404 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 
pp. 1 vo.—A publication pve this, which begins with a good 
Picgroity and ends with a good index, might at least have a 
title-page and a date. awk er, it dese erves a less modest title 
than that of a descriptive catalogue ; for it is really a pilose 
No cific 
of the rth American Hepatic, with generic and - 
characters well rked out. The typography and ay ehh 
style are excellent. Here, at length, we have good provision for 
the popular study of our Hepatic, and a Piuacated for the more 
elaborate work which the author will undertake. We append 
the last wore of the “ prefatory note.’ 
“No mpt has been made to publish new species, ue ane 
believing that too many have already been described from insufii- 
cient data, and considering it far more necessary to et in ante 
those already published. 
“Tt is hoped that persons receiving this work will aid the further 
— and critical eady of this group b communicating precios of 
all the forms found in their own localities.’ .G. 
III. Miscetnuangous Sctentiric INTELLIGENCE. 
1. Heliometer determinations of Stellar Parallax in the South- 
rn Hemisphere; by Davip Girt and W. L. Erxin; from the 
Wane irs of the Royal (Piet Society, vol. xlviiii—Dr. 
Gill, shortly after his appointment as Astronomer Royal at the 
Cape of Good Hope, acquired by purchase from Earl Crawford 
the four inch heliometer which Dr. Gill had used in observing, 
for the solar parallax, the ea of _ uno at Mauritius in 1874 
and of Mars at Ascension Island i 1877. r. Elkin joined Dr. 
Gill at the ecePe, and together hey observed between July, 1881, 
and Ma 3, upon a carefully arranged program nine stars for 
parallax. "The following table contains their final results: 
Probable Mag. of 
Parallax. Error. Comp. Stars. 
a Centauri ik ke Gill and Elkin,  +0°75 40°01 76 
> i chide ue a + ‘38 ‘01 v5 
a “ 4. “39 03 7+ 
tenis 0353 cs. Gill, + 2 “02 76 
; ni : + 166 "018 6-4 
B Centauri .....-. . — ‘018 019 7 
Tucan ........ . Elkin, + °06 019 14 
e Eridani ........ iS + 14 020 6-4 
Ganopus 5... 5.5. ae + *03 030 8 
One of the principal difficulties in the use of the heliometer lies 
in the difficulty of determining, under varying conditions of tem- 
perature, the values of the scale divisions of the instruments. In 
the large distances measured by the heliometer, these values must 
be determined with accuracy at the time of ea ach observation. The 
gata by Drs. Gill and Elkin upon the star whose paral- 
lax was to be determined were those of the distances of the star 
rai two stars situated as nearly as possible gag eogiene on 
opposite sides of the principal star. The distances of these t 
