204 W. R. Dawes on the Solar Surface. 
tain whether in any part of the photosphere any objects could 
be found which could reasonably be compared to “ willow-leaves” 
(as called by Mr. Nasmyth) in their form.—It may be well to 
state here that I have always found it difficult to devise any ap- 
propriate appellation for the small bright irregularities of the 
surface, which would avoid an assumption of their character, or 
ascribe to them a regularity of form they do not possess. In 
my first paper I expressed my strong objection to any name 0 
this kind, as calculated to convey an erroneous impression. The 
term willow-leaves seemed utterly inapplicable to anything I 
had ever succeeded in discovering. A far less objectionable 
term, as it appears to me, is that of rice-grains applied by Mr. 
Stone to those objects with which all careful Sun-observers must 
be acquainted, as there is no difficulty in seeing them in a mod- 
erately favorable state of the air, and which have been familiar 
to myself for many years ;—so much so, indeed, that when they 
were not discernible I invariably abstained from any further 
scrutiny of the solar surface as being useless. Yet even this 
appellation conveys the idea of uniformity of shape and size 
which these objects do not possess, and is, I think, on that 
ground, objectionable. But 1 have been led by it to apply the 
term granulations, or granules, which assumes nothing either as 
to exact form or precise character; and I venture to hope that 
aped arrow-head, another, very much smaller and within 5’ 
of it, was an irregular trapezium with rounded corners. The 
ditions as to brightness or elevation of the larger masses form- 
ing the mottled surface; just as the brighter portions of that 
surface, and the fa also, are diffe 
eral photosphere. 
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