photograph to which I 

 referred as " the original" was a positive print exhibited at the 



The publishers of Mrs. Helen Mather's " One Summer in 

 Hawaii," the Cassell Publishing Company, announce a new edi- 

 tion of that book. The present state of affairs in Hawaii have re- 

 newed interest in the subject. Mrs Mather describes the people, 

 their manners and customs, the natural resoufces of the island, 

 and gives a personal description of Queen Lilliuokaulani, by 

 whom she was entertained. The book is filled with illustrations 

 showing the scenery and public buildings, and gives portraits of 

 the Queen and her predecessors in office. 



— G. P. Putnam's Sons announce for early publication "The 

 Empire of the Tsars and the Russians," by Anatole Leroy-Beau- 

 lieu, tran.slated from the third French edition by Mme. Ragozin; 

 " Outlines of Roman History," by Professor Henry F. Pelham, 

 of Oxford University, a work particularly designed for reading 

 classes and higher-grade students ; " Studies of Travel in Greece 



CALENDAR OF SOCIETIES. 

 Anthropological Society, Washington. 



Feb. 31. — Mrs. Matilda Coxe Stevenson, 

 The Foundation of the Zuni Cult ; Miss 

 Kate Foote, Dual Civic Functions: A Study 

 in the Evolution of Institutions ; Thomas 

 Wilson, Early Man in the Mississippi Val- 

 ley. 



Biological Society, Washington. 



Feb. 25.— Sheldon Jackson, The Intro- 

 duction of Reindeer in Alaska; M. B. Waite, 

 Variation in the Fruit of the Pear due to 

 Difference of Pollen; E. M. Hasbrouck, On 

 the Development of the Appendages of the 

 Cedar Waxwing; F. A. Lucas, The Food of 

 Humming-Birds. 



Philosophical Society, Washington. 



Mar. 1. — Waldemar Lindgren, Two Neo- 

 cene Rivers of California ; Marshall McDon- 

 ald. A Study of the Gulf-Stream in Relation 

 to the Tile Fish. 



Appalachian Mountain Club, Boston. 



Feb. 37. — C. Willard Hayes. Through 

 Alaska with Lieutenant Schwatka; an ac- 

 count of exploration in the Yukon Basin in 

 1891, and the first crossing of the St. Elias- 

 Wrangell Range. 



Mar. 8. — Edouard A. Martel of Paris, 

 will be read by Frank W. Freeborn, The 

 Land of the Gausses. The Caves of Bram- 

 abiau, Dargilan, Padirac, etc. ; Philip Stan- 

 ley Abbot, His Ascent of the Weisshorn. 



Society of Natural History, Boston. 



Mar. 1.— E. S. Morse, A Curious Aino 

 Toy ; C. Willard Hayes and M. R. Camp 

 hell. The Structural Features (Geomorphol- 

 ogy) of the Southern Appalachians. 



Agassiz Scientific Society, Corvallis, Ore. 



Feb. 8— Charles Pernot, Smokeless Fuel. 



THE RADIOMETER. 



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