3i8 



SCIENCE. 



objective of his telescope, discovered a small binuclear, 

 planetary nebula. Its position for 1880 is R. A. 2ih. 

 2m. 1 1. 8s, Dec. 47° 22.2' N. 



Washington, December 23, 1880. W. C. W. 



SWIFT'S COMET. 



The following are two more positions of this comet. 

 These were obtained by the aid of a ring micrometer. 

 Nov. 20, 1880, R. A. ih. 6m. 24s. : Dec. +54° 22' 39" : 

 Time is loh. 49.1m. Washington m. t. Dec. 5. 1880, R. 

 A. 4h. 7m. 49.2s. : Dec+48 30' 10" Time is 9h. 49m. 

 Washington m. t. I have also an observation of position 

 for Nov. 7, which has not been reduced as I have not yet 

 managed to find the position of a filth magnitude star, to 

 which the comet's position was referred. The star's posi- 

 tion will soon be obtained. 



Nashville, Tenn., Dec. 21, 1880. E. E. Barnard. 



NEW COMPANION TO y FORNACIS. 



Sir John Herschel entered this as No. 2161, of his Fifth 

 Catalogue of Double Stars, by reason of a distant eleventh 

 magnitude which he detected, at an estimated distance of 

 45", in the direction of 169 4 . This star was measured 

 by me in 1879 in connection with a series of observations 

 of a class of stars given in "'Smyth's Bedford Catalogue." 

 Since then, in repeating the measure of the Herschel 

 Star, I have discovered a much nearer component, which 

 fairly entitles the large star to be classed as double. The 

 new star is very faint, and a rather difficult object with 

 the i8}^-inch refractor of the Dearborn Observatory. 

 This, however, is partly due to its low altitude in this 

 latitude, it being 25 south of the Equator. The mean 

 result of my measures of these companions on four nights 

 is : — 



A and B P=i444° D = n.53" 1880.93 



AandC 157.0 48.85" 1880.68 



I have estimated the new companion as thirteenth 

 magnitude. This, it will be remembered, is in the Struve 

 scale of magnitudes, which would make it very much 

 smaller than Herschel's twentieth magnitude. 

 The place of the principal star for 1880 is : — ■ 

 R A. 2h. 44m. 33s. i 



Decl. — 25 3" \ 



S. W. BURNHAM. 

 Chicago, Ills., December 21, 1880. 



To the Editor of Science : 



Professor Winchell, in the last number of " Science," 

 relers to what he supposes " to be some errors in the 

 dates in the list of minor planets discovered by the late 

 Professor Watson," viz. : 

 (133) Cyrene, discovered Aug. 14, 1873, Am. Jour. Set. III., VI., 296 



(174) Phaedra, " " 8,1877,' III., XIV., 325'. 



(175) Andromache, " Sept. 2, 1877, " " " III., XIV., 325 # 



In correcting these supposed errors Prof. Winchell has 

 fallen into more grievous ones. 



O .ving to a misprint in the Astronomische Nachricliten 

 I was led to record the date of the discovery of (133) as 

 August 26 ; it should be August 16, vid. Astron. Nack. 

 82,241 Am. Jour. Set. III., VI., 296. 



(174) Phaedra was discovered September 2, 1877, vid. 

 Am. Jour. Sci. III., XIV., 325. This date is given 

 September 3 in Circ. Bert. Jahr. No. 76. September 2 

 is undoubtedly the correct date. The object discovered 

 August 8 tinned out to be (141) Lumen, vid. III., XIV., 

 429, Circ. fieri. Jahr. No. 76. 



(175) Andromache was discovered October 1, 1877, vid. 

 Astron. Nach. 91-127; also Circ. Bcrl. Jahr. No. 81. 

 The object called (175) in Am. Jour. Sci. III., XIV., 325 



r< illy (174) Phaedra, as is explained in Circ. Bert. 

