Notes and Memoranda. 4QI 



NOTES AND MEMOBANDA. 



The Conservation op Pollen.— M. Belhomme details to the French Academy 

 numerous experiments on the "persistence of the fecundating power of pollen." 

 He gathers anthers in dry weather, at the moment when dehiscence begins, seals 

 them up in bottles, and places the bottles in a dark, dry place, in which the tem- 

 perature will not exceed 6° or 8° C. The pollen grains that hare been successfully 

 preserved remain slightly moist, those which have dried so that they do not ad- 

 here slightly to the skin, and those which fall like dust, are spoilt. He has 

 proved that the pollen of the lily tribe can preserve its fertility for five or six 

 years, that of the musaceas he has preserved for six years, of the borage tribe one 

 year, and of the potato tribe two years, of cactuses three years, and of the rose 

 and bean tribes two years. 



Deviation oe Comets' Tails. — M. Valz shows that the tails of Comets iv. 

 and v., 1863, deviated from the planes of their orbits. He adverts to two other 

 comets m which the same fact was ascertained. — Comptes Rendus, No. 19, 1864. 



"Use oe Electricity in Beight's Disease.— M. Namias communicates to 

 the French Academy a case in which the obstacle to the separation of urea from 

 the blood was removed by the application of galvanism to the loins of the patient 

 for half an hour. Twelve of Daniell's cells were employed, and the quantity of 

 urine and urea much increased. More albumen was also secreted, but M. Namias 

 states that this was of small consequence compared with the benefit resulting from 

 a greater elimination of urea. 



Altai* Clark on the Sun and Stars. — Mr. Alvan Clark views the solar 

 image in a dark chamber. The sunlight is admitted through a vertical aperture, 

 received by a prism, and reflected horizontally on to a pleno-convex lens. The 

 solar image thus obtained is viewed from a distance of 230 feet, and its diameter 

 reduced 93,840 times, being then scarcely equal in illuminating power to a Lyra 

 (Vega). Making allowance for loss of light through the apparatus employed, Mr. 

 Clark considers that if the sun were removed 103,224 times his actual distance 

 from us, he would not give us more light than the star in question, and this 

 distance, he observes, is not half the presumed distance of the nearest fixed star. 

 He also alleges reasons for supposing that our sun may be a small star in com- 

 parison with some of the millions of other stars that inhabit space. 



Streve on TnE Companion op Siries. — In the Monthly Notices will be 

 found a paper by M. Struve detailing his observations on the satellite of Sirius. 

 The average of good observations in 1863 gave 10"*14 as the distance, and 80 o- 5 as 

 the position ; while the average of good observations in 1864 yielded 10" - 92 dis- 

 tance 74° - 8 position. According to which the annual change of distance is 0" - 77, 

 and of position °5*7. — This nearly coincides with Mr. Saflbrd's calculations, based 

 on the supposition that there is no physical connection between the two stars. M. 

 Struve does not, however, consider this view established, and suspends his judg- 

 ment till next year. 



Habits op Wasps. — Professor E. L. Edgworth has a paper in the Annals of 

 Natural History on Irish wasps, in which he denies the statement of Reaumur, 

 repeated by Kirby and Spcnce, that at the first cold of winter, wnsjis kill their 

 young. He says possibly the grubs, in some rare cases, may have been killed by 

 an early frost, and it may have been thought they were intentionally slain. He 

 states that the wasps are hatched before cold weather usually begins. The love 

 they display for their young, and the place of their birth, he characterizes as very 

 remarkable, and he adds that they soon become familiarized with any animal or man. 

 In one instance he tells us that a field-mouse and a nest of wasps shared a common 

 hole, without injury to the former. The presence of other wasps does not appear 

 to disturb their equanimity, and in one case he planted four colonies together, 

 and they all flourished. He also bisected two nests and put the halves of dis- 

 similar nests together. The wasps surrounded both halves with a common 

 shell, and made one nest of it. 



