438 Scientific Intelligence. 



Nearer the time fixed a paper will be sent to botanists to which 

 those wishing to attend will sign their names; at the same time 

 they will receive a detailed program of the projected meetings 

 as well as of the public excursions and festivities offered by the 

 Municipality of Genoa to their visitors ; the Italian Botanical 

 Society will also offer its colleagues various excursions on the 

 shores of the Mediterranean and in the Maritime Alps. 



At the time of the Congress will also take place the inaugu- 

 ration of the new botanical institute built and presented to the 

 University of Genoa by the munificence of the Comm. Thomas 

 Hanbury, as also the opening of an exhibition of Horticulture, 

 and of products exchangeable between America and Italy. 



Italian botanists cordially invite their colleagues of every 

 nation in order that their presence may render this Congress 

 more important, and give it an essentially cosmopolitan character, 

 for above all things it aims at strengthening by the powerful in- 

 fluence of science the bonds of fraternity between nations. 



All enquiries and communications concerning the botanical 

 congress should be addressed to Professor O. Pejstzeg, R. Uni- 

 versita, Genoa. 



III. Miscellaneous Scientific Intelligence. 



1. Latitude Observations at Waikiki, on the island of Oahu, 

 Hawaiian Tskmds. — A recent number of the Hawaiian Gazette 

 (March 8, 1892), contains the following account of the Latitude 

 observations* now being carried on at Waikiki. The account is 

 by Mr. E. T>. Preston, of the II. S. Coast Survey, who is associated 

 in the work with Dr. Marcuse of Berlin. 



The latitude observations now going on at Waikiki were under- 

 taken for the purpose of making a more exhaustive study of the 

 motion of the earth's axis. German astronomers had recently 

 detected a new movement of the pole from independent observa- 

 tions at several of their observatories, and in order to test cer- 

 tain theories in regard to the possible cause of the phenomenon it 

 was proposed to make simultaneous observations on opposite sides 

 of the world. The United States government was invited to join 

 in the work, and, besides sending an observer to Honolulu, they 

 enlarged the original plan by establishing stations at Washington 

 and San Francisco. To the German government, however, be- 

 longs the credit of having first made a systematic study of the 

 subject. 



The motion of the pole is of course extremely small, and the 

 effect is that here in Honolulu we are about fifty feet nearer the 

 equator now than we were some months ago. This change does 

 not, however, go on indefinitely, but the motion is such that the 

 pole returns at the end of a year to nearly its original position. 

 Besides this annual movement, there seems to be reason to believe 



* See this Journal, xlii, 470.- 1891, xliii, 163, 1892. 