 Jahr. No. 81. Aaron N. Skinner. 



r. s. Naval Observatory, } 



>Vashington, I > . < . 1 > ■ ■ . 22, 1880. \ 



BOTANY. 



Pilosity as a Teratological Phenomenon. — Hitherto 

 teratologists have considered undue pilosity, or the advent i 

 tons production of hair in plants, as a matter of minor im- 

 portance, but M. Ed. Heckel, in a recent note to the French 

 Academy, (Comptes Rendtis, xci., p. 349), insists that there 

 are certain phases of this sort of change in plants which 

 have a higher significance than that of a simple variation. 

 He proposes to divide the phenomenon into the following 

 three categories : 



(1.) Physiological Pilosity. which includes the formation of 

 hairs, or the increase in number of these, on the parts of 

 plants where they are normally present, or even entirely 

 wanting. Such cases are oftenest seen when plants change 

 their habitat from a wet to a dry soil. This sort of physio- 

 logical adaptation takes place within quite narrow limits ; 

 and it varies from glabrousness to pilosity unaccompanied 

 by any alteration of specific characters. 



(2.) Teratological Pilosity, which begins at the moment 

 the specific habit is altered, and acquires its maxi- 

 mum when the modifications are profound enough to sug- 

 gest the idea of a new species. A large number of conditions 

 capable of producing nutritive troubles in plants mav give 

 rise to this peculiar phenomenon, which M. Heckel pro- 

 poses to introduce into teratological literature under the 

 distinctive term of " Deforming Pilosity " (Pilosisme defor- 

 manf). 



(3.) Pilosity due to the Sting of Insects or to Organic 

 Variations, which is clearly distinguished from the former 

 in being very localized (e. g. certain galls, the filaments of 

 Verbascum with aborted anthers, etc.,) and which cannot 

 change the habit of the species. 



Of changes due to defotming pilosity, M. Heckel gives two 

 prominent examples which he has studied, Lilium Martagon, 

 L., and Genista aspalathoides, Lam. The alterations in the 

 last named plant are so profound that its monstrous state 

 has even been described by De Candolle as a species, under 

 the name of G. Lobelii; while by Morris it has been regard- 

 ed as a marked variety, and named by him var. confertior. 



MICROSCOPY. 



The remarks of the " Fellow of the Royal Microscopical 

 Society," who so ably advises The English Mechanic on 

 Microscopy , on the faulty construction of many forms of 

 " Student's " microscopes, is well timed. 



In regard to the system of getting as much as possible 

 for the money, he says : " It is just this petty economy in 

 the original outlay on a practical stand that cramps the 

 student when he has acquired some manipulative dex- 

 terity. Dealers and manufacturers are, of course, driven 

 to supply what is recommended by the ' authorities.' The 

 continued refrain of ' cheapness, cheapness,' brings down 

 the construction of the microscope until it has become 

 (in far too many instances) the baldest tube, stage, mir- 

 ror, objective, and eyepiece with which it is possible to 

 view a speck of saliva on a slip of glass. This perpetual 

 reduction of the finish and design of the microscope tends 

 to exclude all the better opticians from supplying students' 

 microscopes, for they cannot do justice to themselves 

 when the price is to be cut down as it has been during 

 the last few years. The consequence is that an enor- 

 mous number of common French or German instruments 

 has been imported into this country and America ; stu- 

 dents have been ' set up ' with these things, to discover 

 later on, when they have become experienced enough to 

 judge of such matters, that they have no market value 

 except as lumber. 



The severe competition, lately, has been mainly con- 

 fined to the production of Imu-priced microscopes, not 

 the production of an efficient instrument at a moderate 

 cost ; the consequence appears to have been that manu- 

 facturers whose appliances are about equal to the task of 

 making gas-fittings have been induced to enter the com- 

 petition ; a model of stand has been placed before them 

 which they have copied ' more or less ;' at any rate, the 



